So, what did I dislike about this one? Well, for one, I believe I placed third last (at least I wasn't the last one...). Everyone has an excuse for everything, so here are my excuses:
- I didn't train
- I had a bad bike
- I chose the longer, harder route
The bike was NOT IDEAL. But, given my options at the time, it was the best I could pick, so I'll not complain (especially because the owner of the bike is going to reading this :P ).
And the last of my reasons: I, the idiot that I am, picked the longer route. I had a choice between 137km and 74km. And I chose the 137, because I could. Why not? I died very many times during the rally. My back side is hating me (and dishing out some serious payback) and my legs are planing a mutiny. We'll see, if I can get up tomorrow (I'm not expecting to).
Besides my own stupidity, there was actually another reason as to why I didn't like the rally: people's lack of respect for the environment. At the starting line, I saw that the more serious cyclists had some interesting shirts or bags into which they had stuffed all sorts of edible stuff (at least I think the weird tubes and cigar sized things were edible...). They had also screwed, taped and fixated many other things onto their bikes, like tubes, pumps, lotsa water and other unknown stuff. They were pretty well stocked, I must say! Two minutes into the start, I rode past a pump lying in the middle of the road. It had been ridden over multiple times and was broken. Similarly, once in a while, I'd find a bicycle chain lying on the road and lastly, practically everywhere along the road was the debris of gluttonous eating. Abandoned water bottles, half empty stuff-tubes and sachets of other stuff lay along the entire route. I never got lost because all I had to do was follow the trash trail. It led me to think: so, we're x km from the start. You have carried the full packet all this time. Now that you've emptied it, it's much lighter and takes up less space in your bag/pocket... WHY CAN'T YOU PUT IT INTO THAT SAME POCKET IT CAME FROM??? As much as I know it's the organizers' responsibility to clean up after us, it's much easier for them if we DIDN'T actively throw stuff away.
There's another way of looking at this: why are we in the rally? If your answer is "to train", then you're an idiot. You don't have to be in a rally with an entrance fee of 70+ EUR to train. If it's for the prizes, then I'd say that you're chances of getting any prizes are incredibly slim, if you have so much heavy stuff holding you down. The only reason I found as to why to be in the rally was: to enjoy a competitive ride around a beautiful country. In which case, the sight of abandoned bottles, sachets and tubes (I even saw a pair of socks...) doesn't enhance the view.
Another thing that I failed to understand. One other reason as to why I was among the last was because quite a few people chose to chicken out during the rally. I overheard two people at a water point talking of leaving because things weren't looking good for them. My opinion: Life isn't meant to be easy and things don't always have to look the best for you! I'm sure I'd really want to have a straight, downhill road for 137km. But that would simply not be challenging at all. Where's the fun in that? And once again: people paid quite a bit of money to participate. What's the point of chickening out and letting that money go to waste? So you're not among the leaders. Big deal. With that attitude, you don't deserve to be among the leaders and I'm not sure you deserve to participate at all.
Right, then! I've complained and cursed myself for my stupidity, it's time I had a look at the awesome bits. The first of which: DAMN those organizers were serious! They had police cars patrolling and stuff to keep idiotic motorists at bay and had the entire city ambulance service driving around making sure everyone was alright. AND, they had a firm, that dealt with bikes also on patrol to fix broken down bikes and stuff. I award top marks for that! Next: the water points were the only things that kept me going. I have no idea why I'm calling them water points, because water was not the only thing you got there. There were rehydration drinks, free bottles (full of rehydration drinks with the firm logo on them), rye bread, raisins, bananas, raisin bread, cheese bread, salt... And most of them also had a bike mechanic, who'd fix your bike, should you see the need. One word: AWESOME!
And the ting that just made my day was not by the organizers (though I'm not sure about that...). After the second last food point, someone had spray painted onto the road: "PÄIKE JA RÕÕM!". Translation: "Sunshine and happiness!" and later on, at the top of a hill: "JÕUDU!" trans: "Strength". That someone had taken the time to try and make people happier as they went by was just touching. That was great.
So, to conclude on what I learned:
- I am a crazy idiot.
- People have little regard for the environment.
- Organizers should take a leaf or two from these guys' book
- There are actually people in Estonia, who try to make people
happy (a precious few, but they are there...).
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