Photos: Day 1

We left the Park Rotana hotel early in the morning to be transferred to the Abu Dhabi beachfront for the start. Once there we had time to prep our bikes and also our sea kayaks; we would be starting the long paddle stage to an off-shore island after the high-paced prologue.

Francois and Christo waiting for the bus to leave the hotel

Boats on the beach; city as the backdrop

Getting our sea kayaks ready

Ready to ride! We had a really good prologue bike section. The race provides these Cannondale bikes. Some teams did bring their own bikes; most used the race's bikes. They are provided in various sizes.

After the prologue: eating sandwiches and chatting to photographer friend Wouter Kingma.

Arriving on the overnight island

Yay! Paddling part 1 completed. 30km to our bivouac island.

'Informal settlement' on the island

Christo and I bought this at a local supermarket, thinking it would make a nice addition to our island bring-your-own dinner. This stuff is ghastly! It's like 90% with bits of something mixed in and is totally revolting and unpalatable. Yuck! It's amazing things like this make it on to shelves - yet some people must like it???