A change in the weather (day 2)
By admin. Filed in Egypt |
Today was a long day. 160km is long under any conditions. Today was especially long. I rolled out of camp this morning to the tune of a low tire. I managed to pump it up and keep it going throughout the day with periodic top-ups. The first half of the day went pretty well. I stopped for a Mountain Dew after lunch, and my stomach returned pretty much to normal (coincidence?).
Not much further down the road, the winds began to change. Soon, we were pushing ourselves into a horrendous headwind. At least 40MPH. Probably faster. Our speed dropped accordingly. My speedometer showed 4MPH at one point. Even the downhills felt like steep uphills. I did some mental calculations and realized I wasn’t going to make it to the finish line by the end of the day, so I decided to grit my teeth and give it all I had. This amounted to a near full-out sprint for about four hours. The SAG wagon came by. They let me keep riding. Just a few km past the rest stop, however, it came by again. I heard the words I didn’t want to hear from Shanny: “We’re here to pick you up.”
Second day. Out of EFI. That was my biggest goal for the trip, and it was too soon to have it shattered. 15km to go. I was depressed, to say the least. No, try devastated. But I tried not to let it show too much. About a dozen other riders ran out of time today as well.
It was dark in camp when we arrived. It was also extremely windy and raining. These aren’t the best conditions for setting up new tents, but we all managed. My tent survived the night (except for its bag that blew away), and so did I. My head lamp seems to have disappeared, also.