Crossing the Sahara

Spain Base & Morocco 2017 is off to a great start so far. I have spent the last two weeks settling into our new Team RaceClean training base in Gandia, Spain. The base is only a few minutes from both the beach and the mountains which makes riding and life in general very enjoyable. The weather for our first week at the new base was less than ideal, with temperatures being barely above zero and snow and rain coming down as a constant. The region around Ganidia had not seen snow for nearly 30 years before last week.

The local area is amazing, no wonder so many teams are based in the area, it has everything you could ever want. On any given day we will see multiple World Tour teams rolling around, doing intervals or doing photo shoots. One of my favorite things to do when traveling is the check out the local markets on the weekends. We have one very close to us in the city of Oliva. Only thing left for me to do is learn some more Spanish.

Shortly after getting settled into our new base I was given the option to get my race season off to an early start in Morocco. I jumped at the opportunity to race so early in the season and see how my form was. The whole trip to Morocco was an experience in itself, once we landed in Casablanca we were put onto a military C-130 transport plane (in full camo) for the final trip to Laayoune in the Western Sahara. On our first day in Laayoune I was truly amazed by the landscapes, and how people could carve out a living in the endless desert. The locals are all wearing sweaters and jackets in the city but we Canadians were suffering in the heat. Despite endless amounts of sunscreen we are all burnt in some way, my sunglasses tan is going to take months to fade away.

We are currently just one week into our African adventure and so far things have been a bit of a roller coaster. The food has been interesting for sure, definitely a rich mix of flavors. The Camel was also pretty good, tastes a lot like lamb only with about five times more fat. After having it for dinner almost every night it is losing its appeal very quickly now.

As for the racing, it was total shock to the system. After the organization misplaced our bikes for the first two days our legs were barely turning after the start of the first race. It was 160 km of cross tailwind straight down the coast. I would advise taking a look at this one on my Strava account as it was one of the hardest race days I can remember. The race was all but settled 6 km into it, with the echelons splitting the field like nothing I have ever experienced. We went on to average 52 kph for the day. I missed the lead split early in the race and spent all day bridging groups with teammate Derek G.

The other races were in the North-eastern direction, opposite of the first race so the speeds dropped drastically as we raced into headwinds. I made the lead group in the third race, after a short section of cross wind. There were a number of solo guys in the lead group and 5 Moroccans. Coming into the line I made a move at the 2 km to go banner, after spending a few minutes at about a 4-6 second gap I realized that it was much further than 2 km. The Moroccans knowing the finish just waited and pulled me back when we were roughly 500 meters to go. After looking at my GPS file, it turns out it was more like 4 km to go. I was very frustrated after that, as local knowledge seems to be everything here. Next time I will have to bet on the sprint.

As I write this I am coming down with a bit of an illness which I can hopefully get over before the remaining races. Stay tuned for another report after the team and I return to Spain. Still three more races to try and get some good results to jumpstart the year. For now, I'll let the pictures do the talking.

Thanks for reading.