I left Egypt after 5½ very happy years living in Maadi. Some of my best memories from Egypt involve cycling, including the super-competitive-but-super-friendly Friday morning road rides … mountain biking in the Wadi before work (and getting chased a few times by the Egyptian army when we ventured too close to their camp) … cycling to Ain Soukhna for a long weekend … cycling to the Saqqara pyramid and racing back along the Corniche … the mega 4-day trip to Sharm via Ain Soukhna, the Suez Canal, Moon Beach and St Catherine’s … the CCC-Chili-Cook-off … all the great characters and great conversations in the CCC … and many, many more great memories. Breaking my collarbone at the far end of the corporate loop wasn’t one of the great memories though…
I am now living in Crowthorne, a small town about 30 miles west of London. Unfortunately my cycling has dropped off since I returned to the UK due to the amount of travel my current job requires (I am currently in Iraq). I have therefore taken up running again after a break of nearly 10 years and done a few half marathons. I do cycle when I can, occasionally commuting the 46 mile round trip to work on a fixed gear bike or mountain biking in the local forest; my beloved Cervelo isn’t getting as much use as it did in Cairo! I do go cycling with a couple of ex-CCC riders, Neil Davis and Tim Evans. One of the pictures is me (left) with Neil (far right) at the top of Col de la Bonette in France in 2011 – check out the altitude, 2,802 metres. If you look closely, you will see my CCC shirt under my jacket. We are planning a trip along the length of the Pyrenees next Summer, from Biarritz to Barcelona. The other picture is me and Tim after a local mountain bike race last weekend. We had just cycled 6 miles from the race so most of the mud had fallen off the bikes but there was still plenty attached to us. We were both entered under the team name of Cairo Cyclists, displaying our CCC shirts with pride.
My tool collection has continued to grow and I have got into wheel building. Those mountain bike wheels in the picture were the second set I built and they seem to have survived the race. They may not cope with the Egyptian roads though!
Cairo Cyclists Club 
The blog comes this time from an absolute CCC legend, not only because of his tempo on the Egyptian roads and off-roads. We remember particularly his cycling workshop where all the members of the time ended up for repairs, and his thorough mechanical abilities performed with an apron, all within a sterilized, impeccable environment.Thanks a ton for the story and for putting the CCC colours very high in the UK competitions !
Great to hear from you Dominic. Still enjoying the road bike, now semi regular with Edinburgh Road Club when I am not on the roads around Royal Deeside. I will post a pic from one of the ERC rides with the CCC top on.