Our second riders meeting & first Cairo test ride—all set for tomorrow

Today was our second and last riders meeting before the real start of our tour tomorrow. Max and Tallis, our race and tour leaders, briefed us about our schedule for this week and, more importantly, tomorrow—our FIRST BIG DAY.

Thanks to TDA’s sponsors, each rider got a box of energy bars, chamois cream, chain lubricant and sweatband. We were also asked to confirm our insurance details with Helen, our medic. TDA obviously take our safety very seriously—no need to worry, folks back home 🙂

So what to expect for tomorrow?—Usually, in prior years, riders would cycle to the pyramids of Giza early morning, and then the official tour starts from there. This year is different. The police is very concerned about the security situation and was close to cancelling our tour through Egypt altogether. As a compromise, other than not camping for the first few nights as mentioned yesterday, TDA had to agree that we wouldn’t be cycling near the pyramids. Instead, we’ll get bused to the Giza viewing point for some photos, roll down to the Sphinx for more photos, and then hop on the bus again. The real riding will only start outside of Cairo.

In order to make sure we’ll find tomorrow’s hotel, these are the instructions we’ll have to follow. It sounds we’re having a hard day of dodging traffic, pot holes and broken glass ahead of us!

We’ll get similar directions each evening. I won’t be posting them going forward. This just to give you an idea of our navigation system. We’ve also been advised not to use Google Maps as it would send us completely off-track for tomorrow’s destination.

And here’s our plan for the first section overall—six solid riding days before our first rest day in Luxor:

Again, we’ll get similar overviews at the end of each rest day. And announcements or instructions ad-hoc along these lines:

After our riders meeting, last minute organizational matters had to be attended to—pumping up my tires, checking my bags once more, sorting out my local SIM card that doesn’t work as expected, . . . Lunch barely eaten (yet in excellent company and location with my new “family” by the hotel poolside), it was already time to test our re-assembled bikes: “Fun Ride” it said on the agenda, and fun it was! Cycling past sheep herds, fruit stalls, dirty water and crazy traffic—though within the comfort zone of our convoy. So far, so good. This is definitely the coolest thing I’ve ever done! Though tomorrow we’ll be out on our own on the open highway—let’s see whether I can still smile then . .

PS: Would love to write more and better, but basic needs for food and sleep have started to fight against my blogging ambitions. Wish us all luck for tomorrow 🙂