5.45am wake up call! The van sounds its horn twice to announce its time to get up. Its cold and dark and I don’t know where all my gear is – but I am not really hurrying – just getting my bearings. The race starts at 7am today. Suddenly someone shouts “5 minutes till race time” and I realize I have to pack up my tent and sort my stuff. I run over and just throw tent and poles into the bag – I just throw everything in and rush to the van – and manage to get there in time!
Its going to be a long day – just over 100 miles. We set off in a group – all moving at a fairly good speed. We are waved through the various police checkpoints – it’s a good group. The scenery is fairly boring at this stage but begins to get mountainous on the right hand side and then we find ourselves taking a sharp right at the Red Sea and we then follow along the coast on a very windy road! We pass lots of construction sites – half finished resorts! The sun comes out and it gets a little warmer – there are about 20 people in our group. The riding is quite relaxing – we are able to help each other along.
Lunch at last – the stop came about 70 km along this road - Before this Scott and I had arranged a bathroom stop for the whole group – so that we didn’t separate and could continue together! I was very pleased to see my lunch! Peter the Plumber, an Australian living in South Africa had become our leader, giving instructions and keeping the group together – he did a good job!
The Egyptian riders were very keen to push the race – they were on road bikes which helps when you are talking about speed – after about 90 – 100 km they just take off! Paul Wolfe goes with them and so do I! But I expect to accelerate for a while then slow down again – but no, these guys had other ideas! They keep going at speed. With another 60 km to go I really don’t want to ride at this pace and so decide to slow down. So I slow down and two other riders came up behind me – they have plans to catch up with the leaders and try to persuade me to go with them – but I just didn’t think it was worth it and decide to let them go. It is really windy out there and even when I was riding behind the Egyptian rider earlier I was not getting any benefit as he is so small – no shelter there! I decide to wait for the group to catch me up! It was very windy and I was hoping to get a bit of help, a bit of a break by riding with a group. Good move – after a while 4 riders joined me and we made a good group. Quite slow at first – they explained that when the Egyptians went off the group got split up at first and took some time to get back together – it was good riding with them!
I was really hungry by this stage – lunch had been at about 9.30 – too early for me – with a longer afternoon session than morning! I struggled for a while, then felt OK, then struggled – I was hungry and really not feeling very well. We rode well together and finally reached the rest stop – by that time I was really looking forward to the short break. We asked about the guys out in front – the two riders were still chasing Paul and the Egyptians – I was so glad I had not tried to go with them!
Today is a mando (mandatory) day – which means you have to keep whatever time you get (you are allowed 5 grace days overall when you can get rid of your worse times – but mando days don’t count). The rules say you do actually have to beat the local racers to win the stage and get the bonus. I thought they were after the win! As it turned out Paul Wolfe did beat them and so did get the bonus – well done Paul!
So – it was nice in our group – a few of the riders were feeling some pain – so we would slow every now and then to help. Unfortunately Peter eventually dropped off though we did manage to pull him back in a few times. It was so good to see the Finish line! We punched in at the finish together as a group – my button didn’t work but it was OK as my time was recorded the same as the others in the group!!
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