Jerusalem to Ashqelon

5:45am. Yup. That's when we rolled out. Wake at 4:30, breakfast at 5, gather at 5:30, Traveler's Prayer (in English, Arabic & Hebrew), and the sound of the Shofar and we were off.

Yes, it was dark out (notice the reflections from the reflective parts of our jackets) but that meant we could get all 106 riders to Ashqelon - on the Mediterranean Sea - in time to swim in the Sea.

After a screaming downhill run we arrived at the pit stop at Sataf (mile marker 8.7). From there we had a nearly 7 mile climb with over 1200 feet of elevation change. The reward? ANOTHER screaming descent.

We had lunch by the Bell Caves (at mile 44.6) with the entire crew.

We'll upload some of the pictures from today's ride on our picasa site ...