I’ve followed Fabien Barel’s Urge events for the last couple of years. Mainly because friends have been racing in them, but also because its one of a kind invite only format is something fresh to MTB and the whole concept is about giving back. If you know nothing about the Urge events then you should head here to read how they help the communitys where they are run (2009 was Kenya, 2010 was Nepal). The rider list this year is by far the best and most rounded yet featuring Fabien Barel himself, Rene Wildhaber, Jerome Clementz, Anka Martin, Rowen Sorrell, Sabrina Jonnier, Nicolas Vouilloz, Tracy Moseley, Mark Weir and Hans Rey plus a few other random Euros. It’s all underway now, five days of riding, four timed runs in total, more than 6000m vertical drop, no pre-ride checks, one run on the Fogo island with the starting point close to the volcano peak at 2900m high, three runs on the Santo Antao island on three different tracks. and the riders can expect single tracks, volcano steepness, hairpin turns, more hairpin turns and a lot of extremely technical riding.
Monday, February the 7th.
Riders and staff met at Charles de Gaulle airport to fly to Praia, capital of Cape Verde…
First episode: Hans Rey’s bike hasn’t arrived, it is somewhere between Los Angeles and Paris… we need to find a plan B…
Landed on the archipelago around 3 in the afternoon, then to the hotel, first brief and discovery the city.
Program for Tuesday: meeting at the Pedro Gomez School with the children and the managers of two of the four associations Urge Cabo Verde will support. Then we board bikes and people on a boat to the… Fogo volcano, island where the first race will take place on Thursday…
To be continued…
The Urge Cabo Verde has three major goals: 1. To make the riders live a extraordinary adventure where humility and solidarity are as much important as performances, and to share these moments with you. 2. To make the participants discover, around the world, an unknown destination, a magnificent nature and a different culture. All of this to allow you to discover these superb spots and to help the host country in developing through MTB a new kind of eco-friendly tourism, in developing new professions and new activities for the people of Cape Verde. 3. To collect, thanks to our common passion, the maximum amount of money that will help in the long term the work of NGO and charities in Cape Verde. So Urge Cabo Verde doesn’t intend to make direct benefits for any of its participants. Benefits will fully be given to programs supported by “Urge FOR Cabo Verde”.
