Today’s Blog written by Dave and Deb

120 Days and it is over, just like that. How do you sum up the most challenging experience of your life on one short blog? Well, let’s try….

We arrived in Cape Town to a large cheering crowd on Saturday May 10th and it was completely overwhelming. We didn’t expect such a welcome party. A pavilion was set up at the waterfront filled with friends, family, fans, curious shoppers and people in the surrounding cafés taking notice. Our country flags were on display held by local children and a vibrant band played us in. The fanfare was second to none!

Entering South Africa from Namibia

I was allowed to lead the procession in with Jos as race leader and immediately after crossing the finish line, I was interviewed by South African Television and actually had tears in my eyes when they asked me how I feel. Luckily, I kept it together and Vicki would be proud to know that I mentioned Plan and Our Website-all that media training paid off!

Riding into Cape Town

CBC Radio interviewed both Dave and I, photographers snapped our picture and we schmoozed with our Canadian Ambassador Chris Brown. It was quite an amazing experience. After a short reception where we drank coffee to warm our chilled bodies after a 110 km ride in the mist and wind. Not much time to waste though, we were quickly off to the Ampitheatre for the awards presentation. Dave received his EFI Medal and I received my award for Race Winner. It wasn’t until the dinner and a more formal reception that evening that I received my incredible trophy. A beautiful traditional mask mounted with a 1st place plaque and some lovely paintings by a local artist for my Section Wins. It was an awesome evening with great food and company. After all of the formalities we ripped it up on the dance floor until all hours of the evening and paid for it the next day lounging in our hotel room watching movies.

Convoy in Cape Town

I have to say that we are so happy that we did the Tour d’Afrique. Yes I complained a lot. I Laughed, I cried, I kicked and screamed, but like anytime one pushes themselves to their limit, it is never easy while living it, but always special once it is over.

To think about what we accomplished, it is quite unbelievable. Dave rode every single day through illness, a sprained ankle that he kept re-twisting during the first month, exhaustion and of course saddle sores. I survived a serious infection and managed to come back when I was sure that my riding days were over. I never could have finished this race without Dave. So many times I wanted to go home, throw in the towel and call it a day. But Dave kept me strong and because of him, I achieved my goal.

Relaxing at the Pavalian V&A Waterfront

As a couple this was an amazing achievement. Yes we fought, we laughed about fighting and we bonded more than ever. It strengthened our relationship and we have never been so proud of each other. We were so lucky to have one another to share our fears and frustrations of the day as well as our triumphs and victories without worry of how they will perceive you. Dave and I can tell each other anything.

I am going off course now, Dave is making a coffee and I need to brag… I am so proud of his performance in the TDA. He made it look easy and pulled me through each day. I received most of the attention at the receptions, but if everyone should know how strong he is. He came into this as a non racer and recreational rider. By the end, he was racing in the peleton, doing a great showing in time trials, losing almost 40 pounds and reshaping the muscles on his legs. Incredible!

Behind our Flag waiting for awards

The night before we rode into Cape Town, they gave away fun awards. As most of you who know me, I naturally won biggest Drama Queen;) I felt that Dave should have won most improved rider and most weight loss, but they didn’t put those categories in. Oh well, I will give him a special award.

After completing the Tour d’Afrique, I feel like I can accomplish anything. I know that it sounds cliché, but this really was the most difficult thing I have ever done in my life. Waking up at 5:00 in the morning, rain or shine, hot or cold. Sleeping through blowing sand storms and heavy downpours, Huddling through freezing nights to boiling in hot humid weather. We really went through every condition and survived every element and it only made us stronger. So many days I felt like it was too much, but once I arrived in camp all was forgotten. Now that we have finished, the sense of accomplishment is unbelievable. A year ago, we were happy to ride 20km after work. Now Dave can ride 100km in less than 3 hours and I am not too far behind. A 207km is pretty achieveable if not down right easy except for the monotony of riding for so long. And reaching over 70km going down hill is a lot of fun. I used to brake when I reached 30km at home now I am riding as hard and fast as I can to make better time. I have often read of people saying that after achieving an extraordinary physical challenge, they feel that they can now do anything. I never understood what they were talking about until now. This was hard, everyday; it was hard. And every day, we got up and finished, so to get up and do anything in our lives in the future, should be quite easy by comparison.

Women's Champion Tour d'Afrique

One thing I must say is that if anyone is wanting to do the TDA you must be prepared for the most grueling ant truest test of not only your physical strength but mental as well. We learned, as everyone else did, that there really is no way to train for this. Even people who tried to put in the kms before they came soon found out that it was no prep for the days ahead.

As we pack our bikes back into their boxes and take stock of what things we have left over, it is hard not to look back on certain experiences of the last 4 months.

The people we have spent so much time with in our mobile village are now starting to head home to resume their lives and hopefully take something away from this as we have. There are people who we will keep in touch with and ones we won’t. But when we talk about this adventure their faces will be forever associated with the stories we tell.

