Punctures, Pumps and Padding

Peter Dukes writes:
This Sunday, our leader Nana had decided, was the four-hour day. ‘Getting your body used to the idea of a long time in the saddle,’ he said. ‘Not till those padded shorts arrive from UK’, I thought.
We were passed on today’s 92 km spin by a donkey hauling six bags of cement and two full-grown passengers. Our average speed over the journey was 21 km/h and the average when moving was 27 km/h. The donkey’s we didn’t measure. These are the trip data that today’s leader Nana and I exchanged over our end-of-training coffees at La Parisienne, Fajara. ‘GPS bores!’
We were hardly out of Sanyang, travelling south along the open coast-road to Gunjur, when rumbling in the cycle frame announced ‘flat tyre’. This was my third puncture since starting this new cycling fad a month ago. Our leader seemed to think it was rather too many: I was either being greedy or something was wrong - perhaps in the rim? As four bikers examined the rim and tyre in forensic detail, the donkey and cart passed by. Two cultures fleetingly in the same frame. Eventually, after Captain Nana had prised out a tiny sliver of glass from the tyre, and the inner-tube had been replaced, we raced on - leaving the donkey and its load far behind.
No falls today. Yesterday we had two – both caused by wheels in the close pack touching, unbalancing the rear rider. Terry says, ‘Focus on the small of the back of the person in front.’ But ‘in front’ measures only half a metre, and barely a second. So much concentration needed!
Most of the regular Sand-to-Sea riders are away now for Christmas. They’ll be too busy with Christmas traditions and feasting to be out on four-hour training spins. Personally, I’m looking forward to padded shorts and a new pump in my Christmas stocking.

Winding Down for the Holidays?

A bit flexible with the programme this week, but with a similar outcome and slightly ahead of the schedule. We rode for 8 h 15 m and covered 208 km.
Some of us are travelling for the next two weeks but there will be some of us left in The Gambia who will keep riding.

• Ride 27: (17 Dec13) Riders: Peter, Musa, Lamin and Nana.
• Ride 28: (19 Dec13) Riders: Peter, Musa, David and Nana.
• Ride 29: (21 Dec13) Riders: Peter, Musa, Suzanne, Terry, Lamin, Amadou and Nana. A couple of minor crashes on this one, but no lasting damage. 
• Ride 30: (22 Dec13) Riders: Peter, Musa, Amadou, Nana and one other. 

A Bike for Beate...?

Rather a good week for stories about 'Boris bikes' — the ones belonging to London's successful bicycle hire scheme.
Not only has someone hired one, taken it to France, cycled up Mt Ventoux (perhaps the most famous climb in the Tour de France), driven back and returned it 20 seconds within the 24-hour time limit, but one appears to have turned up in The Gambia — to the puzzlement of the British news media (see The Independent).
Of course, it's no surprise to our Sand to Sea organisation. Beate Kampmann has told us that she's been training on a Boris back in London. Clearly she's got so attached to it that she has secretly imported one in preparation for the Great Event. It might turn out to be rather expensive when she returns it, however....

That's not Beate, is it? Picture via: Twitter/@benphillips76.

What's the Weather Like?

Will it be hot? What will the humidity be like? And, perhaps most importunity, will there be a headwind? We don't really know. Towards the end of January should be one of the cooler times of the year, but in The Gambia like everywhere else, the weather has become rather less predictable. We'll be keeping a close eye on the weather forecast up-country at Basse, where our ride will start, at Soma where we stop for the night, and on the coast at Fajara, near the capital, Banjul, where the MRC site is and where we'll (hopefully) finish. You can too — we've included up-to-the minute forecasts for all three, on our Route page.

Another Week Closer

The weekly training summary is looking good. We rode for 7 hours 30 min and covered 193 km.

• Ride 23: (10Dec13) Riders: Peter, Anna and Nana
• Ride 24: (12Dec13) Riders: Suzanne, Anna, Peter, David and Nana
• Ride 25: (14Dec13) Riders: Terry, Suzanne, David, Musa and Nana
• Ride 26: (15Dec13) Riders: David, Peter, Musa and Nana

Glad to say that a couple of our more reticent riders have now got profiles on our Team page. One of them — Peter Dukes — has also kindly provided us with some insights into what goes on in one's mind when panting along on hot Gambian roads of a weekend... (see below)

Ufff!

