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From: Judy
Date: 17 Jan 2006
Time: 16:56:58 +0100
Remote Name: 163.121.222.2
I flew out to Cairo on 10th January; there were five other riders on the same BA flight from Heathrow - I'm sure the baggage handlers loved loading that many bikes on. The bike made it in one piece (always a risk changing planes at Heathrow from Manchester that it would get squished somewhere between terminal 1 and 4). On the plane where Michael from Canada, Case and Jenny from Holland, and Ron and Kevin from the states. There are, I think, about 45 riders doing the whole distance from Cairo to Cape Town, so it is a big group. 14 Canadians, 9 South Africans, 6 from the US and the rest from all over. Slept most of the following day, to catch up on a couple of nights lost sleep with time needed for last minute preparations. Finally met up with Sam (who was on the same Tour du Canada ride in 2003) on the Friday of the orientation briefing. He had been laying low with a flu type bug since arriving, and was doing his best to get rid of it before the race began. I wondered whether he would be able to resist the urge to shave his head (in Des and David style from previous tours) but alas no. He has shaken his flu, and has been first for the last three days. My money is on Sammy, but some of the South Africans are going to put him through his paces. Well, they will try anyway... The group rode out to the pyramids on the Saturday (thought my lungs were going to burst on the short uphill past the great pyramid to the sphinx - I am so out of shape). Photos etc, and then convoy ride for around 20k out of Cairo, with police outriders. Even though one of the outriders was shadowing me for a short while, I still almost got wiped out by a truck cutting in front to get off the highway to his building site, forcing an emergency stop. Much shouting and waving of hands from the policeman on the motorbike, not that the truck driver seemed to care. We had gotten on the road around 10am from the pyramids, and there was supposed to be a 130k-ish day until the campsite in an small town just south of Suez. There was a reasonable amount of gradual climbing as we crossed over a small range to the Red Sea, with a biting cold side wind. Because of the late start, it was going to be pretty tight for the leisure riders (the non racers) to get to camp before sunset. At lunch break I reckoned I could just about get in before dark if I gave it a bit of welly. I just about made it in time, and saw the van going out to pick up the last few riders just as I was getting in. Unfortunately, the police had decided that the camp site should be 10k further down the road than we expected, which had me a bit worried that I had gone straight past the finish and I almost doubled back, but eventually there it was. Just enough time to put the tent up in daylight. It is a shame that a few riders had to be brought in on the van because of daylight fading - I think the organisers had decided to make the first day longer this year than the previous year, and irrespective of the extra 10k at the end, this didn't really give a few people a sporting chance of finishing the ride on the first day. Two of the DNFs (Did Not Finish) on the first day had flats, and there was very little slack built in to the timetable to accommodate for that. If I had had to stop and change a flat, I'm not sure that I would have gotten in before dark. Day 2 was straight down the Red Sea. This was supposed to be around a 125k day (relatively short because of the override of the previous day). Unfortunately the odometer on the truck was incorrect, and when the truck stopped to set the finish line, this was actually at around 160k. So then it was around 35k of "are we there yet?" before Henry passed us and we discovered we were almost there. I rode quite a bit of that day with Huberte from Montreal, with Jenny and Case not very far away. Day three was a nice 110k day with a tailwind you would only dream about. I was coasting up hills in the big ring not far short of 30k. Another bush camp along the road, with a lovely camp fire for a change - which meant many people stayed around and chatted for a while (otherwise it is too cold, and most people disappear to their tents not long after dinner to huddle in their sleeping bags). Day 4 and again, the tailwind pushed everyone along at a fair old speed - another short day of 100k, and camping in a real town now - Safaga - as opposed to in the middle of nowhere. I had a shower for the first time in 4 days - much more preferable than having a wash with a rag, a bar of soap and a water bottle. We had the first crash of the ride so far - a truck passed quite close to a small peleton, and the draft from the truck knocked the whole group down. Phillipa had probably the worst fall of the group, but John (our medic) did a good job of patching her up and she carried on on his bike. Her front wheel was fairly mangled up, and I think Sam has offered her his spare front wheel. Many people, including my humble self, are feeling the effects of four days in the saddle on our derrieres. Two more riding days until our first rest day in Luxor. We start to cut inland tomorrow, so we will leave the Red Sea and the gale force tailwind will become a side wind, so I expect a day of earache in my left ear tomorrow. So far so good, got a bit of a cough, which I might decide to head off at the pass with some antibiotics if it is not gone in a couple of days time - otherwise all is well. Legs are getting stronger by the day, and hopefully the lungs will catch up a little later.