Day 4 - Bosco and what wonderful things from children

This is from Tuesday........

Amazing jolt of energy to wake up to a message like this:

Yesterday my son explained to me that he will run coming Friday at school..... this is for the children at the poorest place on the world..... there is a good man who lives there to help the children..... and we will help him raising money.......

This started off our breakfast discussion, drawing cheers from the table.  This young man of 7 goes to my daughter's school The Olive Tree School, who will be having a sponsored beach run to raise money for Biking for Burundi.  What an outstanding effort on their part - HUGE thanks from down here!!

Also.....

Hey - it is ALL about Burundi as that is THE why we are here riding.  Each night after dinner we are sharing personal stories.  One of our support team members, Mutebutsi Jean Bosco, leader of GLO supported project J-Life in Burundi, shared how much pain he is feeling in his heart for his country and people while here.  He sees clearly in Rwanda how far better off the people here are than in Burundi now and knows there was not such a big divide 20 years ago.  Bosco appreciates the global support and awareness we are all trying to build for Burundi and asks for continued prayer.  

Please remember Burundi far beyond this "Biking" experience.  

Burundi cannot be left as it is by the world!

A few photos from the Day 4 ride:

Team Photo during a rest stop

Some relax time in the evening - I wonder how much that Island would cost!?

What the heck is that white man doing in lycra outside my house??

Oh yeah - we did ride today didn't we......Day 4....An "easy" day though that is relative to the week. Some strong breeze usually from the left side. Just more and more beautiful Rwanda, culminating in a final decent to Lake Kibu, into which we dove and swam post-ride! Ahhhhh - fantastic water temp....great help for the legs I expect. Tough day tomorrow but we have a few hours now to relax.

Day 3 - ugh! 147km and 2,800m

Wow. Longest ride of my life at 147km!!!!

Surprisingly low heart rate given in Spain I normally train at 160bpm or higher - then again - I am near to 25kmh in Spain as well and riding for not more than 4 hours!!  Note the 7 1/2 hours of moving time ON THE SADDLE!!  Oh my sore arse!!!

Challenge today was a bit more than necessary as our support truck with water, etc.... did not get to us the last 90 minutes.  Luckily it was not too hot and Josh and I stuck it out. 

Just a lot of time climbing. Not always steep, but long, long, LONG climbs. 

Rwanda continues to impress with beauty. 2nd hardest ride of my life next to 2014 Tour du Burundi Day 6 I think!  We still have 4 more rides including Thursday's torture - same distance as today with another 700m climb. Oh man.

Kids on the side of the road at a rural town in Rwanda

Victor wiped out here, broken helmet and shifters, but body intact for the most part!  Unfortunately, I was ahead of the group at this point and had to double back - ADDING to the climb!!

Gorgeous country!

Josh and I together again (we rode in 2014, though I could not keep up with him then!)

Day 2 - easing into the back to back to back........riding

A very relaxed day as we look towards the immense challenge of the next 5 days. We start tomorrow's 140km ride with a 25km 900m climb that we finished on today. Worried about that and what follows😓

Something happened with my GPS early as thankfully we did NOT have that big drop and climb

Note we finished near the lake in Gisenyi - staying just 100m from the Congolese border!

The 2017 Biking for Burundi Team

Yes - that would be the Congo!!!!

Great coffee shop (kept me up all night though!)

Local taxi stand - motos!!

Don't take a wrong turn in the morning!

Day 1 - dehydration and twitchy muscles - TIME TO ADAPT!

Day 1 in the books.  Hot and tough but a good intro to the week.  Only 1 flat today for 12 of us.  Rwanda is gorgeous just like Burundi. Clearly years ahead of Burundi though in terms of quality of life.  Spending tonight at Africa is Rising Training Center, home of Team Rwanda National Cycling Team.  Resting now.  Leg muscles just twitching all over.  I dehydrated a bit today (gee - ya think - I have not peed since waking up and it is nearly 7pm now!!) - not a good idea to repeat this week!

Pushed it a bit on the 2nd climb and stayed with the lead "pack" of young folk (Hank and the UK speedsters - including the very strong Marina and Jo - 1st females to ride in the Biking for Burundi!).

Turks finally delivered and just in time for Day 1!

Just before we start the 2017 Biking for Burundi

We cause a commotion whenever we stop.  We had 150 kids around us at this stop near a local football match!

Boy at side of road, fetching water

Selfie post Day 1 ride at Team Rwanda Cycling Center

This is what dinner will be like nightly - rice, veggies, potatoes and meat in sauce!

Team Rwanda Cycling were great hosts!!!

Tomorrow is a bit of a rest (relatively) - though probably best given the first of 6 straight days to get out of bed following a ride.  My legs and body are not used to consecutive days of riding.

Saturday's breakfast devotional was fitting and will be on my mind all day today (and all week)!

Psalm 121

A song of ascents.

