Taking a spin
It's not quite the Tour De France but Egypt's own mini-tour created its fair share of excitement. Yasmine El-Rashidi looks at the cycling tour and its accompanying Cairo community
It is 7am on a chilly Friday morning and the Cairo streets are dead. The odd car drones by, a few dogs bark, a kid may call out, but apart from the sound of the birds, and the leaves, and the seeming buzz of other life in the air, Cairo on a Friday morning, when winter has still not given up, is silent.
On one of Maadi's many little tree-lined streets, however, a relative commotion breaks the calm.
The gathering makes up the members of the Cairo Cyclists Club who gather every Friday morning to embark on their weekly ride which takes them for 50, 60, 70 kilometres, and sometimes more, across town.
On one particular morning, the crowd is smaller than usual. Most of the "regulars" are absent, partaking instead in the international amateur Granfondo del Deserto taking place in Sharm El- Sheikh. They were going for the challenge and the fun and to give support to fellow Friday morning cyclist, Mahmoud, who was participating in both the prologue event (the Granfondo del Deserto) and its proceeding annual Tour of Egypt.
The first day of the event effervesces with energy. The starting point, the parking lot of Domina Coral Bay, was swarming with people and colours. It may not have been the Tour de France but this Italian-organised cycling event -- which took cyclists 127 kilometres from Dahab to Sharm El-Sheikh in a maximum time limit of five hours -- attracted 350 amateur cyclists. Of the predominantly Italian pack, a handful of Egyptians managed to fit in. The only so-called "pros" on the tour, the Egyptians used the Granfondo as a catapult into the Tour of Egypt which immediately proceeded the event, taking the cyclists around Sinai at a distance of over 100 kilometres a day.
The prelude was unprecedented on the local road. "This is the first ever of its kind in Egypt," Hani El-Kerdani, organiser of the continuing Egyptian national leg of the event, told the press.
The event has acted as a magnet for cycling enthusiasts and also as a pull factor for the faltering tourism arena. "Competitors are offered a very attractive package that includes air flight, accommodation and race fees. It promotes Sharm El-Sheikh as a destination that allows them to enjoy their passion in a splendid atmosphere, very different from what they are used to at home," El-Kerdani said.
The dunes, and hills, and miles of sandy surrounding were indeed different.
While the 350-rider turnout (mainly men with a few women) was impressive for a first-time shot, the hope is that, coupled with the right sponsors, and prizes and funding, the uniqueness of the journey will catapult the event into the ranks of a pro attraction. The course is certainly challenging enough -- 123 kilometres, with a 600-metre elevation, and temperatures and winds that are enough of a challenge for any non- accustomed visitor.
Even for those more accustomed to Sharm and its weather and roads, the journey was tough. The wind was strong, to the extent that planes were stopped from landing at the Sharm El- Sheikh airport that day.
The conditions also allowed for all the tricks in the cycling trade to be pulled. Front-runners were sighted, as were sprint attacks to gain edge. The Egyptians did well at the start but were out- ridden by the more experienced Italian near-pros. The first Egyptian, Mohamed Abdel-Aziz, came in 30 minutes after the Italian winner who clocked 2 hours 55 minutes of the allowed five- hour completion maximum. He was followed by his Egyptian teammates Ahmed Abdel-Maksood, Hisham Abdel-Baky and Reda Hassan.
Italian winner Loris Ferrari, from the Gruppo Sportivo Carimate, was joined on the podium by countrymate and first female finisher Maura Lechi, who clocked 3 hours 33 minutes. She was followed to the finish by Carmen Busignani in 3 hours 34 minutes, and by her husband.
For hundreds of other riders, the race just went on. Some clocked into the finish some two or three hours later.
For the Egyptian riders, however, the event did not end there. Possibly inspired by the Italian powerhouses, but more likely fatigued from the grueling ride, their show had to go on for a few hundred more kilometres.
And they are not alone. This weekend again, the group of Cairo-based cyclists that comprise Cairo's cycling community and subculture hit the Sinai coast. Still driven by the overflow of adrenaline from the February mega event, the riders once again prepared themselves for a gut- wrenching ride, something they have made a habit of.
"Every year, we make a point of going out one weekend in the spring," said David Phelps, one of the group's hardcore cyclists and fund-raising manager for the club's "support Mahmoud" effort. "It's an annual thing."
Tradition, so-to-speak, and rather torturous. The ride takes the Cairo Cyclists 250 kilometres over a two-day stretch. The first day blasts them with the ride from Taba to Dahab, including a killer 1,000 metre climb. The day usually lasts from 8.30am to 5pm. Day two's 8.30am to noon ride seems less intense perhaps because the muscle soreness and fatigue of the previous day have worn off. The cyclists head from Dahab to Sharm where they then proceed to collapse, then head home to prepare for a full day at work the next morning. For the like of Phelps and the club's torture-loving President Patrick Brennan, a gym spin, too, is in order.
It is partly fun, partly challenge and partly, of course, the social element of the event and the rides. The club, which is open to riders of all levels, ages and nationalities, is the honing ground for some of Egypt's up-and-coming talent. One such rider, Mahmoud, known to all as "just Mahmoud", rides the road every Friday with the team. Mahmoud joined the Cairo Cyclists Club in 1997 when he was just 16. Now a member of the national team, with numerous titles to his name, the young cyclist has given the club even more reason to come together. He was recently invited to join a top amateur Italian team, GS Sanpellegrino Bottani-Artoni.
"We're very proud of Mahmoud's achievements and wish to support him in any way we can to reach his full potential, in the hope and belief that he will achieve great success in the future," Phelps told the press. "We have started a fund-raising campaign with the goal of collecting $10,000 over the next three months."
So far, they have $1,500, assurances for another $1,000, and two months to go.
In tennis, squash, athletics and cycling, the problem in Egypt is one: funding and the lack of resources, or ideas, or outlets, to generate the needs for aspiring pros and potential stars. Many of us have picked up tennis rackets and attempted to play, and we appreciate both the talent and hard work that is required to compete. And we show immediate support when young juniors say they want to train and turn pro. Cycling should be viewed in much the same way. However, we are either unaware or simply disregard the five- hour rides, 100-metre climbs and training cycles that take one from Cairo to Ismailia. Instead, we see the sport of cycling as mere child's play.
With the coming of the Granfondo del Deserto, and the Cairo Cyclists' Clubs' adoption of Mahmoud and others like him, maybe the national wheel of knowledge and awareness will finally begin to spin.
C a p t i o n : On the road, the Egyptian equivalent of the Tour de France
Al-Ahram Weekly Online : 20 - 26 March 2003 (Issue No. 630)
Located at: http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2003/630/sp1.htm