Tour of Eritrea 2004 Home Cycling in Eritrea | My first race After taking part in the Asmara criterium and Fenkel races with some small degree of success I was persuaded to take part in the Tour of Eritrea. Now in its 4th year the race is the countries biggest sporting event, watched on TV, followed in the newspapers and attracting thousands of spectators each day. The race is gruelling, eight mountainous stages take the riders over 1100 Km, to all zones of Eritrea where they face high altitude (the capital Asmara lies at 2300m) and extreme heat (in the lowland deserts temperatures are 40 C). A strict time limit is imposed on each stage, riders finishing more than 15 minutes after the stage winner are eliminated from the race. Most of the riders compete for one of Eritrea's 6 professional team, other riders are full time individuals or come from regional teams. For two months Eritrea's cyclists had trained every day and thought of nothing else, my training with the country's top team "SC Tele" showed I was going to suffer. Certainly the race was a greater challenge than any of the races I had competed in in the UK. The Eritrean Federation invited two riders from England to compete as my guests, Matt Melville and Alister Kay, both Elite riders in England accepted the challenge. Matt and Al were to arrive the day before the race start, leaving them little time for acclimatisation to the heat or altitude. Sadly Al was unable to board the plane at Heathrow as the Eritrean Embassy had neglected to stamp his visa, leaving Matt and me as the only foreign (and white!) competitors in the race. Prologue In the 8Km prologue time trial I scored what was to be my best result of the race, 12th place - just missing out on the points awarded to the top ten finishers on each stage. Clearly those years of UK time trialling were paying off, the Eritreans being unaccustommed to racing against the clock. Mat struggled in the thin Asmara air - not surprisingly as he had only stepped off the plane 12 hours before! The stage winner was Amanuel Iyassu, beating pre-race favourite Gombolo into second place by three seconds. Gombolo races during the summer months for the Marco Polo team in Holland, together with Habte Waldesimon, the previous year's tour victor who took 7th place in the prologue. Stage 1 - Asmara-Decemhare-Keren 170Km The first stage looked like being one of the toughest, 40Km to Decemhare then returning through Asmara to Keren. The route featured numerous climbs, a 20Km descent before Keren and no flat roads the entire day. Out of Asmara the pace was "steady" and I sat comfortably in the bunch, trying to warn Matt of the upcoming climbs and potholes. An early breakaway group of 10 riders moved away after only 20Km. At Decemhare they already had a lead of 6 minutes and at the finish of the race were still clear, one minute ahead of the bunch, where Matt finished strongly.  The stage was won by Andamariam Mehari, with the tour favourites all finishing out of the points in the main bunch. My day was marred by punctures, seven in all, which left me to struggle in behind the race with a group of other puncture victims.   Stage 1 - Keren-Barentu 140Km After a hectic 5Km descent from Keren we were in the lowlands (although still at an altitude of 1000m). The crossing of the desert was hot hot hot, but at least the road surface was smooth and fast. Strong winds and numerous attacks whittled down the bunch, while the hot roads  meant a continual stream of punctures. With 20K to go the decisive move went clear, and I was in a chasing group as we reached the bottom of the 5Km climb to the finish. The lower altitude and thicker air was agreeing with me as I rode surprisingly strongly up the climb, probably the first time I'd ever passed an Eritrean cyclist on a hill. In the leading group last year's tour winner Habte showed impressive strength to take the victory. Today was Matt's day to suffer with punctures, having to change wheels three times and unable to rejoin the fast moving bunch across the desert. Stage 3 - Barentu-Keren 140Km Matthew woke up violently sick with food poisoning - the perils of racing in the 3rd world. Just about unable to walk, let alone ride he was bundled in the car for the day's return journey to Keren. For me memories of the day are focussed on the heat, above 40 degrees. Team Tele's Michael Misghina (nicknamed Botero after his resemblance to Columbian Santiago) headed off early in a two man breakaway. The heat seemed to even affect the Eritrean riders, who were unwilling to give chase early on. Botero took the stage, with favorites Gombolo, Habte and prologue winner Amanual sprinting it out for 4th, 5th and 6th at the top of a killer 5Km climb into Keren. Stage 4 - Keren-Asmara 91Km Despite being the tour's shortest stage everyone expected the stage to be decisive. The route started at an altitude of 1500m and finished in Asmara at 2300m and included the climb of libetigre a 20Km long epic - with the other 71Km far from flat. The racing was fast from the start over the mountain prime before Elabored. Here the whole of the town population had turned out to see the tour pass, and we were riding through cheers and showers of Popcorn.  