Welcome to Ashgabat
Welcome to Ashgabat, home of huge highways, marble clad buildings adorned in gold and the most water fountains I have ever seen - not to mention the paved footpath of health that was built for the politicians to walk on to improve both their fitness and well-being! Don't mention the helicopter pick up at the top though! Today was a blissfully flat ride along blissfully smooth pavement with blissfully hot temperatures and a blissfully pleasant and fun lunch stop and finished off with a blissfully fast ride into town. Due to the lack of traffic, it was deemed safe enough NOT to do a convoy. Most riders were off at the crack of dawn and were pedalling madly down the highway as the sun rose. The incentive was to avoid the heat and get to town early. As tomorrow is a rest day they wanted to get any chores done today! The whole riding group plus the trucks were in by 2.30pm! Once again, our Turkmenistan support crew were in full force on the road. The riders were churning up the pavement and not wasting much time except at the cold drink stops. Now that we are here in Ashgabat, bikes are getting cleaned, internet cafes are getting swamped (dial up is a time killer in this town!), our sick riders are resting up and most are trying to muster up some energy to attend the 'boat party' tonight. We also bid a sad farwell to two of our sectionals Bill and Paul, who leave us here. Both have been loads of fun and, as always, we are sad to see them go and we will miss the flying flanelette shirt of Paul D!
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Posted September 01, 2007 by Field Writer
Turkmenistan |
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