Some say we are crazy, some say we are not but, if we are crazy, we are safe in knowing that we are not the only ones as there are 60 other crazies that thought subjecting yourself to travelling Africa by bicycle would be a fun thing to do.

One thing that we will be posting next is the lists of What we should have brought, what we should have left behind etc. So it will give any of you future TDA participants an idea of what is needed to run your life smoothly for 4 months out of a red box.

We will be heading home soon and will be announcing our next adventure….So stay tuned and check in regularly for the next installment of Canada’s Adventure Couple.

We have entered Ethiopia and bad news…Deb lost EFI, but Good News, Dave still has his and since there are only 3 women racers, (and all 3 are no longer EFI) she is still guaranteed a podium finish. Dave is doing amazing keeping the EFI going for team D!

This was a really tough week. 4 days of 140 km days with head and side winds followed by 2 grueling days of mountain climbing equalling 2500 metres on loose gravel with 12% grades. Yesterday was the hardest day on the tour with constant climbing and no relief on the downhill’s because of the rough road conditions. For my capabilities, we really messed up with our bicycle choice. Should have gone for a triple chain ring to have that “granny gear”. Dave managed fine, but I was out at lunch. A couple of days earlier, my entire body seized up at the end of the day due to losing too much salt accumulating over the several days of riding in 42º heat. Yes, it is no longer cold, the minute we left Khartoum the weather changed. Thank God for Dr. Janet (number one women’s rider) She is a strength coach for Xtreme Athletes and she patched me up loading me with all of my electrolytes and calmed me down by explaining what was happening to me. Every move I made caused intense cramping, be it in my calves, thighs, fingers, ribs etc. It was awful. The only problem is that it takes a couple of days to recover from that depletion and I just couldn’t get my legs back. It was with a lot of tears and frustration, but I finally had to board the bus.

Once again though, the other riders were so supportive Thanks Maria, Janet, Joya, Deb Ashleigh and sweet nurse Amandine for your support that day.

I can’t believe that another country as come and gone. This isn’t exactly turning out to be the experience of Africa that I thought it would be. We are doing so many km each day that there is no time to stop and take it all in. I don’t think that we are being the greatest ambassedors to our countries. People line the sides of the road yelling questions at us and asking us to stop, but you can’t stop because you have 120km to go still and you still have to set up your tent, check your bike fore tomorrow, get some soup (if you are not in early, the soup is gone and that sucks, I really love the soup it is great for replenishing the salt) and try to relax and recover a bit for the next day. I would just love to take some time to explore these interesting villages that we race past.

At the beginning of the tour, Dave and I were stopping a lot to take pictures and video, but now we have started to ride straight through from Coke stop to Coke stop. Snapping some photos while we sip our drinks. Ahh, the cokes stops. You start to live for them.

It has gone from freezing just before Khartoum, to 42º heat. Dave took a photo of Alex’s bike theremometer that was baking in the sun during one stop and it reached 52º. Impossible you say, take a look at the photo. So, these coke stops become very important. The water in our camelbacks is hot by mid morning and the awful Fast Fuel that they provide, is completely undrinkable in the afternoon. The only thing that keeps me going is knowing that I might get a lukewarm coke somewhere in the coming km’s. I actually become a little desperate when I haven’t seen one for awhile.

So, we are here in Ethiopia for 21 days. Our rest day today is in the northern town of Gondor. Looks like a nice town with a great history, but we won’t be seeing much of that because we have to change our tires for pavement, do our laundry, repack our red boxes and tune our bike. Rest days are really workdays. I know, I know, my blog isn’t the most positive this week, but isn’t that what these are all about? The good, the bad and the ugly. Well, today it is a little ugly. Sometimes, you just can’t find the humour in things. Maybe by Addis Ababa I will be feeling better.

I did have a really great dinner at the hotel tonight. The contrasts are really amazing, 2 days ago at the border, we camped literally surrounded by cow manure, and now we are camping on the grounds of Gondors finest hotel. Dave and I splurged on a room for our sanity. He also deserved it for riding and finishing the toughest day on the tour. That was after hanging back with me almost all morning. It cost him a lot of time, but he made it up in the afternoon. He finshed in 9 hours and that would have been 8 or less if he didn’t have to wait for me. But that’s the type of guy he is, he won’t leave his lady. There, now I am positive.

Astrid  F. Asked:

Did you need to take anti malaria pills during your trip?

Yes, we took Malarone during our time in southern Ethiopia all the way to South Africa.

What shots did you need?

We had many shots already from previous travels, but here are is a list of shots needed…

Twinrix-for hepatitis  A and B

Yellow Fever

Typhoid Fever

Menengitas

Rabies was reccommended, but we did not have get them done

How much did your bike cost? would you recommend your bike for a tour d’ afrique?

Our bike cost $2500. We think that it was a great bike for the Tour d’Afrique.  Lighter and faster than a mountain bike yet durable.  If you look on our gear list you will see a full break down of what we liked and would change about our Specialized Tricross Bikes.

How did you ship all the extra bike parts and bike to Cairo?

