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| From left: John Bonalos, me, William Yerro, Maricar Estacio, Andrej Filip, Saad Ferzam |
When I was informed by my colleague, John, to do a race simulation ride at Khor Al Adaid, immediately I said "yes"! Indeed I was excited for two reasons. Firstly, my instinct of joy to ride and the next in mind was to scrutinize my level of capacity whether to push my limited limits to survive when the race comes. On the other hand however, I could have another two reasons as well. The advantage of familiarizing the terrain and to decide whether to push through with joining the race or quit. But hey, I've done the registration and already paid my entry fee which only meant there will be no turning back!
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A few km from the start point, ahead of us will be the ocean of sands and rolling dunes.
OK, I'm ready!
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Armed with excitement and thrill, we were all set and start pedaling. The weather was just fine and notwithstanding what lies ahead, my fear was far beyond hesitation - that's because we had a couple of four by four vehicle support that would back us up.
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| Midway of the route are waves of dunes. |
Traversing the vast northern desert left us no choice but to dismount and push our mountain bikes. This is where my leg muscles started to feel tensions. Running or just walking on dry sands will immediately consume your energy let alone climbing and descending on hilly dunes. The good side however, the sun was still kind to us and the wind still showed comfort from time to time.
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| A selfie with Egay. I tried to hold my breath for a while and managed to smile for this. |
While in the middle of the desert, Egay got down from the support vehicle and did a selfie shot just in time when I was approaching near him. Of course I needed to smile and pretend to look smart, pretty smart for me not to be closer otherwise the photo will reveal my pretensions.
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| This wasn't a selfie shot but this time the photo revealed my low inertia but the photo-bomber at the back was still in high spirit. No wonder, she's Maricar Estacio - a DH and Enduro goddess in her time! |
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It seemed that Saad was regulating his tire pressure and Eddie offered help while John and Andrej were checking the GPS.
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| The final stage at last! |
The good news? We all managed to reach the finish line! Not on a race-pace though but doing the simulation was just good as doing the actual race.
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| Happy together while going back en-route to where we parked our cars. |
A big thanks to the two big guys from Qatar cycling Federation (QCF) who gave us the opportunity to be part of this mission: Mr. Andrej Filip and Mr. John Bonalos, the Event Director and Operations Director respectively of the Al Adaid Desert Challenge 2018. A big shout of course to Eddie Padilla and Edgard "Egay" Galang for the lift and support.
The Riders: Andrej Filip, Maricar Estacio, William Yerro, Saad Ferzam, Me
Photo Credits: John Bonalos, Eddie Padilla, Egay Galang
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