Meet Mohd Al-Jaber: "We don't take coffee breaks when we ride in KSA"

When I first set out to move to Saudi, I wondered if I could even ride anywhere in the country.  Initial stories were that it would be insane to ride on these roads where drivers commonly drive at 160kph and pass on both left and right shoulders!!

I then did a little research on Strava and soon started communicating with Mo.  He was KOM on few segments around Jubail and a few kudos later we exchanged email addresses and started talking everything cycling in Saudi.  He reassured me that cycling was alive and well here and probably the fastest growing sport.  He told me about the Riyadh Wheelers Club's race series in the capital every two weeks (but downside being that is 4 hours away), he also told me he would show me what roads were safe and the best times to ride on them when I got here, he let me know the best websites to order gear since there are no great bike stores around and I got my new trainer sent to his address, .

Well, I finally met Mo today.  I know a lot of cyclists and Mo's passion for cycling is right there with some of the best of 'em!!  He is relatively new to the sport (2013) and aspires to be the fastest guy in KSA.  Today, he was determined to do 160km without a coffee break today.  I set the goal of 120km and that's all I had in me after 2 months of celebrating before moving.  Well, that's what we did the 120km and we did have a coffee break.  I put the pictures of the ride in a GoPro Quik montage.

Here's an email exert of him describing his first road race last weekend, he is now on the Al-Salam team/club:

"The RR was amazing. It was my first RR ever, so I did not expect to do very well against guys who have been racing for years. First, the wind was BRUTLE! It was a very strong cross wind that day. Five guys from the same club got in the front and started riding hard from the start. Also, they were in echelon formation and trying to put everyone into the curb. I was able to break away with them. I hang up for about a lap until they finally dropped me. Then, I got into a chasing group of three. The gap was 1.30min and we started chasing. We could not catch them since one of the guys was skipping too many turns. However, we did get the gap down to 30sec at the end. I finished 7th, but that really does not matter. What matters to me is that I am about the same level as these guys, which is very motivating for me."

Finally, I did a little interview with him, here it is: