Round and round we go

2-Feb-2011

Day Total: 107 Km
Total Time: ~6:10
Avg. HR: 114
Avg. Speed: Very, very slow
Song of the Day: Empire of the Sun – Walking on a Dream

No big surprises on this day: my legs felt like crap and I was thoroughly spent from the previous day’s effort that netted me a coveted yellow stage winner’s plate. Fortunately the day was a non-timed stage for the race, with the first 10km serving as a warm-up for a “just for fun” individual time trial (ITT) of 20km. An ITT is effectively a solo, timed effort. The just for fun dimension, for me, meant “I’m too tired to even think of a hard effort today and I would perform so miserably that my family name would be shamed”. What I felt was not exhaustion so much as a deep, emptiness in my muscles. There simply was nothing in the tanks. I don’t think I eclipsed 30km/h for the first 25km on the day.

The ITT would conclude at the 30km mark and lunch would be served at 67km with the final 40km of the day being a convoy into our campsite in Khartoum. The fact that the stage was not timed meant that we could ride a very leisurely pace. And we did. Paul caught up to me at about 15km. “You are doing the time trial aren’t you?” I asked. He replied, “I rode the first 5km hard and decided it hurt to much. Once I caught you I decided I was done.”. Well, at least I wasn’t the only one feeling a bit zapped. We used the morning to partake in some of the things we norally sacrifice in the name of a faster time: stopping for a closer look at a termite mound, photos of random camels, random conversation amongst ourselves as we ticked of the kilometers.

The highlight of the morning came when at the back of the group I spotted a roadside “shop”. These shops are often marked by the staff on the route directions, but this one was not. Referred to as “coke stops”, we had yet to actually visit one. With no sense of urgency on the day and every reason to find an excuse to stop (I was not comfortable on the bike today), I shouted at the top of my lungs “COKE STOP!” and circled back to partake. Paul quickly joined, and a minute later all the others doubled back. Pepsi products seem to reign supreme here in Sudan, but this guy actually had one real Coke. Mind you it appeared to have been at the bottom of the barrel for 318 days, but it was ice cold – a rarity in these parts – and went down oh so well. We took photos to commemorate our first coke stop, I had a second drink, we mounted up and headed off to lunch. Shortly before lunch we entered the “field of bags”. As it sounds, it wsa a wide open expanse of barren scrub land covered in yellow, orange, and pink plastic bags. They ambled across the road like tumbleweeds and of course not 1, but 2 would eventually get caught in my wheel.

Lunch was at the 67km mark on the outskirts of Khartoum. It was a very, very busy area but that did not kill my appetite as I slaughtered two massive tuna sandwiches and another orange soda. It was quite hot at this point so I drank more and more in anticipation of the long, slow 40km convoy into Khartoum proper and our campsite.

The convoy was the usual affair with low speeds, lots of people on the sides of the roads gawking, cheering, and high fiving. A few local cyclists joined in for short periods. Riders hit the pavement after some unsteady handling of a railroad crossing. It got even hotter, we rode even slower as the traffic increased, and the wind and dust increased. We had multiple escorts of heavily armed Sudanese paramillitary, complete with the swivel mounted gun in the back of the pickup truck. I was uncomfortable on the bike and in the heat, but at least we were secure.

We arrived at our rest day campsite, the National Camping Residence, accompanied by temperatures of 102 degrees Farenheit (41 C). It appeared to be part campground and part sports residence for Sudanese developmental athletes. We had decided to take a hotel room somewhere in town for the purposes of sorting gear, laundry service, etc. One of our Sudanese support people had pre-arranged some rooms but we decided to shop around. Other than the Ugandan national football (soccer) team, we didn’t find any special deals and finally ended up at El-Farad’s hotel. Nice enough, thought not $140 USD nice. That said, it includes breakfast and we have wireless internet in the room.

Now off in search of food!