We carried them all in our bike box with us.  They were heavy, but we flew Lufthansa and they included the box in the price.  Plus we were allowed 32kilos per box on top of our 32 kilos for our 1 piece of luggage.

Astrid, thanks for the great questions and comments.  Maybe we will look into an ultra marathon instead of an ironman.  It sounds exciting.  Plus I (Deb) am not a huge fan of swimming.  Dave on the other hand, won’t let me get away with taking the easy way out, and we will probably have to do the iron man.  Cheers!

Colleen K. Asked “How does the race work and how did you win?”

The Tour d’Afrique is a stage race. Meaning that we were timed every day. Each day we would take our starting time and finishing time and write it down. They would add up the total each day and the person who had the fasted time in the end won. For example. If I started at 7am in the morning and finished at 1pm. My race time for that day would be 6 hours. If I rode 6 hours the next day, my total for two days would be 12 hours. They added up the total times for the entire 95 days of racing. All stops were included in the time. If I took a half hour lunch, it would still be included in my total for the day. So, we would try to take short lunches and coke stops. The days that I was injured I received a 12 hour automatic time.

Kelly G. Asked “What is EFI?”

EFI Stands for Every Fabulous Inch. Meaning that a person with EFI status didn’t have to ride the truck once. Dave rode every single day of the Tour d’Afrique. He rode through illness, injury and fatigue. Only 12 people came out of the Tour with EFI status. I had to ride the truck due to my leg injury and for an illness in Sudan. The minute I stepped foot on the truck instead of riding my bike, I lost EFI status. If a person hitched a ride for a km or two, they also lost EFI status. You had to ride every single kilometre of the 12,000 to be and EFIer.

Paul T. asked “Are you going to do another cycling trip?”

Possibly down the road, but we are looking into new and exciting adventures. This summer we will be out attempting our first Half Iron Man and we will be participating in several bike races and rides for charity. In the New Year we will be off on another adventure. The Marathon De Sables has caught our eye. 6 Marathons in 6 days through the Sahara Desert in Morocco and a paddle down the Amazon River is looking very enticing. Keep checking our blog for dates and events.

Vicki O asked “What are your favourite sports?”

Dave Says- “Cycling, Rock Climbing, Canoing, Running, Swimming, Hockey, Snow Boarding”

Deb Says-”Rock Climbing, Canoing, Snow Boarding, Figure Skating. Mountain Biking”

Everyone asked “How did you lose so much weight?”

It was easy. Averaging 120km per day on a bicycle was a good start. We managed to lose more weight than the average person on the tour because we pushed ourselves to our limits each day. Riding at a maximum heart rate and to the point of exhaustion made the weight just fall off.

This was another popular question and it goes well with the above…”What did you eat on the Tour?

For breakfast Dave ate oatmeal everyday. Deb hates oatmeal, so she had a peanut butter sandwich. Sometimes we were lucky and had some bananas.

For Lunch we had One meat sandwich. It could be tuna, salami or sometimes leftover chicken from the night before. We were rationed to only one meat and one spread sandwich so once again Deb had a peanut butter sandwich. Sometimes we were lucky and could have all the fruit we wanted, other times we were allowed 2 slices of watermelon or oranges.

For snacks we had PVM Power Bars.

Dinner consisted of some kind of meat stew and 1 starch-pasta, potato’s or rice.

So as you can see it was easy to lose weight. On our rest days we always gorged on everything:)

Jody C asked “How did you carry enough water?”

The trucks on the TDA carried water in their tanks. They treated the water with chlorine and we filled our water bottles each morning. We carried 2 water bottles with us and re-filled them at the Lunch Truck. In the Sudan and Ethiopia, we used our Camelbacks as well as our two water bottles on the bike. The Camelbacks hold 3 litres of water. It was a good idea to carry extra in the desert.

Lois B. Asked “Where did you sleep?”

We camped every night. Most of the time we stayed in bush camps on the side of the road. All 60 of us would camp together.

CTV asked “What kind of training did you do for this for this?”

We cycled up to 400km per week last summer. We took spinning classes and gravity classes to work on our strength. We went to hot yoga classes and took part in a Try-A-Tri Triathlon. We thought that we were doing great, but realized when we started riding in Egypt, that we needed to do a lot more. There is no way to prepare yourself for the shock of cycling 120km per day. That first week started with a 145km day with headwinds. We were exhausted after day one and had to wake up the following morning and do it all over again for the next 5 days. 2 weeks into the Tour though we were riding machines. So I suggest doing a 2 week cycling trip with extremely long mileage before going on the tour. It will make your life a lot easier.

Cameron T asked “Didn’t you just want to throw your bike in the ocean when you were done?”

Surprisingly No. We thought that we would have had enough of cycling during our time in Africa. While racing I wanted to throw my bike in the ocean, but as soon as it was done, I felt sad that I wouldn’t be riding anymore. Since being home we have already been out on our bike 3 times and we can’t wait to take part in a bike race or two this summer!

Send us some more questions and we will gladly answer them for you.