12.12
Sorry for not getting an update sooner – its been a CRAZY week. After arriving and getting all the baggage drama settled, our attention quickly turned to Stage 1. It looked to be an exciting stage based on the four times I had driven the road in the past two days.
Rick and I arrived at the start at 9:00 as scheduled only to find that the race was “delayed”. We were sure that had the same meaning here as back in the states. Well… we sat, and sat, and sat some more till about 12:00 when they rushed Rick and I back into the race official’s office asking if we had passports. Of course we did, (how else did we get here?) – but just not on us… those three pockets in the back only hold so much right? Reluctantly they told us we could start the race (we thought). It turns out that there are different forces here at work in Uganda regarding cycling – it seems the person who is over cycling in Uganda called the police to tell them not to let the race go on. So we sat some more – finally at 2:00 they canceled the race for the day.
The next day Pastor David and I woke at 4:00am to drive to Kampala (again) to meet with the police to argue our case for letting the race go on. After meeting with three or four officials we finally met with the big muckity muck who said “Cycling is a sport, no one can tell you to not to ride”. So he called the police back in Jinja to order them to allow the race. After much drama and a day late… Stage 1 began. Just without Rick and I, but we were comfortable sitting it out and being spectators.
Now for the crazy part…
In order to provide traffic security and protection for the racers on this crazy road they had a police escort, support vehicles and motorcycle escorts (lots of motorcycles). In fact, so many that they often were the main attraction. It was like having Hells Angels as a race support team.
The race went out of town in following a preplanned route and was supposed to return via the same route and up to the finishing stretch in the same direction. But I think the motorcycles didn’t read the memo because some of them came up the finish chute in one direction and others came down the chute head on in the opposite direction.
So there we are expecting the racers to come one direction and then suddenly at the last second they appear from an opposite direction with the motorcycles and bikes fighting for position. I think a few bikes and motorcycles swapped paint, but no one was hurt. Amazing!!
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