Urge Capo Verde – Part 1
Having been a team mate of Fabien Barel’s for 5 years I have been aware of his 2 previous Urge Trips to Kenya and Nepal and this year when he asked me if I would like to join in on the adventure I jumped at the chance. The thought of combining enduro type downhill riding, with a real adventure to a remote place along with the opportunity to also raise money for the place we were going to visit really appealed to me. Fabien invited 15 riders from across the world to take part in this trip to Cape Verde. It was a great mix of riders and personalities all with the same passion for riding our bikes. We all met up in Paris to make the 7 hr flight to Praia, the capital of the Islands.
Travelling with 17 bike bags and kit bags was going to be a challenge all week, but soon it was obvious that all we would need was a pick up, some good stacking and a good bit of string !!
One of the big differences about this trip is the aspect of giving something back to the place we visit and money has been raised by each rider by giving something to be auctioned. The money is going to be given to 4 different organisations to help with education and learning opportunities across the 4 islands we visited. We had the opportunity to visit one of the schools in Praia to see where 40% of the money would be spent on helping children get to school and being able to offer them hot food when at school. We had such a warm welcome at the school and I was made to feel very inadequate about my inability to speak another language when some of the children welcomed us in French and English with an amazing grasp of the language ! It really did put me to shame with all the opportunities we have I still can’t speak another language...
It was then time to travel to Fogo, an island to the south to the site of our first race. Unfortunately the planes between islands were too small to carry all our bikes, so we had to take a 3hr ferry to get to the island. Not only was loading the ferry an experience as there did not seem to be any queuing system, it was just a free for all. We then had to endure the roughest most unpleasant boat trip I have ever experienced! Sick bags were in plentiful supply and getting much use !
Fogo is an island entirely made up of one big volcano. We headed straight up to the site of the old crater where would base ourselves in the tiny village for the next 2 days. We woke up to an amazing view, the site of our first race.....the top of the volcano
The whole week was on a tight schedule, up at 7am and out on the bikes by 8am. I started calling it ‘Fabien’s boot camp’ by the end of the week as we were definitely getting out through our paces ! The first race was going to be the longest, starting on the upper slopes of the volcano and finishing down by the sea. In order to start the race we had to hike the volcano. 2 hrs later with bikes on our backs we finally made it to the start line.
It was the toughest climb I have ever done with my bike as the volcanic rock was so slippery that every step you took you slid back down half a step, so progress was slow ! Once we reached the start point we left our bikes and then continued to hike up the rocks to the summit of the volcano for a group photo and some amazing views !
Once back down to the bikes it was race time. Trying to see the line that you might take was not easy looking down from such a height as it all looked the same. Luckily I was about 9th to go so I had chance to watch a few people before me and work out what looked like the best line ! Setting off on the volcano was an amazing sensation as I really did not know what to expect ! It was surprisingly quite easy to control, however the speed that you picked up when you let the brakes off was crazy ! Once we navigated our way off the steep slopes of the volcano we joined a small path which was pretty tough to follow onto a fire road which we then followed into the 
village and 5km around the base of the old crater. The road was pretty flat and rough and required some good pedalling, it actually felt quite nice to stretch my legs after all the walking that morning !! Once at the edge of the crater the gradient dropped away sharply and we entered a singletrack trail that would take us all the way down to the sea. The trails was gnarly right from the start ! After a lot of rain this winter the trail had been washed away a lot and logs had been put in to try and stop the soil running down the hillside, so it turned into log steps for what seemed like the next hour !! It was brutal, step, after step, with all the biggest ones just after a hairpin corner, just to make it more challenging !! It really was a test of endurance and strength and by the end of the 45min ordeal I was truly dead !
I managed to put together a decent run and ended up with a time of 46.08mins, 8th overall and 1st in the women’s race with a lead of around 10mins. With the accumulation of all 4 race run times I was starting off with a good lead.
Straight after the race it was time to have a great feast at a local restaurant and then pack up the bikes. The final ordeal of the day was yet still to come....the cold shower by headlamp ! With no hot water on the island and limited electricity, every night there would be screams coming from the showers as one by one we braved a shower ! It was certainly refreshing and I just had to keep telling myself it was just like having an ice bath, the perfect recovery !!