Travel and cycling frustration

In my job I travel a lot, mainly to Zambia. I love to travel (cliché – I know) but it does not always work well with my cycling aspirations.

I am going down to Zambia on Wednesday for a short, week-long, trip. As nice as this might sound I am mainly frustrated about all the training which I am going to miss out on. Now you might be thinking, why doesn’t he bring his bike? That’s a relevant question. I have a hard shell bike bag, so that’s no excuse.

Roads in Zambia, however, are not optimal for cycling. To say the least. Frequent potholes and drivers with absolutely no respect for cyclists is not a good combination for relaxed training. It is such a shame, because the climate is really perfect for cycling. So is the altitude (1,300 meters above sea-level) but this is little comfort if one does not feel safe on the road.

No, I just have to live with the fact that I, for the coming ten days, have to resort to running and working out at the gym.

But.

Then a friend sent me an e-mail. Apparently the annual American International School Triathlon is taking place this Saturday. I am almost the reigning champion (I won the event in 2005), so of course I have to participate. 400 meters swimming, 11 km on the bike and a 5 km run. Piece of cake. If I have a bike… Hopefully this will be sorted out by the time I arrive in Zambia on Thursday. And hopefully it will not be an Indian made “Atlas” version (nice looking, but horribly functioning aluminum/steel mix bike). Report will follow. Wish me luck!

PS
A good thing with frequent travels to southern Africa is the possibility to make a stopover in South Africa. I have loose plans to take a trip down to Cape Town next year in March to participate in the Worlds Biggest Cycling Race – the Cycle Tour. 40,000 people ride a scenic route on the Cape peninsula. Never tried it, but it looks spectacular. This year both Greg LeMond and Jan Ullrich participated. And I like to hang out with the stars.