As the tour finally started, as of know I will start each post related to the biking section with a few statistics..
Fundraising status: 1370,09€ or 12% reached, a massive thanks for that but please keep on being generous ! If needed the link is here
Stage 1: from somewhere outside Cairo till Porto Sokhna + the pyramids “prologue”/Instagram time
KM: 77
HM: 230 m
Time: 2:21 minutes
Flat tires: 0
Liter of water: 2
strava link
Stage 2: from Porto Sokhna to Ras Gahreb
KM: 148.2
HM: 430 m
Time: 4:26 minutes
Flat tires: 0
Liter of water: 4
Strava link
And here we are, as you can see above the tour started. After an absolutely amazing Instagram time with our bikes around the pyramids (we were the only one allowed there at that time) we packed our bikes in a truck and went by bus outside of Cairo as we were not allowed to ride through the city.
An there it started, finally sitting on the saddle in a very cold Egyptian morning (7-8 degrees), realizing that my dream is finally getting real, what an AMAZING feeling it was.
After a bit more than two hours moving our legs, we arrived in Porto Sokhna where we stayed in a hotel as we were not allowed to camp due to security reasons.
On our second day, we learned the daily routine we will follow during the next months, around 5:30 wake up time then packing, breakfast and starting to ride as soon as the sun is rising as we are not allowed to ride during the night time. This morning at 6:30 we were sitting on our saddle and hit the road.
On this second stage we’ve been extremely lucky as we had a very strong tailwind and I therefore finished the 149 km in 4:26 which is an amazing pace. This stage was fantastic, beautiful sandy landscape and nice view over the red sea and the Sinai the whole day. The stage finished in Ras Gahreb where we will sleep in a very basic hotel as we were again not authorized to camp. Camping will start after our third stage.
Biking in Egypt
Quite some of us had concerns in regard to the driving style of the locals and risks on the road but so far, the locals are absolutely welcoming and friendly (and laughing at these funny people in Lycra) and drivers are so far mostly very respectful, even if they feel the need to honk at us every time ;-).
Another comments I received while organizing this trip was about the safety risks. In that regard I can tell you that I never felt as safe as here in Egypt. There is at least 100 policeman (ok might be a bit less but still plenty) following/driving on our side (not on a bike though…). We have as well an ambulance and will soon get a firework truck, but I will come to that in a next post. Therefore at least in regard to Egypt, safety is not our main concern.
Fred
mapa
18 Jan 2019Profite bien de ton lit et apprécie-le cette nuit 🙂 Bonne nuit r……..
Fred
19 Jan 2019Partageant une chambre à trois j’apprécie surtout les ronflements 😂
Harald
18 Jan 2019Keep rolling Fred! While seeing you in front of the pyramids it is so unreal to imagine you have just left our office…
All the best
Harald
Fred
19 Jan 2019Believe me Harald even for me it still feels unreal to be here!
Jay Jay
19 Jan 2019C’est un plaisir de te lire, mon Fred! Vis ton rêve les yeux grand ouverts. Et merci de nous faire voyager dans short en Lycra… Becs.
Fred
19 Jan 2019Ah le lycra, voilà que tu es jaloux !
Alessandra Agliata
20 Jan 2019Hey Fred, enjoy this amazing trip. I’ll be following you from here and smiling thinking about you.
Big hugs,
Alessandra
Fred
21 Jan 2019Thanks Ale!
Thomas Kämpf
20 Jan 2019Hi Fred, thanks for sharing your first impressions. Great to see that your trip has started without hiccups. The buffets looks like at a RTF in Germany 😉
Wishing you safe riding and a lot of tailwind.
Thomas
Fred
21 Jan 2019Thanks Thomas, so far we had a lot of tailwind, but today we start to climb…