New ways to start the year

My first trip to Africa is now in the books, it was quite an experience to say the least. Saw my first camel, ate my first camel, and was given my first ever set of robes. To continue where my last entry left off, we are finished our first three races in the Western Sahara. We are now traveling via Military C-130 back to Agadir in Morocco for the remaining three races. The Western Sahara was very eye opening with the flat endless desert, and the racing was also endless flat windy roads. Once we got to Agadir and saw the area in which we were staying we were hopeful that the racing would be more varied. We were wrong.

Our hotel was a paradise in the city of Taroudant. I’ll let the photos do the talking…

Breakfast area

view from the roof

Lunch in the vineyards

paradise

waterfall in the desert hotel

Hotel rooms

The first race day was another boring route, despite the amazing mountains nearby. We raced down the highway and did a U-turn and came back on the same road. The one positive was that now we would know the finish. Roughly 20 km into 140 km, Adam and I were in a sixteen man lead group that had pushed clear of the peleton. We rolled all day with the sixteen man group, eight of which were all riding for team Morocco. The Moroccans were now blatantly breaking the UCI rules and were fielding not two, but three national teams!

Once the attacks started in the final 20 km, Adam made a lead group of four. With all the major teams represented in that four man group the rest of us sat up and were caught by the remnants of the peleton with just under 5 km to go. Once I knew Adam would go on to contest the win, I took a flyer to try and grab fifth place. I was caught with 2 km to go and then teammate Derek G countered my attack and soloed to fifth! Sadly Adam up the road could only manage fourth after getting cut off in the last corner, still lots of UCI points for the team.

Our days between the races were spent exploring the new city we had moved into for the week. There were some amazing markets in the town, and our money went a long way there as one Euro is ten Dirham. We bought many souvenirs and lots of local fruit which was some of the best I have ever had. One thing that takes some getting used to is drastically changing your diet everywhere you go. The problem in this part of the trip was protein. The camel we had been eating at the last place was now replaced with just more bread, chicken was in short supply and for a few days caused quite the race to get into the buffet. Eventually we had to source our own via yogurt and protein shakes. There was some sketchy stuff happening in the kitchen because we did notice that the Moroccans did somehow always have chicken and lots of it. Eventually our awesome soigneur Pheobe stormed the kitchen and got us some chicken.

Making stone art

don't mess with me

Jay doing some bartering

Race two was very different weather than we had been experiencing. With temperatures around 10 degrees and raining all day, the roads were very, very nasty. Months of mud and dirt was kicked up as we rode. The pace was super high right from the gun and the circuit they had put together was quite technical as well. The peleton got smaller and smaller as people pulled the plug in the harsh conditions. It was constant attacking all day and eventually I made it off the front in a group of five. We rolled together pretty well, until one of the two Italians attacked and broke the rhythm. With the second Italian now sitting on we took turns attacking each other until we hit the 1 km to go banner. That was when the second Italian attacked and left us behind, they played it very well. The three of us sprinted and it came to a three way photo finish; sadly I lost, and it was fifth place for me.

The last race was not a day for us, with no obstacles along the way it was set for a bunch finish. Our lead out train got derailed when we lost our sprinter Bayley in the final few km, so that was that. We did ride well as a team that day so there was a positive to come from it.

All in all, our trip to Morocco has taught us all a little bit of patience. The race organization was not quite up to par so it was a go with the flow kind of trip. It was good fun and also very productive with three of us scoring some nice UCI points very early in the season for Canada. Now it’s back to Spain for me to get about a month’s road training before heading to Belgium, and as for the track guys they are heading to track camp in Valencia before the up and coming World championships.

Thanks for reading. Enjoy the shots.