On the 20Km climb after 30Km of racing the Asbeco team drove the pace and many riders were spat out the back. I hung on to a second group on the wheel of Tele's Melake who had been unfortunate to puncture near the bottom of the climb. I had certainly never climbed that quick - near the top of the climb I looked down and was amazed to find I was still in the big chain ring. As we reached Adi Tekelezan at the top of the climb we were only a minute behind the back of the main group, with many riders struggling on the climb. Melake was strong enough to bridge the gap to the bunch, the rest of us chased all the way into Asmara, catching some riders dropped from the bunch and finishing 'only' three minutes down on a day which saw about 25 riders eliminated for arriving after the 15 minute time limit. It was a good day for the red sea team, with Habte taking his second stage win and his team-mates in second and third spots. Semere from Tele who finished fourth in the sprint had to be taken to hospital after crashing into an official vehicle parked after the finishing line.   Stage 5 - Asmara-Adi Quala-Asmara-Decemhare 212Km After the rest day in Asmara which I spent eating, sleeping and catching a cold, sore throat, coldsore and dodgy tummy it was time for the 212Km epic. The racing was fast from the bottom of the escarpment after 20Km with numerous breakaway attempts. Strong crosswinds and hard roads split the bunch into groups as we passed Mendefera at 60Km. With 140Km still to go two riders (Angelo and Mussie Goitom) went away on a breakaway of epic proportions. By the 5Km climb of Monguda after 130Km they had a lead of seven minutes.  In the finish Mussie took the stage win from Angelo. After struggling on Mongoda I chased in with the laughing group having ridden the last 55km in pursuit of the bunch. Thenkfully the organisers had mercy on this day and relaxed the 15 minute elimination rule which could well have decimated the already depleted field on such a long day.   Stage 6 - Decemhare-Massawa 140Km Todays race was far from all downhill, despite finishing in the port of Massawa on the Red Sea. After descending 10Km from Decemhare we faced the 4Km climb from Alla at 34Km. This was the springboard for the day's breakaway, with Michael Tuko and Meron Russom escaping on the descent after taking first and second places over the top. I was dropped on the next climb to Nefasit, but rejoined the group at the start of the 40Km descent to Gatelie. The hairpin descent was scary stuff taken flat out by the Eritreans who know the road like the back of their hands. Hanging on down the hill was nearly as much effort as climbing it would be the next day.  Crossing the desert was (unsuprisingly) hot, but team cars were dousing the bunch with water. Once more the return to the lowlands suited me and I was at the head of the bunch as it crossed the causeway into Massawa, just a minute behind the winner Michael.   Stage 7 - Massawa-Asmara 115Km Only 48 survivors lined up in Massawa at the start of what promised to be the tour's toughest stage. 50Km across the desert, followed by a 65Km climb up the stunning escarpment to Asmara - the route would take us from the beach to 2300m. It seems the tour is dominated by long breakaways - only 7Km out o f Massawa Tele's Melake Kahsay took off with two riders for company. Strong riding across the desert built up a good lead and Melake dropped his breakaway companions to take the stage in fine style. Having found my lowlands legs I was working with the Tele team across the desert but as the pace exploded at the bottom of the climb I drifted off the back and rode at my own pace. Steady riding saw me rejoin the bunch after 10 Km and I held on until Nefasit, 25Km from the summit where the road steepens through a series of hairpin bends. I found my way into a group of 10 riders behind the main bunch and we rode steadily to the top, well within the time limit. At the summit we were greeted by thousands of Eritreans and a good number of VSOs cheering us on. I don't think I've ever been so glad to see the finish of a race, my high spirits only tempered slightly by the thought of tomorow's criterium.   Stage 8 - Asmara Criterium 130Km There were just 46 survivors left to start the criterium, held over 92 laps around September 1st square in Asmara. On seide of the square is a stadium, built by Ethiopian ruler Haile Selase to accommodate the spectators for his military parades. Not the stadium was host to ten thousand Eritrean cycling fans. The main prizes were all decided, Habte had an unassailable lead overall and, with no mountains to climb today, Gombolo stood to take the King of the mountains jersey for the third time. The racing was fast, 47 Km covered in the first hour. I was glued onto the back of the bunch, unable to move up the line, but the pace was telling, with 30 laps to go there were only 28 riders left and I even got carried away and managed an (extremely short lived) attack. The only successful break of the race was a three man effort of Mussie Ghrmay from Adulis, Yonas Mengstu from Tele and Tesfagaber Duruy from Debub zone. With 12 laps remaining, when I was beginning to believe I was actually going to finish a roar from the crowd behind heralded the approach of the breakaway to lap the bunch, eliminating all but 8 of the riders. Yonas went on to take the stage, crowning a glorious tour for the Tele team, who took four stage victories, had Gombolo finish Ambasa nie gobo and finished 41 points clear in the team classification. Only the overall victory evaded them, Habte's two stage victories and five top ten standings proved him the dominant rider of the tour.