Tuesday, August 25, 2009

Day 1 - Dili to Baucau

DAY 1: Dili – Baucau 130km

PAUL PIAIA'S BLOG:
The President Jose Ramos Horta welcomed all the competitors and gave us a steering speech at the newly finished Presidential Palace before we were lead out to the main road to the start line where thousands of Timorese had lined the first 10 kms of road out of Dili. Anticipation was high at the start line as 5 days of hard racing beconned. Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao slowly made his way through the crowd to start the race as the Timorese cheered him like a rock star.

The first stage was the longest of the five, traversing 130 kilometers along the northern coastal road from Dili to Baucau and the weather was very hot, atleast 30 degrees. A mostly flat stage with 2 climbs and one long steady climb at the end before flattening out and a short descend into Baucau at the finish line.

At the start line, competitors bunched up together, moving closer and closer together as  the nerves got worse and worse waiting for the start. Suddenly there was a big shot and the guys up the front began to move. Everyone quickly clipped in and slowly took off as people jostled for a clear line. Locals cheered as we snaked our way through the Dili streets. People yelled “Viva Timor-Leste” and “malay, malay” (foreigner foreigner). Once over the big hill out of Dili, the rest of the 100 kms was very exposed wind sweeped bitumen roads with random potholes. The scenery was breathtaking with crystal blue water directly to our left and steep cliffs to our right, both untouched by humans yet the barren hills were stripped of their precious trees centuries ago by the Portuguese. Being flat and exposed it was important to stay in packs as long as possible and take turns up the front rather than going alone, using too much energy and being caught anyway.

There were 25 Timor riders who tried really hard but had only been given new bikes the week before and only received clip in shoes the day before. One guy had even taken off his clip in shoes and ridden with socks because they hurt too much. These guys were as hard as nails and a lot of this was new to them. Unfortunately they didn’t carry spare tubes or anything, so when they had a flat tyre they had to wait for someone else to help them.  The only female Timorese rider was one of the jolliest people I had ever met. She spoke some English and giggled and laughed when ever I asked her some questions, I got the feeling she was happy just to go with the flow and see what happened. She even had an unorthodox riding position where she held onto the forks, yes the forks, to get down as low as she could, but I thought that was very dangerous with all the potholes everywhere and I don’t know what she would have done if she hit one or had to swerve suddenly, which happen often, but they were some of the seldom people that had actually ridden the whole course and were certainly acclimatized, which was a big advantage.
Being a road race with MTB’s, most riders were mountain bike riders unaccustomed to riding in packs so it was difficult to get people to work together and more importantly sign for potholes or other obstacles and to this effect there were numerous broken bones during the race. One poor lad broke his hip in the first 20kms of the first day. Not the kind of place you wanted to go to hospital in!!!

At the 120km mark the 10km climb to Baucau began. The shade of the trees along the climb gave somerespite from the harsh midday sun and the downhill finish to Baucau was exhilarating and again people had lined the streets to cheer us on to the finish line.

TEAM BLOG:
Seemed as if all of Dili had turned out, the streets awash with colour and crowds. A presidential send off reinforced the importance of the race to Timor L’Este. This soon developed into, "a long, challenging day with no let up",in Paul’s words. Piotr summed up the challenge for himself, Frank and Matt: “big unknown! I have not been in a bike race before and didn’t know what to expect”. All 4 finished safely and congrats to Piotr who finished in 40th overall position.


The race start


Xanana Gusmao watches the race start

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