The Start

Day 1 Cairo

Day 1 - 14 jan 2012 - joined up with the group at the hotel in Cairo, followed than by a long wait for the Egyptian police to convoy us to the pyramids, who never showed up....anyhow we left 2 hours later than planned and I managed to come off my bike during the busy streets of Cairo. Fortunately only hurt my hand and was a bit brushed on the leg..nothing serious, just the first fall to get out of the way and get on with the tour...we arrived at the pyramids with much difficulty, had the opening ceremony, took some pics and off we went again through the much polluted Cairo, which by the way I should be used to by now..we finally got to the ain sukhna road ..nice Tarmac..any easy 100 km to our first camp site..desert camp

Day 2 - 165 Km

Day 2 - race day 1!! 165km.....woke up at 6 am packed up the tent etc had breakfast and all set to start..just as we about to start..school boy error for not checking my bike..anyhow looked down and as the horn went noticed my back wheel is flat!! Ran back pump to up the wheel 10 min later another flat! Changed tubes, made sure no thorns were in the tyres..2 min later another flat..and so it went on and I was loosing a lot of time..ended up with changing, patching 3 times, pump up flat 6 times AND much to my slower friends delight ended up riding with the "sweep" whose primary job is to terrorize the slowest riders into quickening their pace...took a bit of flack on that one back at camp. Finally I got a replacement bike from tda as I just could not loose my efi status in the first week..so ended up doing the total ride in 8:45 i think.

The entire route was dedicated to contrasts...not only in my changing pace but in the life taking desert land on the right to the life giving Red Sea to my left, both equally haunting and beautiful. I was humbled cycling along the Red Sea by the fishermen living in small broken houses on the beach. It has only been two days since forgoing my creature comforts and I feel run down and tired, yet rejuvenated in the way that nature only knows...and here is this hardworking man who has never known any other way of life. How would I feel if this was my world...after the comfort I take in knowing that this way if life ends in four months...which seems like lifetimes away right about now and to top this very disastrous day I got held at gun point by two irate sixteen year old Egyptian military men. Jana and I decided to take a walk to the Red Sea after diner. On our way back to camp, our quiet was disturbed by angry screaming in a foreign language. This is not uncommon in Egypt as common pleasantries are typically harshly delivered but then lights came on and I was looking directly into two AK47s with our names written on them. Although Jana had the I brilliant idea to run, I turned it down in favor of following my own Hollywood directed comfort level of holding up my hands defenselessly. They approached aggressively but luckily one was pubescent and succumbed to the flirtations of Jana...telling us that this beach was the host of major drug trafficking. We had an armed escort back to camp and the night ended peacefully. I feel like three days just compressed into one.

Day 3 Hurghada 136 Km

Day three-near Hurghada 136kms...

Today was many shades of brilliant with a few shades of terrible. We have been incredibly blessed with weather, the forces are conspiring to get us all to Capetown as quickly as possible with tailwinds three days straight. I successfully changed and patched my tires into submission yesterday and they cooperated beautifully today, so I made up some race time which eased my conscious. Anxiety is contagious around camp and so much of our stress is false. It is almost comforting to stress about small controllable pieces of our day ignoring the wild variability of the larger picture. So we do in large groups. Today was much the same scenery as yesterday, equally as contrasting left to right. The terrible part came in the form of a psychologically disturbed Bedouin. I had met him earlier and noticed that he was unusual, but he seemed harmless to me at the time. He later lunged and pushed Shona into oncoming traffic, she bounced off a truck and 'luckily' fell to the other side. Had she fallen on the traffic side, she very likely would have been seriously injured, as it was she had deep bruising physically and emotionally. She is recovering from both admirably, such an incredibly strong woman. It highlights how vulnerable we all are and how we are at the mercy of so many as cyclists...and how many people take care of us along the way to prevent this harm.

Day 4 - Safaga 100 Km

Day four - Safaga 100kms

Riders pushed today, harder than usual...not because of the partial headwinds, or the healthy competition that has been developed between racers. Not because it was a particularly challenging day or a long day...but the promise to the first few riders who hit camp of a hot shower was enough of a dangling carrot to rush to camp as quickly as possible. Only the first couple of riders would be rewarded for these efforts, with the remaining forty riders settling for sub freezing cleansing. I made it and was rewarded duly...and then got to spend the afternoon in the most picturesque camp spot imaginable. We were literally sleeping on a sandy beach near the Red Sea.

We had access to porcelain...heaven. Sharita, our fearless leader, added to the intense desire of every cyclist to make the most of this beautiful spot when she told us that it would be the last time we would be camping in proximity to water until South Africa. I had the absolute pleasure of doing dish duty tonight...I hand't yet learned of the brilliance of some of the cyclists from last year, bribing others to take their dish duty. And so I rolled up my sleeves and started cleaning large volumes of pots and pans in arguably 'clean' water. I will have to start collecting some good dirt on other cyclists to bribe my way out of this rare form of torture in the future.

Day 5 - 122 Km

Day five - Police check 122kms

Feeling particularly clever after having gathered intel this morning from the Egyptian cyclists I set off on what I knew would be a most challenging day. I was mentally prepared and that can truthfully be a huge advantage in our little game of long term racing. The day started with a 57km climb out of camp...as it was a gradual climb the fates decided that we required the additional challenge of a substantial headwind. This became a source of much venting and frustration for the weaker riders, as it often felt like although their legs suggested that they should be moving forward, all evidence suggested that they were in fact being pushed backwards. When it was necessary to stretch the neck muscles for fear of cramping, we did catch glimpses of beautiful majestic scenery to the left and right. Rock mountains jutted straight up from the road making us feel small like David in a battle with the funneling wind Goliath. It is humbling to feel so little in the face of such magnitude, and in an odd way it makes you feel completely enveloped in your environment...as if you have been swallowed. Downhills felt like optical illusions today and it was hard to convince our legs that that slight reduction in pressure was actually a downwards facing slope.. The rest of the ride to camp was also challenging with long stretches of open road where the wind would do its best to foil our destination. Luckily camp came about 10kms earlier than expected today...brilliant reprieve, the orange waving flag looked like a mirage waving towards us in the wind.

Day 6 -Luxor 108 Km

Day six - Luxor 108kms

Our entire team appears shell shocked today...we were ambushed unexpectedly by the cane and rock yielding Egyptian youth. Every year on tour there are sections that are expectedly horrible for this type of anti-cyclist behavior, but this stretch typically is not. We were take by surprise and it was quite alarming for staff and cyclists alike. We we skirting the Nile for most of the day and so we passed through small villages frequently. I know from living in Cairo that is is a particularly tumultuous area as there are many waring families. Post-revolution these families have decided to police themselves and it has caused a spike in violence...particularly in some of the town we were cycling through. It made the ride more mentally challenging that physically as we were often forced to slower speeds in order to safely cross town centers. Rocks were thrown and canes swung and almost every rider was hit with some sort of projectile. The worst being one of our staff members Doug, who swerved into oncoming traffic to avoid a caning. He was hit at slow speed by a vehicle and thankfully he is okay and walked away with a broken bike and pieces missing out of his face. I was lucky to only be the target practice of kids who need practice...but today has definitely taken a mental tole on the group. Everyone is a little shaken.