Peter Dukes writes:
Ufff! Did I really agree to this ride? Or did I just slip into it through basking in vague flattery about fitness at my age? (Interpreted somewhat mistakenly as someone admiring my bodywork, perhaps?).
In the past four days I have achieved 133 training kilometres, two punctures and something I can’t see on my bum that needs lashings of Savlon. I also made a foolish hare-versus-tortoise error.
Shooting along the Brikama to Sanyang road on Saturday morning, I mistook the Leader of the Pack’s yell from behind of ‘Slow, Slow!’ for ‘Go! Go!’ (Nana, you really must learn to enunciate clearly at speed). My legs got stuck in one of those comic-strip speed blurs: a 15 km error during which I realised I don’t really like steaming along, on-the-road-alone. Better to sweat in a pack.
I daydreamt vividly about energy-pumping foods — bananas and flapjacks. And I kept dividing the Basse-to-Fajara 400 km by Saturday morning’s 75 km. ‘Nearly six times’ was the answer, every time: equivalent to three training runs a day for two days! I’ll never do it! Even fuelled with The Gambia’s finest bananas and most golden of flapjacks. Well, not without a lot of pain! Ufff!

Two New Members

Today we are privileged to welcome two new team members - both international Gambian athletes.
Lamin Sanneh is a long distance runner who has won not only local marathons but has set a national record for the half marathon while running in the UK this year.
Musa Fatty has has represented The Gambia in the ECOWAS (West African Alliance of Countries) tour, cycling through Benin, Togo, Ghana and the Ivory Coast.
More details on our Team page. It's lucky it's not a race...

Lamin Sanneh

Musa Fatty

And a Bit Further...

Slightly ahead of schedule. We rode for 7 hours 52 min and covered 191 km versus the target of 7.5 hours and 175 km.

• Ride 19: Riders: Peter and Nana
• Ride 20: Riders: Suzanne, David, Peter and Nana
• Ride 21: Riders: Peter, Anna, David and Nana
• Ride 22: Riders: Anna, Suzanne, David, Terry and Nana

Things improved a lot at the end of Sunday's ride with a splendid breakfast at David's apartment overlooking the ocean and (for some) a splash in the pool once the pancakes and maple syrup had settled a bit.

A quick refuelling stop near Sanyang heading back on Sunday's ride.

Still Going Well...

Still slightly ahead of schedule. We rode for 6 hours 52 min and covered 168 km.

• Ride 16: Riders: Anna, Suzanne, David and Nana
• Ride 17: Riders: David, Peter Dukes and Nana (Terry and Anna did a 60 km ride) 
• Ride 18: Riders: Anna, Suzanne, David, Terry and Nana

Real progress!

Fantastic! Actually ahead of schedule. We rode for 6 hours 20 mins and covered 155 km.

• Ride 13: Riders: Anna, Suzanne, David and Nana.
• Ride 14: Riders: Anna, Suzanne, David, Terry and Nana (GPS did not work – oops!). 
• Ride 15: Riders: David, Peter Dukes and Nana (Anna and Don did the same route). 

Onwards and upwards

(Actually, there's not much in the way of upwards or downwards in The Gambia. However...) This week we rode for 4 hours 49 min and covered 121 km by the end of the weekend.

• Ride 10: Riders: Anna and Suzanne (nice one ladies!).  
• Ride 11: Riders: Nana and David. (the GPS worked this time but the heart rate monitor was playing up).
• Ride 12: Riders: Nana, David, Peter and Anna (Suzanne and Terry Rode 45 km later.)

Settling Down

Now we're making better progress against our plan. This week we added a couple of riders to the group and rode for over 5 hours 30 min and covered 134 km.

• Ride 7: Riders: Nana, Anna and Suzanne. 
• Ride 8: Riders: Nana and David. (GPS did not work – Sorry David!)
• Ride 9: Riders: Nana, David, Suzanne and Peter Dukes (Peter on a mountain bike).

Two weeks gone...

We're catching up! Rode for 4 hours 30 mins and covered 100 km.

• Ride 4: Riders: Nana and Anna.
• Ride 5: Riders: Nana, Anna and Suzanne.
• Ride 6: Riders: Nana and Anna.

First Pedal Strokes

Just one week of training so far and we are a bit behind schedule — but of course we've only just begun getting into the swing of things....
Anyway, three intrepid riders rode for just over 4 hours and covered 82.3 km.

• Ride 1: Riders: Suzanne, Anna and Nana (on mountain bikes).
• Ride 2: Riders: Suzanne and Nana (on mountain bikes).
• Ride 3: Riders: Nana (solo ride).

It's a start!

Getting With the Programme...

Nana has circulated a training schedule that's cunningly constructed to get us all up to speed (and distance) for the ride, which is just 14 weeks away. He's aiming for an average speed of 25 km/h on the days of the event while we're actually riding, which means two or three hours for stops, given the short African day. We don't want to be riding in the dark. This is what it looks like, with distances in kilometres and times in decimal hours. C/T is cross training and w/o is a general workout. No free weekends for couple of months then!

