Maria
Maria Markov
Maria Markov was born in Donetsk, Ukraine and grew up in Vancouver, BC. She obtained her Bachelor of Science from the University of British Columbia, with a combined major in Computer Science and Physics. She stays in touch with the UBC community through the Varsity Outdoor Club, where she frequently organizes and takes part in backcountry skiing, mountaineering, climbing and cycling trips.
Maria currently works as a software developer at McKesson Medical Imaging Group, and as part of the McKesson Environmental Council she raises awareness for environmental responsibility in the organization. Also, as a member of Richmond Community Cycling Committee, Maria provides input and feedback on cycling infrastructure to the City of Richmond.
As a photography geek and nature enjoyer, Maria is eagerly anticipating the unfathomably varied and beautiful Canadian landscapes on this ride. As an adventuring spirit, she can hardly contain her excitement at the idea of cycling 8000km.
TOUR de SUSTAINABILITY 
Impressive project close to the end, Maria! I do dayly bike commute to my work and back (total ~9 miles currently, was 30 kilometers in Vancouver before). For last 4 years I have logged Mileage 7,834.96 You will pass me soon on just this trip.
Please invite me if possible on your backcountry skiing trip as a guest.
Keep up,
Andrei Smertin
Okay, I’ll keep you posted via my Ski Spam List! 🙂
Cycling seems to be a really good way to stay fit. I’m counting on my quads o’ steel for the 2012/13 ski season! I guess I’ll have to start doing some cycling to work as well, although it’s a bit farther for me… maybe a few times a week.
Well done Masha!
Since I’m comparing what you did to my local realities I’ve calculated that if you were cycling here in Israel you would been crossing the country 26.5 times North-South (424km) or even more – 84 times East-West (114km)! This makes your achievement even more impressive.
Michael.
This is one of the coolest comments we got so far! I can’t think of an equally witty reply so I will just leave it at that. Anya and I have decided to measure our trip in Israels in the West-East direction because that’s the same direction we crossed Canada.