Today’s endurance ride of 240 km, is taking Foster Clark LifeCycle Challenge from Ibri to Oman’s city of Nizwa. This is another mountainous route. The LifeCyclists will climb from an initial elevation of 350 meters to a maximum elevation of 1,000 meters, with plenty of undulations and hill along the way, and no doubt, in scorching heat. 

Yesterday the Foster Clark Lifecycle Challenge team of 33 crossed the Jebel Hafeet border between the United Arab Emirates and Oman. They set off at 5.00am from Al Ain and made their way from the desert planes of UAE to the mountains and wadis of Oman, the land of frankincense. Crossing the border went smoothly with the team commenting on the friendliness of the people. 

The cyclists took 8 hours to reach their destination for the night in Ibri. The day’s temperature was again 41 degrees celsius. One of the cyclists had to get off his bike due to stomach cramps. The team’s morale is high but apprehensive, with ‘brutal’ being the word of the day.

“The rigorous training for any challenge still doesn’t fully prepare you for such an intense and extreme challenge. And the blazing heat is proving to be a significant hurdle,” commented Dr Shirley Cefai, LifeCycle (Malta) Foundation Chairperson and herself a cyclist for the third time.

For the past 19 years, LifeCycle Challenge has been raising money to help with the needs and care of kidney disease patients.  LifeCycle (Malta) Foundation also supports research study at the University of Malta and generates further awareness on organ donations and organ transplants.

Donations can be also pledged online on www.lifecyclechallenge.com and web visitors can view updates on the Foster Clark LifeCycle Challenge on the Facebook page: www.facebook.com/lifecyclechallenge