Week Start	% Effort	Training	Dist/Time	Actual
14 Oct	25	Mon: Rest	100/3.50	TEST
		Tue: C/T
		Wed: 1.0h
		Thu: Rest
		Fri: C/T
		Sat: 2.5h ride
		Sun: Light w/o
21 Oct	30	Mon: Rest	105/4.25	85/4.0
		Tue: C/T
		Wed: Rest
		Thu: 0.75h
		Fri: C/T
		Sat: 1.5h
		Sun: 2.0h
28 Oct	30	Mon: Rest	105/4.25	100/4.5
		Tue: C/T
		Wed: Rest
		Thu: 0.75h
		Fri: C/T
		Sat: 1.5h
		Sun: 2.0h
04 Nov	38	Mon: Rest	145/5.75	134/5.5
		Tue: C/T
		Wed: Rest
		Thu: 0.75h
		Fri: C/T
		Sat: 2.5h
		Sun: 2.5h
11 Nov	38	Mon: Rest	145/5.75	121/4.8
		Tue: C/T
		Wed: Rest
		Thu: 0.75h
		Fri: C/T
		Sat: 2.5h
		Sun: 2.5h
18 Nov	30	Mon: Rest	105/4.25	155/6.3
		Tue: C/T
		Wed: Rest
		Thu: 0.75h
		Fri: C/T
		Sat: 1.50h
		Sun: 2.0h
25 Nov	45	Mon: Rest	150/6.75
		Tue: C/T
		Wed: Rest
		Thu: 0.75h
		Fri: C/T
		Sat: 3.0h
		Sun: 3.0h
02 Dec	50	Mon: Rest	175/7.50
		Tue: 0.75 h
		Wed: Rest
		Thu: 0.75h
		Fri: C/T
		Sat: 3.0h
		Sun: 3.0h
09 Dec	50	Mon: Rest	175/7.50
		Tue: 0.75 h
		Wed: Rest
		Thu: 0.75h
		Fri: C/T
		Sat: 3.0h
		Sun: 3.0h
16 Dec	55	Mon: Rest	200/8.00
		Tue: 1.0h
		Wed: Rest
		Thu: 1.0h
		Fri: C/T
		Sat: 2.0h
		Sun: 4.0h
23 Dec	65	Mon: Rest	250/10.0
		Tue: 1.0h
		Wed: Rest
		Thu
		Fri: C/T
		Sat: 4.0h
		Sun: 4.0h
30 Dec	75	Mon: Rest	275/11.0
		Tue: 1.0h
		Wed: Rest
		Thu: C/T
		Fri: 2.0h
		Sat: 3.0h
		Sun: 5.0h
06 Jan	85	Mon: Rest	325/13.0
		Tue: 1.0h
		Wed: Rest
		Thu: 1.0h
		Fri: 1.0h
		Sat: 5.0h
		Sun: 5.0h
13 Jan	65	Mon: Rest	250/10.0
		Tue: 1.0h
		Wed: Rest
		Thu: Rest
		Fri: 1.0h
		Sat: 3.0h
		Sun: 5.0h
Event	100	Mon: Rest	370/17.0
		Tue: 1 h
		Wed: 1 h
		Thu: Rest
		Fri: Travel to Basse
		Sat: 8 hours
		Sun: 7 hours

Origins...

This all really started with a nucleus of a few brave (or foolhardy) cyclists based at the Medical Research Council's unit at Fajara in The Gambia — Nana Tawiah, Peter Noble and Terry Bishop — who were accustomed to risk the wayward traffic and occasionally sandy and potholed roads for weekend rides.
Actually (traffic aside) The Gambia has quite reasonable roads for cycling, and if they don't suit you, there's plenty of opportunity for mountain biking (but no mountains), especially on off-road tracks through the bush. Or you can start out at Cape Point, on the south bank of the river mouth, and ride 60 km on the splendid sandy beaches at low tide all the way to the southern border with Senegal.
But the MRC has an 'up country' site at Basse Santa Su, a tantalising 370 km from its unit at Fajara – too long for a Saturday spin, but maybe OK for a two-day trip, especially as the South Bank road was constantly being improved.
So that became the target — not just for the (relatively) hard core but for a larger group. And of course in the hope that it would provide a focus for some much-needed charitable fundraising.

From Sand to Sea

It was the beginning of October. Hot, wet and sticky on the coast of The Gambia — the smallest country in mainland Africa, dominated by the great, brown river that accounts for more than a tenth of its area and runs for over 1,100 km from Guinea, through Senegal and The Gambia to the Atlantic Ocean.
The Gambia itself is only about 330 km long from East to West, and just over 48 km wide at its widest point. So when Nana Tawiah suggested that it would be fun to cycle from Basse to Fajara (a trifling 370 km, but rather longer than the length of the country) several of his friends and colleagues thought that it sounded like a reasonable idea.
Now read on...,