The plan: 5000 miles to Amsterdam, 12-hour layover, 7500 miles to Johannesburg, South Africa.

    Well to say the least, my longest flight ever was a 4 hour flight from Portland to Philly. So I didn't know what to expect on the flight to Europe. It was actually a great flight, I highly recommend KLM, and I arrived in Amsterdam at 8am. I left Houston at 4pm so it felt like midnight.

    I find my way to the center of the airport and after talking to a guy from America I find out where to get a ticket to the center of the city and where I can store my backpack. Amsterdam is a beautiful city with well over 100 canals. I end up taking a canal cruse to see the sites and find an internet café to warm up in as it is really cold, 50 degrees and rainning. After a small lunch I return to the airport and wait for my flight out at 8pm. I hear news of the crashed plane in NYC and I am glad that it happened after I landed in Europe so my mom would worry as much. I get on the plane after 28+ hours of no sleep and immediately pass out after dinner.

    I arrive in J'Burg (for some reason no one calls this city Johannesburg) a little late and see my friend Sheldon outside the international arrivals gate. We proceed to move two very big bike boxes around the airport to his car. I begin to be a little worried as one box has some bad damage along the side and it torn on the top. Come to find out everything was find and no broken bikes or parts Sheldon pulls up his car and we load the bike boxes. I proceed to the "passenger" side of the car only to find a steering wheel. Oh yea, that whole left side of the road thing. (This will be my first of many times going to the wrong side).

    As we are driving I find J'Burg to be very much the metropolitan area I have read about. We arrive at Sheldon's parents house in Bassonia, and area to the south-west of the the city center. This area of South Africa is very green with grass and shrubs contrasted by a rich red-brown dirt. For those of you who don't know, Sheldon Bole is a friend of mine from the summer of 2000 in Trexlertown, PA. We lived together for a short bit while we were there and became very good friends. He is currently helping to run his fathers glove business.

    So what should I write about South Africa ... well for starters it has 11 nationally recognized languages. The most prevalent are Afrikaans, Dutch, English and Zulu. The weather is well to say the least rainny. It rains here almost every afternoon and has been a bit chilly lately, but I have been told the rain is a lot heavier than normal and it will warm up very soon. The cost of living is much less than in the US, well that is for someone coming from America. The Rand (South Africa's currency) has been very much weakened to the dollar of the last six year. It has gone from a 1 to 3 ratio, to a 1 to 10 ratio now. I went out to the movies at a cost of 14 Rand, or about $1.40, and my dinner the other night was 53 Rand, or about $5.30 for a Café Mocha, dinner and desert.

    The riding is going to be great here. The area is full of cyclists and has many great training routes. Unfortunately for your average Houstonian, it's quite hilly. Growing up with overpasses as my biggest hills to overcome and now the climb up to the house I am at is well over a 1 kilometer long and about 15% grade. So this brings me to the first race I have done in South Africa. The 94.7, named after the sponsoring radio station, is the biggest race to take place in the Johannesburg area the whole time I am here. So I decide to do it with little preparation because of a month and half rest period and no hard training. Boy was I in for a surprise.

    The race was an awesome sight, 450 licensed riders and 9000+ recreational riders doing a 94.7 kilometer course. The event promoters flew in Phil Ligget to do the race announcing and we started with him only feet away from me. That was the highlight of my 'race'. I start and move to the front of the field to avoid the people who are getting shelled from the start. I make it up the first hill and think, "Wow, my heart rate is getting pretty high!" The second hill, "Am I really breathing this hard, my legs hurt!" The third hill, "Why are those riders going so fast? Wait am I going backwards? It is good to feel your heart though your neck?" So to say the least my race was over by 10k into the race. I then proceeded to ride the rest of the route avoiding the riders who are "racing" for a time.

    To say it simply, I have done more climbing today than all of this year combined. The climbs are steep and as long as 3-4k. So my new plan is to train a little more in the hills and lose about 10 pounds quick. How much does a kidney weight? Do I REALLY need two? Just kidding.

    Well that is all for now, I am very tired and need to strech and get some good sleep. Till next time...

-Gregg-