Cycling Beirut

Being the only one from Morocco is quite intimidating…It seemed to me that all the other participants knew each other from diapers-days and thinking about the last time I had approached a woman to socialize, I found myself looking for memories close to diapers-days too…Not that I am not the socializing kind but socializing with the opposite sex is just way easier (probably because it is way more practiced). I was thinking about a nice/catchy/ womanish conversation subject (ie. Pads vs. Tampons while cycling, recommendations on sunscreen protection factor – yeah I know, so “cliché”) when I heard a “Hey! What’s your name?” behind me.

My first cycling buddy - a young woman my age - is from Barcelona and shows off proudly, along with her team, her belonging to Catalonia, which is no big surprise, given Catalonians’ propensity to clearly mark their cultural difference with the rest of the peninsula. Followed the introduction to the other lovely Catalonians and my official adoption - a few minutes later - by the team :-)

My bike!

Having one woman choose a bike (or anything else) can be very challenging...Now, getting 250 WOMEN to try different sizes of bikes and make sure the one they pick works fine is a true CHAOS but looooooooooots of fun :-)

I think that our "MEN" (Beirut by bike team) deserve a special tribute. You guys ROCK!

I could, somehow or other find my way to my companion for the upcoming weeks and, size-checking and cycling-testing processes done, I couldn’t wait to start the journey!