Cameroon Day 3

Morning of the Prologue
(Click on pics for larger image)

This is it yo, the big day. The start of the UCI Africa Tour 2.2 Grand Prix Chantal Biya.

After possibly the weekest breakfast I have ever seen, we were going to go for a much needed ride to loosen the legs up a little bit. But by the time we got up to our rooms and got ourselves sorted, it was looking rainny. Some of the guys from the other teams went out, and it was wasn’t long before we were standing on our balcony laughing at them as they headed back for the hotel as quickly as possible, it was raining. And when it rains over there, it rains!

A group goes for a spin, but ends up rushing home due to tropical rain.

With the rain lasting almost all day, and what with it being the end of the season and all, we quite frankly could not be botherd to get out there and ride. So in the end we didn’t touch the bikes until the evening Elimination Criterium. But before we got to the crit, while out on our balcony watching the rain fall, we noticed a couple of things.

1) at the foot of our hotel, just to the right of our balcony was a proper, full on shanty-town. It was actually quite interesting to see how they lived, what they did durring the times of strong rain, and just seeing what the “houses” were made of.

Proper Shanty-Town...

2) looking over to the balcony immediately beside ours, we realised these things might not be the strongest things around, the neighbour’s balcony had a massive crack down the side. Recently in Paris a series of balconies fell because they had been build out of straight concrete, no reinforced metal bars… and seeing how everything else was built around here, we suddenly lost all confidence in our balcony.

Don't jump on the Balcony kids...

3) to our left, over on another Balcony was Adrien. Adrien Calatayud is one of our teammates. He’s a first year Espoir. He won 8 races as a Junior last year and is a bloody good rider. He’s had a rough year this season, with 2 broken ankles, and a short break from riding due to his end of school exams. But look out for him, he loves foreign countries and cultures, and is a very good young rider. We hope to take him to the Tour of Virginia this year, a race which is slowly moddling itself on the Tour de L’Avenir (ie: a race to showcase Espoir (Under 23) riders)

Adrien Calatayud in full Balconty trust action