Round and round we go

Stage 30
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Riding days into rest days are like Thursdays nights for denizens of the corporate world: a bit of a “cheat” for if one chooses, they can have a big night out and manage to get through a usually lighter Friday work day. This would not prove to be the case today.

The pace was manageable in the beginning and there was an unusual amount of chatting amongst the riders in the group. This changed abruptly once the group caught up with two stronger riders Bram A and Bram K. The two Dutchmen are amongst the strongest riders on the tour but opted to stop racing a couple of weeks past. For reasons unknown to me, the two race leaders (Paul and Horst) decided on this day that an ego battle might be appropriate and immediately the pace exploded upward.

Content to hang on, I managed to (just), until the final ascent before lunch. Successive attacks by Horst put a small gap on me that I could not close. I sprinted over the summit with the Brams in pursuit, but would finish the stage some 30 seconds back of UK Paul who sprinted for the win today. Fortunately the race stage ended at lunch as we would have an afternoon convoy into Addis Ababa.

The race over, we rode very peacefully in search of the elusive coffee stop that would net us a delicious machiatto. It simply was not in the cards today and instead we rode to the top of a small hill at 92km on the outskirts of the city. There we would pass the time drinking cold cokes, eating very ordinary cookies, and watching some form of Ethiopian police/military security stop taxi vans and frisk passengers. Eventually the final rider arrived and it was time for the final 10km into our urban campsite. This was not a fun convoy ride. That’s “not fun” in the same way a routine dental filling procedure is not fun. You are conscious for the experience but powerless to alter it. In this case it was a 10km very steep descent at very low speeds that would cramp the forearms and hands. The staff as always did a commendable job controlling traffic and pedestrians and we arrived without incident as a group.

Our plan was to attempt to cram multiple people in a double room at the Sheraton. Cost ($350 USD per night) and logistics killed that idea but fellow rider Kendra saved the day by booking us rooms at a lesser known hotel for a mere fraction of the cost. Very clean rooms, spacious bathrooms with jacuzzi bath, wireless internet, and free breakfast buffet: just what we needed.

Paul and I skipped formalities such as a shower and immediately went in search of food. Serendam’s turned out to be an ultra clean burger stand with great food and amazing fresh fruit juices. Walking back we had cake and a machiatto while scouting out laundry service and places to eat in the coming hours.

Tomorrow is a full rest day with the primary mission being the retrieval of a package sent by Paul’s mum via DHL. It sounds fairly straightforward, but only time will tell.