Hi!

I've finally remembered the appropriate passwords and interpreted enough Arabic to be able to access my own blog! Woo hoo!

So hello everyone, I hope you are all well! I know there are a lot of you out there checking this space at every spare minute you have only to find I've not written once... sorry. Would you prefer direct links to other riders blogs or for me to use the old 'cut and paste' method?

Just kidding, this is all going to be completely original..

Currently I'm lying on a very comfy thermorest, in my tent, in the middle of Luxor, Egypt. It's 8.40pm, which is about 1 hour past my usual bedtime, and it's the 7th day of tour.

Day 1 consisted of 134km of riding, including a 40 km police escorted convoy from our hotel in Cairo to the outskirts of the city via the pyramids, for an official start of the race. Many of us were a little confused about the famous "swings" that we were to pass, until we came to a stop in front of the well known "Sphinx" and realised it may be important to take our tour director's accent into account when listening to instructions in future...

The chaos of the Cairo traffic, horribly thick smog and the heavily armed tourist police escort made an interesting beginning to the tour, then we were out on the open road with the sun in our faces and the beginnings of the sandy desert we were about to spend the next four days appreciating.

It was fantastically fun riding and getting to know some of the 45 people I'm spending the next four months with until the first crash of the tour occurred right in front of me. It was a huge shock, and a reminder of how quickly things can go wrong! A big knock to the head, scratches to the face and a black eye but luckily nothing serious enough to stop her winning the stage the following day!

I was full of excitement and adrenalin when night fell, I'd just ridden the furthest i'd ever ridden in a day before and I was in the DESERT in EGYPT! I couldn't wipe the smile off my face! My only slight worry was the apprehension of the following day's 166 km race!

Did I mention I signed up to race?  Seeing as there were no really serious women racers, the majority of us, I think 10 out of the 14, decided to become 'racers', our aim is to get every one of us to win a stage at some point and we'll have our own more 'interesting' awards at the end.. unless we all get sucking into the race and turn against one another..

The 166 km day turned out to be my favourite so far! It was a MANDO day, which means its a compulsory day for racers, and the first three men and women get 30, 20 and 10 minutes taken off their times. The beginning of the day was 16km of downhill. This meant we were riding with the lead peloton! It was very fast and very exciting and one of the other riders and I tried hanging on once we got to the flat but after about 0.2 seconds we were dropped and then they were out of sight in no time.  

I rode with two other women, both really strong riders and I was pushing myself as much as I could to stay with them. By the time we got to lunch though, at 70km, they were definitely carrying me.. I was riding between the two while they took turns in switching leaders. What great friends I have already! After lunch I rode alone until the refresher stop at about 130km when I caught up the others and rode to camp with one of them, Jenny, while the other Femke powered ahead and won the stage.

It was an exhausting day, but very rewarding!

Day 3 and 4 were much the same desert, but much the same fun! I'm loving it so far, can't imagine anywhere I'd rather be!

ok I'm running out of battery... I'll update in a few days time. You can follow the riding times here:
http://tourdafrique.com/tours/tourdafrique/race-results/2012/overall#t
now that we're out of the desert I think i'll be stopping a lot more often and racing a lot less!

I hope you are all well, I'd love to hear from you, I promise I'll write again when I can and maybe even put up some photos...