1 I lift up my eyes to the mountains—
    where does my help come from?
2 My help comes from the Lord,
    the Maker of heaven and earth.

Safely into Kigali!

Arrived safely into Kirundi shortly after midnight and enjoyed a beautiful lightning show out the plane window the final 45 minutes of the flight.  Unfortunately Turkish Airlines left my bike in Istanbul, so hoping it arrives safely on tonight's flight.

Luckily, we have 2 back-up bikes at hand and I was able to tool around Kigali with the team today on this yellow one, complete with a 3rd front cog - a VERY tempting granny gear for me as I am quite anxious about all of the climbing this week!

Do you think that I packed enough energy bars, gels, etc... for the week???

Stay well!

36 Hours and Counting - our itinerary

36 hours until lift-off from Barcelona, for a 10 hour (flight time) trip to Kigali, via Istanbul on Turkish Airlines (maybe Morgan Freeman will be on the flight!), landing just after midnight on Friday.  Hopefully a bit of sleep in store.  Friday will be an unpack day, fingers crossed that the bike makes it and then more so that I can successfully put it back together!

Here is an overview of the week's route within google maps:

Although someone from last year thinks these elevations are very light (ugh - was hoping for "positive" errors!), here is the blow by blow itinerary for the coming week from Strava.........

The week starts with a 600m climb over the first 25km followed by what looks (I trust nothing!) like a reasonably enjoyable ride until we hit 62km mark and a rather steep 550m ascent over just 8km - ugh.  Not going to like that part at all although excited to see the volcanoes at the end of the ride!  We get to stay at Africa Rising Cycling Center - home of Rwanda's national cycling team.

Day 2 looks like possibly the easiest day of the week at 60km plus the promise of a cafe at the end run by two women from California.  Seemingly the calm before the storm......

 

Monday the 29th has been hanging over my head for some time!  We start the day with a 30km 967m climb (yes - that would be over 3,000 ft).  That will challenge the breakfast to remain in the stomach for sure.  Simon promises "spectacular views" for our enjoyment - yet I am guessing this will be strictly a sideshow to the pain of nearly 3,000m (or more) of climbing on the day and 140km.

Day 4 has an interesting elevation profile as we meander a bit until 25km - then a monstrous 770m climb over 23km.  If I can survive that climb, the rest of the day seems (again - caution!) downhill.  We finish on the shorts of Lake Kivu - certainly some swimming will be in order.

Day 5 has a ridiculously steep downhill at 30km.  It looks like we drop off the hill.  Some very brutally steep looking climbs on the day make this another day close the eyes and bite the tongue and hope to finish.  At 100km mark there is a 450m climb that just looks like no fun at all - though we are promised a brand new road to cycle on (oh boy).

Thursday Day 6 is to be the most difficult day of the week so says Geoff (Burundi 2014, Rwanda 2016).  Certainly all of this actually looks manageable in these pics.  That is a big worry though this day should be fantastic as we will be cruising through Nyungwa Forest - one of the oldest forests in all of Africa.  The road will be very isolated, though through the jungle and rain forest should be visually impressive!

The ride home to Kigali looks like one climb after another (of course downhill in between).  There are some steep average gradients in those climbs and after a brutal week - this promises to not let us off with an easy finish.  On the bright side, we will be hosted by the British Ambassador to Rwanda on Friday evening - the carrot at the end of our 750km, 15,000m stick!!

Presenting at Tasza's school - spreading the awareness of Burundi and GLO

Just back from an awesome time at Natasza's school - The Olive Tree School.  I had access to present Burundi and Great Lakes Outreach for an hour to about 50 kids (years 4 - 10).  Lots of fun and some very challenging questions.  Really charged me up in terms of motivation for the non-physical part of the Tour (motivation for riding now not exactly high as the two rides this week have been exhausting).

At The Olive Tree, of course we talked about my favorite project - COWS!!!

In fact, we just approved purchase by Evariste of 15 additional cows yesterday, 5 in calf (pregnant) - so the project is moving forward and surviving - YES THE MILK IS STILL FLOWING!!!

The rest of the presentation focused on some Burundi history and the evolution of the Tutsi / Hutu issues as well as the current crisis originating from President Nkurunziza's insistence on a third term of office.

I then drew a lot of laughs from Simon's monkey encounter:

My entry line for this was "My friend Simon is a bit crazy" and of course, this is NOT the craziest thing that I have seen him do at the Burundi reptile and primate zoo to which he has the "Simon Pass", meaning anything and everything goes!  When I was there in 2014 (you can see photos from that blog post), we were IN the crocodile area and he was pulling a big 8 footer by the tail!

I continued in the presentation though about Simon's passion for a better Burundi and his great vision and leadership.  Certainly reasons for my efforts on behalf of GLO and Simon and for my confidence in suggesting others to support as well!

Gotta go for now!