The 1st day was glorious. Alison, our team Rosen coach, calmed our nerves and help ed us with all the pre-ride preparations. I road out of Jerusalem with Tal and Anna. The wind made it cold but in the sun you warmed up. The elevation on the map was mostly downhill so I was suprised with all the uphill elevations. It was challenging. We quickly got off the road and were on trails with very steep downgrades and no guardrails. I took lots of pictures because the vistas were great but scary. I had to walk up some of the steep hills, but the hardest part was braking on the downgrades. I was tired but proud of my accomplishments of the day. I should have brought my feelings faces! The equipment Tal brought worked excellently. No blisters on my hands and while my rear is tired from sitting, I could be much worse without the padded shorts. The lesson for day 1 was compliments help make the hills more tolerable. Sound familiar.


Howard S. Rosen