Hello,
The Ride Report of the volunteers, and also to do last checks of the route.
Assaf, Mark, and me decided we won't use Sde Boker as a sleeping place.
Instead - We'll go "heavy," with mattresses and bivvy bags and/or blankets and sleeping bag liners.
When we met I realized I was carrying the most, with extra kit of clothes (Assaf and Mark didn't bring any change of clothes...)
As usual, Assaf and Mark started too fast for me to be in a comfortable pace,
and knowing them - I just needed to hang with them until they tire a little, and then they'll continue in a civilized pace...
It seems that a new section was opened near Kdar Sava, around Kalkilya, which makes the route a little shorter.
We said we'll add missing miles at the end of the ride,
and we'll need to come up with a different way to add the missing miles for the main ride.
All went smoothly until Taybe, where there are road works and the road is narrow.
We "Took The Lane," and blocked the cars for a short while, and then we let the cars go through.
Assaf said he got a free coffee shower from one of the cars. I didn't see it.
The road outside of Kalanswa was recently paved, so we continued quickly.
All went quickly till the 1st Control at Caesarea (83 km,) which we reached at 01:15, more than 2 hours before closing.
Turning back, Assaf and Mark continued they fast pace.
They finally slowed down at the 100 km mark.
I was relieved, as it didn't take a too high toll from me, and I was now riding at a comfortable pace. :-)
Kalanswa and Taybe on the way back were quiet - another reason for a 22:00 start.
We
stopped for about 30 minutes at the 2nd Control, HaEla (207 km,) and
took a lot of food to keep us all the way to Urim, about 90 km away.
Mark
went ahead on the hills to Sde Boker, which we only visited for a short
time, and went back out to the fuel station (at about 365 km.)
I changed my clothes, and stashed my dirty clothes. It felt good wearing fresh and clean clothes.
In recent years I began fearing descending too fast,
so I was last on the descent to the Dead Sea, but I quick caught them.
Temperatures were around 33 C, and the coldest it got was 31 C.
We reached Ein Gedi at around 20:45, and after a very short rest we turned around.
We were tired, after more than 500 km and 24 hours from the start, so we thought it was a good time to sleep.
We reached the Dead Sea Promenade and found 3 benches together, and laid down our mattresses and slept for about 4 hours.
I felt rested when I woke up, and it took us a while to get ready to roll.
We
went into the Ein Bokek fuel station and had breakfast and bought water
and filled our water bottles (the faucet water isn't pottable!)
On the climb out of the Dead Sea - Mark was first as usual, and I was a little behind him.
Assaf was a little while behind me, and we waited for him at the top, and continue when he arrived.
I
had enough water to get me through to Yeroham, but Assaf and Mark were
running low on water, so we went into the Rotem factories to fill water.
There
was hardly any head wind in the Large Crater, and we were soon having
breakfast in the Yeroham fuel station (100 meters off route, a little
north of the large roundabout at the exit from Yeroham.)
Another short stop in the Sde Boker Control, and we continued without stopping to Mizpe Ramon, where we had lunch.
We
sort of rode together the 60 km to Zihor, as every now and then someone
stopped by the side of the road, or descended slowly, or climb slowly.
We
reached the Shizafon Inn about an hour after closing time, and even
though we had enough water to get us to Eilat - They were kind enough to
let us fill our water bottles.
The descent to Eilat was in the dark, and after a short Control, we decided on Shawarma for supper.
I said we should find a hostel and shower and sleep in a bed, but they wanted to go, so we went.
There
was considerable head wind out of Eilat, and after about 30 minutes and
less than 10 km everybody wanted to sleep. It was around 23:00.
We found a small grove and slept on our mattresses on the ground.
Temperatures were around 19 C but we were tired and felt very cold.
We slept for about 4 hours, and went on.
There was hardly any head wind at around 04:00 am, but we were tired, so we rode slowly.
Nothing was open at Yotvata, and we reached the Shizafon Inn at opening time: 07:00 am.
I
took 3 liters of water for the 86 km from Shizafon to Mizpe Ramon,
which includes 2 big climbs (Shdema and the climb out of the Ramon
Crater to Mizpe Ramon.)
We had a long stop in Mizpe Ramon, and started the finish time calculations.
Things were looking good, and we thought of finishing that night, around 02:00 am.
However...
When
we turned to Road 222, which is 34 km going down, and which we usually
ride (a lot) above 30 km/h, we felt a strong head wind.
It took us almost 2 hours to ride that section, and by the time we reached Urim we were tired, and had another long stop.
So we decided to sleep that night, and finish in the morning.
We found a grove which had some shallow brick walls, which protected us from the cold.
But it was still cold, so we got all our sleeping gear out.
I slept in a bivvy on a mattress, and was nice and warm.
It was 17 C when we went to sleep, and 15 C when we woke up.
We had a lot of time in hand, so we slept for 6 hours. :-)
When we woke up we were cold, but when we started riding we felt better.
Around Nachshon we saw many road riders, as expected, and felt really good for the last stretch home,
which we did in a gentle pace.
We reached Tel Aviv on a holiday morning, and the streets were pretty quiet.
When we reached the official finish line I did the calculations and realized I have about 1 km missing,
which I covered by going north and south again.
Links:
*) Assaf's Strava
*) Assaf's Ride Report (Hebrew, Facebook)
*) Mark's Strava
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