Chickleta - My SBRing and other Adventures

“And there was evening and there was morning, the first day.” (Genesis 1:5) . Yes, I’m being a little biblical here, not only because the race setting warrants that. But also because there was almost no day II, and imagine what the world would look like without day two?   Timna Park (Gali - thanks for the photo) As it turned out, the blood donation that I left to the desert on Stage I (if you missed that post - here is the link Samarathon Part I ) was a little more serious than it looked like at first. By late afternoon, I could barely stand on my leg or bend my knee, which by then was nicely swollen. I was questioning being able to ride in Stage II. Thanks to the help of a few new friends (special thanks to Moran, Rami and Nimi), I was lucky enough to have woken up in less pain, so despite a rainy night and a very early wake up, I decided to give it a try. Although, I must admit that the thought of crawling back to bed did cross my mind.    Good morning race village.

I was invited to cover a race in Israel called Samarathon for BikePanel magazine this winter and I needed to write an article covering each stage immediately after the stage ended (a different kind of challenge that I am not sure I’d want to repeat). As such, this blog post includes more than just my race report. It also includes information about the race in case this post inspires you to sign up (and I sure hope it does). Like I did with my BCBR post, it also includes my realizations and thoughts about the race in comparison to other stage races I took part in. So here goes.       Ma'ale Qetura - start of the first climb of the day What is Samarathon 2018 was the 4th edition of Samarathon . Yes, I did not misspell it Google, this is how this 3 day mountain bike marathon stage race in the Israeli desert is called. It takes place in the south end of this small country, or as the race organizers calls it in the “wilderness” of the Negev and Southern Arava Desert. The