Close the gap - No, I'm going to vomit!!!

Hello to family and friends,
Hope you are all well. Chris and I are both recovering and the past two days have been good for Team Alexander/Maund. I won both of the last two stages, rolling hills and nice climbs in Northern Ethiopia so the billy goat legs were pulled out for the ride. Chris had a great race yesterday and won the stage by 5 minutes...mountain goat Maund on display, today he got away on the climbs but it came down to a sprint finish as the last 5 kms were downhill and flat. The last part of the road was not so stable a road surface plus we had to go through a small market type area so add a couple of straying cows, goats, people on bikes and taxi vans stopping for passengers with the drivers watching two guys scream past at race pace so Chris was pipped at the finish for the stage win although he was given the same time.We are now in a lake town called Bahar Dar on the edge of Lake Tana which is the source of the Blue Nile. We have opted to stay in a hotel which is great for the soul, shower, bed, restaurant food...already had griled chicken for lunch and so we are clean, well fed and happy!!!!!

I guess you have all been wondering where we have been and why we havent posted a blog since Feb 4! Two reasons....one being the title of this post and two, not being able to get an internet connection in Gondar, Ethiopia where we had two well deserved rest days.

So, after our good hotel stay in Khartoum, Sudan we headed to the border town of Metema. First day out of Khartoum I had a good race and won the stage. Everything was going well. The Sudanese Cycling Federation provided lunch and we were camped in an old amusement park. They were also supposed to give us dinner but their idea of food wasn't appropriate fro a bunch of riders who had jusat ridden 150km in 45 degrees celcius weather. Pastries and milk!!! Ahhhhhhhh...no! We all decided to go into this l;ittle village and see what we could find to eat at about 8.00pm. Bad move on my part. I ate a falafel whcih seemed ok at the time BUT next morning 20km into the ride, I was struggling. I was falling off the back and Chris who was behind me yelled out to me to close the gap as I was going to lose the front group. He didn't know that at that precise moment I was having abdominal cramps from hell, felt weak and then....I knew I was going to be sick. I yelled out to him, "No, I'm going to vomit". His timing was perfect, he passed me on my left just as I turned my head to the right and produced a projectile missile!!! So....did I keep on riding and show my stubborn side? or did I act sensibly and quit. Thankfully, a German guy who had just finished cycling in Egypt and Sudan pulled up in a van and asked one of the TDA riders called Markus if everything was OK. Obviously I was in bits and so I hitched a ride to the lunch truck with him. Nurse Elaine from Canada gave me some anti - be sick pills and I spent the rest of the day asleep under the lunch truck in a world of sickness and delerium! I didn't ride the next day and consequently got two 12 hour penalties. I didn't really care about the penalty, all I wanted was the two way trafffic of food to stop....ended up coming out both ends, lost a bit of weight but thankfully the two days rest in Gondar allowed recovery. The third day after the sickness I rode but didn't race as it was the day of the ride to the border of Sudan and Ethiopia which was another 45 degrees celcius day.

The border of Sudan and Ethiopia will always be memorable. You get your Sudanese exit stamp in one building, walk across a bridge and go to a purple shack to get your Ethiopian entry visa. The chidren of Ethiopia are so excited to see you that they work themselves into a frenzy and we have been warned to watch out for stick and rock throwing as they get so excited!!! At our camp site we had hoards of kids just hanging out and watching us. I guess we must look like a right freak show!!

Our first day of riding in Ethioia was a non race day as we had to get used to the off roads again. It was a long day and my wrist suffered horribly. It swelled up and so I was not able to ride from the desert camp to Gondar. Just as well. I was on one of the support vechiles and we had stopped at one of the small villages to get water when a large two trailer truck pulls up. I saw a race number on a bike on top of the truck and then realised that it was Chris's number. It was his turn to be sick and had no energy. Being stubborn as he is, he said that he would ride on Doris, our big bumpy truck. I jumped on with him and less than 5 minutes ..guess who was being sick out the window and had to buy beers for Vimpey the driver as a penalty for the mess!!! YOu guessed it Christopher. Once we got to Gondar, we got a hotel room and to bed he went. His bug was 24 hours and the two rest days allowed for us to let our system settle. I think the whoe group has had some sort of bug to date so fingers crossed that this is the end of it.

I have to go and eat again.
Be well.
Love ya