Tourletters from St. Louis
Stories of the novice cyclist part VI
by Kevin Crow
The team is still cycling, but boy have we detonated. And not in a good way. British Hawaii picked up some kind of bug and has been vomiting continuously the last two days (basically picking the two worst days left of cycling to get sick … british at its best.) Dutch Hawaii is enjoying another round of the cramps, suffering when he cycles more than about 25kph and has to stop for stretches every couple dozen kilometres (giving british Hawaii another opportunity to vomit most times).
I meanwhile remain strong and healthy since my food poisoning show (I think over half the camp saw my posterior in a full squat) and have taken some good pictures of my team’s misery. I do wish they had chosen days when the afternoons were a bit more mild than 40+ Celsius (104+ Fahrenheit), but this way at least we are all suffering.
Speaking of the team! O
ur shenanigan day has been awarded a stage win, and just to make our dominance official we joined up with Hammering Geerten and the Kiwi to take another stage two days before Nuaochukt (however its spelled, it’s the dump capitol of Mauritania). [note: matthew’s tour letter discusses that win] But between the two wins, the one into dakhla means more to us because we did it as a team and all went 100 percent. Tim the Belgian Beast also took the last stage before Senegal, employing a similar strategy of leave and hope no one knows you are in front … he left on time and hammered it to lunch, beating the Doctor by a good four minutes.
It looks like the 51 year old kiwi will end up taking the race. He has currently built a three hour lead on young bicycle bob and there are only two short stages left. Taking this into account the kiwi now cycles with 4 spare tubes and 2 spare tires in addition to his [expletive deleted, rhymes with bunt] of an attitude. No offense to the youngan, but it will be nice to see the kiwi take it down. His ability to give a consistently high level of performance every day for the entirety of the trip is incredible.
The last day of Mauritania has been the nicest, it feels like Africa for the first time and it’s a part of the country worth visiting … although I don’t think I will ever visit Mauritania again, that box has been checked. I very much look forward to Senegal and the celebratory beers with the boys and girls before the flight out.
Hopefully there will be some worthwhile exploits to discuss in the next edition.