Steve's Cycling Blog

A totally rubbish night’s sleep – the flood light, the roosters, the roosters even more, and then people were packing up from 0530 despite the fact the rider’s meeting wasn’t even till 0700 – I know I need to get over it, but seriously, what are they doing?

French toast for breakfast which was a nice treat, be interested to see if we keep getting ‘better than average’ breakfasts. With such a short ride to lunch I made my peanut butter sandwich, but left the somewhat ‘beyond redemption’ (in my view) bananas.

Out on the road and getting through the traffic and roundabouts of Marrakech was pretty crazy at times, though I must say the drivers of Marrakech are significantly more patient and polite to cyclists than those of many a place of ridden!

Groups of riders ebbed and flowed depending on who got through the traffic lights at each stage. As we emerged from the city Marco, Eriberto and I ended up together and rode that way through till around 20km when they pulled off and I carried on.

A short while later the Kevins (there are two of them), Mateo and Italio caught up with me so I rode with them through to the 42km coke stop where we stopped for a drink. I‘d been having trouble finding a rhythm riding in a group so suggested they head on without out me.

They hadn’t got terribly far ahead of me when they stopped to chat with another group of riders stopped beside the road and I carried on through to the lunch stop at my own pace. Lunch was earlier than I prefer at only just over half way, but it was in a great spot so it made reasonable sense.

From lunch the real climbing of the day began – for a while it felt like I was riding up an ever-increasing saw, climb for a while, descend some, though not as far, climb some more a little higher, descend some, though not as far, rinse and repeat for quite some time!

It’s been really scenic riding this afternoon – for a while I was reminded of being in the Panj valley in Tajikistan, looking down at the river and the terraces on the other side was like looking across the river at Afghanistan

Cultivated terraces, and the river below

I caught up with Rod and Ken shortly before the town of Ijoukak, and as I was coming in I was also catching Paul before being stung by a big nasty wasp / hornet thing which flew into my thigh and began stinging me before I could react – I’m not usually bothered by such things, but that really hurt and this evening has swollen to a red area about 8cm in diameter.

We stopped for a Fanta (options were that or coke – warm from the crate, but the sugar was needed) and from there it wasn’t too far in to camp. We’re set up beside the Tin Mal Mosque which is really quite impressive. We were lucky enough to get shown around by the current guardian, a charming young local chap who is the third generation of his family to have the role.

There have been a group of little boys hanging round the camp checking out what we’re up to, and they set up a band which Essen (who is making a documentary about the trip) joined, while Phil (technically Philippa) lead the dancing.

It’s getting pretty chilly now that the sun has set and the wind continues to blow – I had expected that the wind was heat-generated, and so would stop shortly after sunset, but that seems not to be the case, so it’s time to retire up the hill to my tent to get out of the wind and somewhere warmer.

Tonight my butt’s pretty sore – I’ve applied chamois cream each riding morning, and a couple of extra times along the way today, but it’s still feeling the effects of not enough hot and sweaty training – I’m going to try some different shorts tomorrow, they are older so not as well padded as the ones I’ve been wearing, but they are smoother on the inner surface which will hopefully help!

And with that cheery news, I bid you good night!

View from my tent

Selfie of the day

Riding data