Ten riders arrived Friday, and as mentioned I put them up at the "Saint Jean Batiste Center" across from the RC Church. Very nice place, clean inexpensive, hot water and good food. It was about $22/person/night including three meals! I let one local rider eat with the riders while they were here. They left today Monday back to Kigali, I went half way with them.

The riders all had packs, (you will see the photos), all rode together the 78 miles from Kigali, one rode with tennis shoes and three others had just toeclips and sort of soccer shoes. All the bikes with the exception of Adrie''s and Rafiki''s bike were from the 80''s, with mismatches of parts, wheels and components, one still had a five speed straight block with the last gear not acessable. And again all but Rafiki and Adrie had brutal positions, either too long, seat wacky or something like that. Surprisingly most of the seat heights were pretty good. I was afraid to adjust anything and refrained because it was apparent that if I touched anything on their bikes it would lead to a complete disaster that I did not have the parts to remedy. Many seatposts had shims, the allen key binder bolts had long been replaced by rusty bolts and nuts, I had the misfortune of trying to switch pedals on one bike and found that the axle was welded to the crankarm and was unthreading the threads as I was removing it, whoa, I stopped in time luckly. I am amazed that they are able to brake or shift, I don''t think th at the chains have ever been changed and the pads are long from being original. I was surprised to see Campy brakes and Campy parts on the Eddy Merckx''s though they were being held from vibrating by rubber bands.

All of the riders were very happy and excited (visibly) to be in Butare and to be participants in the weekend of riding and testing. Saturday afternoon I took the riders on an easy 2.5 hr ride to Burundi and back, at first the tendency was to start hammering away but I was able to make them understand that after the 6400ft of climbing 78miles with their packs they would need a rest day for the testing and the ride on Sunday. They calmed down and we had a great ride.

I sent Said off for some extra water and bananas for the riders and when he came back they were almost dumbfounded when we gave them each a big water bottle for their rooms, I don''t think they were accustomed to it.

The next rendezvous was Sunday morning at 09:00 at the center, there appeared 4 more local riders from Butare who had heard about the ride and testing and wanted to be part of it. I arranged for an additional test for them on Wed. morning.

The testing was behind Tim and Michelle''s house, the riders were very involved in all that went on. It was very surprising to see. After I prepared one bike on the computrainer they did all the rest of the bike setups on the trainer. Adrie stood in front of each rider that was being tested telling him his cadence and coaching him through. As many as could sat next to me watching the computer and all were very curious to understand what all the numbers meant, those that could not watch encouraged the riders on the test.

At one point I said that the riders that were finished could return to the hotel for food and rest but all refused and said that they wanted to be part of the whole thing. It was very visible that they were all part of a family and all were really interested in each other. I could not see any selfish tendency in any of them which was remarkable.

Before the actual AT (Anerobic Threshold-Conconi) test I examined each riders pedal stroke with the Computrainers "SpinScan" software. It was very useful and I was able to confirm those with the exceptional AT test numbers with exceptional "SpinScan" numbers. There were some that were very unusual talent, over 5watts/kg and with light builds which would equate into awesome climbers!

Adrie scores high on AT test.

This was confirmed again in the afternoon when they dropped me on the long climb on our 40mile ride, they had me at my AT for over 30min before I finally blew! They did it again on the last hill coming into town. Those numbers would make them competitive in international competitions, what is yet to see is how they fair in long distances. I am very encouraged by their numbers and am relieved that what we all saw last September was not an illusion or over optimistic zeal! They are competitive (in nature) riders, they make do with what limited equipment and apparel they have, they do not complain and do not make excuses. They do not beg and when something is given to them or done for them they are visibly very appreciative. I would say that most if not all have serious scars, they are for the most part quiet natured and excellent to work with. We practiced a double pace line on both Sunday and today, and a echelon today. By the end of the sessions they were all getting the nack of it, impressive learning ability in such a short time. These riders are accustomed to being in a "survival" mode, whether it being in life or on the bike finding that "sweet" spot behind the rider in front of you blocking the wind.

This morning Monday I met the riders at the Saint Jean Batiste Center at 09:30, they were all ready for the ride with all the pack stuffed, I brought some shoes for some of the riders, wow I do not think that they have ever had "new" shoes let alone current year shoes!! thank you Lee Kats and Lake Sport. There has been one rider from Butare that has been with us the whole time, he has been eating with the riders since the start and has one of the most die hard characters I have ever seen. He is over 6'', skinny as a rail, size 12-13 shoes (tennis), bandana, Mr Cool sunglasses, bike that would not even be able to be given away at a garage sale, full smile every time I look at him. Sometimes its probably a grimace masqueradeing as a smile. He eventually gets dropped on the hills but when things slow down a bit or we stop for a flat there he is and he hangs on till he gets dropped again. He is brutally strong and completely clue less on gears, wind, cadence, pace lines or even hazards, he now has a very fitting nickname of "Rambo" and you just have to love the guy he is without a doubt a survivor. I hope I can get him into some shoes pedals and perhaps someday a decent bike. He watched all the riders get tested yesterday and will be back on Wednesday to be tested himself.

We left Butare today and headed to Kigali, 78miles with 5800'' of climbing, all loaded with backpacks. While I was with them we did a double pace line followed up with a single pace line back to a double and finished with a single before I turned around to head back to Butare leaving them to continue on. Right before I turned around we stopped at a roadside stand to get bananas for the rest of the ride, these riders start empty, ride empty and finish empty! They all cheered when I said we were going to stop and I was going to get them some imineke''s (banana''s), it was even more of a scene and comedy watching Rafiki bartering for bananas for 11 hungry cyclists!! I am glad that I got some photos of the scene, in moments we were surrounded by what it seemed like the whole village, and there Rafiki was taking bunch after bunch putting them at his feet and haggling with the seller, by the end we had a huge pile of bananas and a happy merchant with hundreds (probably not that many) of onlookers cheering.

We went down the road to a quieter place, took a team photo and both went our own ways. I will see some of them next weekend. I had a good talk to Vedaste, he had talked to the "Minister" don''t know exactly which one he was referring to but he was different that the last one he was talking with. He (the Minister) was very very supportive of our project and was going to inform the President Kagami of what we are doing. With the positive information that I gave Vedaste of the weekend rides and tests he said that that the "Minister" will be even more enthused about the project. Vedaste also said that he will be able to come with us to South Africa which is a very good thing.

The plan is that four of the riders with the best test/promise results will return here on Friday to ride here until Monday and return back to Kigali. Some of the local riders will accompany us but it will give us a better time to go on some solid rides without the testing and other distractions. By then I should have a good training plan for them and be able to send them back with some heart monitors so that I can keep track of their progress during the week.