Who do you think climbs the poles to attach our flagging?

Who knew, that TdA has a branch office in Guatemala?

I happen to run into the branch office when I cycled through San Pedro Pinula on the way to Jalapa.

From outside it looked a bit shabby, but it triggered my curiosity to go inside and find out what the interior may look like. To my surprise a paradise opened as you can see on the following 2 photos I took.

I will not reveal the secrets of the 5 star special guest treatments I received. However I can tell you that much: They helped me a lot to master the 4 steep climbs that Cristiano set up for us before we could reach Jalapa.

After 14 days of hard cycling our bodies have mutated into the necessities:

Legs, legs, legs … the stronger the better!

Now that we have finished more than half of the cycling days it is about time to give a big Thank You to the whole Tour d’Afrique and local support team staff team that does everything to make our days harder and harder, but keep our mood at 110%, make sure we are back on the bikes every morning and have a place to eat and sleep in the evening …

You are doing a fantastic job!!

Running into you, always with a more than encouraging smile, is a treat that carries me on through the whole day, no matter how steep, rocky, dirty, windy, hot, wet or whatsoever he had arranged for us.

I am looking forward to the second part of the trip and the arrival in Belize!

Cristiano – Tour Director

Every day the riders are being sent out for long cycling hours and the staff team is left on their own. One can usually expect a few events or incidents during the day, like mechanical problems or minor injuries, which causes the staff and support team to come into action.  However, there are days, when the riders do not ‘play’ after the tour ‘rules’.

This is when the staff team starts getting bored and invent ‘self entertainment’ games. One  form of the games ‘invented’ is known as “Sarah is not working Hard enough, Let us Call the Doctor”, a useful thing to keep Sarah alerted and in training. On one day it was Cristiano, who ‘volunteered’ to be the victim and cut his toe, when he was trying the attach a flagging tape to a bush.

Yesterday, Astrid was ‘selected’ to give Sarah a more challenging task. As a brave South African she decided to top Cristiano’s courage and somersaulted over a speed bump, to land flat on the tarmac, conscienceless. However she did not time her action properly, so it wasn’t Sarah who was first in side, but me  to give first aid and leave the ‘paper work’ for Sarah.

All staff members and riders are healthy and in good condition. Besides the normal cuts and bruises, which are hardly to avoid on such a tour, everyone is recovering from her or his accident.

X-fingers that this remains for the rest of the tour.

Tomorrows stage was modified from:
2000m climb to ~2600m and from 0% off-road to >30%.
Alternative:
More than 3000m climb, 160km distance, all paved on Pan Americana!

Q: Why is Cristiano making the stages more and more difficult day by day?

Could it be that TdA doesn’t carry enough EFI medals with them, thus need to reduce the number of eligible?

@ Eric: Stay alert, if you become to be the last EFI survivor 

Question:
How can you tell that it was a tough and exhausting cycling day?

Answer:

Dinner is finished, it is not even 8pm, there is free WiFi and nobody else is around to eat up the bandwidth.

It is all mine