Inland Sea Traverse
Ed gave the race brief– the course: hard fast sabkha with sandy patches and six dune crossings (little did the racers know what was in store for them) and the rules – up the dunes to the checkpoints, and not around them…
5…4…3…2…1 and they were off or …..at least for ….about 500m until they hit the first sand patch.
ED: This was one of the key moments of the race. Those who could ride their way through it sped off into the distance followed by those who had to walk their way through. Gavin, Lars, Thomas, and Hercules immediately seized the race lead. The rest of the pack fought their way through before getting on to the smooth surface and racing towards their first dune crossing.
About 2 kilometers from the start I caught up with Christophe. ED: Once again, and in a pattern that is starting to become sort of standard, Christophe suffered a shredded rear tyre; don’t forget they were riding on hard sand, so how had that happened? He hadn’t checked the loan bike (I wonder how the conversation went with his friend or is it now ex-friend?) I thought – great! some company in my jeep, but Ben v Liemt in the Sweeper Wagon, prepared as always, had a spare tyre. A quick change-out and Chrisophe was off again, but what was this…the French team of Jean-Noël and Jean-Yves had turned back to ride with their friend. I must say, American that I am on occasion, first the French save the day with the offer of their trucks, now show solidarity, are the French developing a heart?
I left them, and headed to the first dune, which according to Ed was a small rise-ha! What visual altering substances was he on? I caught the tail end of the competitors, and everyone seemed to be doing well.
ED: After passing Dune 1, the baby of the course, the riders faced the monster of the day, Dune 2. Up until that point that riders were generally in one long elongated pack. But Dune 2 broke the pack as some riders marched with determination up the dunes, others dragged their bikes up, and a few belatedly wished they had slept in that morning. It appeared that the technique of carrying your bike up the dune rather than pushing it up the slope seemed to be the right choice in tackling the dunes. Mathew and Tomasz had the most distinctive styles of slinging the bike over their backs, head down and marching up the dune.
On to the second dune, an even larger monster! for the riders to struggle up. ED: After Dune 2, the race assumed a pattern of the leading group of Gavin, Thomas, Hercules, and Sean up front followed by a chasing group of Lars, Ed, and Richard. The rest of the pack, led by Jim, hovered menacingly behind the chase group and threatened to consume them at any show of weakness. And weakness there was as Richard clung desperately to the wheel of Ed, hoping for the lanky Canadian to keep him ahead of the ravenous pack. Gerald chasing hard, suffered two broken chain events which dropped him out of the chasing pack.
I caught up with Gerald, who had broken his chain. He was fine and away I went. I headed up to Dune 2 to watch Phillippe, Petr, Joe, Jacques, Jonathan, Isabelle (go girl! who easily topped the rest of the French team), Raymond, Geoff, Adrian, Arnold, Gerald – chain fixed and pumping away, Pawel, Blake moaning/loving being on his single speed and Tomasz wondering why he ever let Blake talk him into this.
Unfortunately one of the support cars was stuck axle deep in the sand off to the side of Dune 2, but much digging and eventual help from Khalid they were freed.
(I must say it was fabulously fun being the Race Director dashing backwards and forwards in my open top jeep – rain who cares if you drive fast enough - hooting and hollering at the racers, taking photos, clambering up the dunes to check with the Checkpoints, making phone calls to the ensure racers were accounted for and checkpoints closed. Far better, then pedaling against the wind, wading through sand, hauling one’s bike up 100 m of a steep dune – not really - but then again I am more of a technical type. Everyone seemed to enjoy it, look at all of the smiles in the photos.
I sped away and caught up David De Villiers and Roald and then onto the mighty peloton of David Webb and the Aspetar doctors; Bruce, Oli, Mathew Wilson, and Justin Grantham, working in precision as they flew along the course and attacked the dunes. Neville and Laurent were in front but didn’t manage to hold their lead in front of the group.
Onto Dune 3, where Darbi was busy running up and down in between checking riders; Dune 4 where Jonathan had set his checkpoint up in style. I put my foot down to catch the front riders, although I never managed to catch Gavin and Sean. At Dune 5, Hercules was flying with Thomas tanking up the steep dune. Lars was in front of Ed and Richard, who were neck and neck; focused and oblivious to the rest of the race.
ED: The lead group was never really threatened by the 2nd chase group and finished more or less together with Gavin taking the top honors followed by Sean. Hercules and Thomas were next; Thomas extremely pleased to have nipped Ed and Richard and scooped the Masters Category.
ED: The moment of decision for the chase group came on Dune 6 as Lars, Ed and Richard plodded up the hill. Lars and Richard made the mistake of asking for a banana from the check point official, and as they reached for it Ed ran down the dune in an effort to escape. Lars was caught off guard while Richard, with a complete banana hanging from his mouth, ran down the dune to counter this somewhat unethical attack. Those two sped off to the finish line and to a dramatic “running” sprint to the line with the race officials placing Richard ahead in a photo finish (it was close, very close and later detailed assessment of the photo shows otherwise, but very very close - do you want to see Richard?). Rain now started to sprinkle downward at the pack began to filter in ones and two’s.
The race was almost finished; Dune 6. Christophe and Jean-Noël put on an amazing balancing act bike surfing down the steep face of Dune 6. The last dash was along the Inland Sea in the rain for Jamie and Marga to scoot in to complete the course. Thirty six competitors started, and 36 finished. Congratulations to all!
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