23May2025

May 24, 2025

For the first time on this tour, it was cloudy with a forecast of scattered showers mid morning! The cloud cover coupled with a gentle Westerly breeze made for a fresh 25 degrees start to the day, as I rolled out of the outskirts of Taskent. As I departed, I was grateful to have made the decision to stay in the suburbs to avoid the worst of the morning traffic. The road out of the city was smooth and soon started to climb gently towards the distant mountains that loomed ominously. Sure enough, the predicted gentle rain fell, and cooled me, and with it fell a whole lot of coal dust from the air pollution that this area is known for! I passed the first Russian Orthodox Christian church that I had seen on this trip and had to stop to admire it's golden domes and crosses. Stopping later for a coffee and Samsa, I met some friendly locals who insisted on paying for my snacks. The mountains that were in the distance at 7 am soon appeared closer and bigger, with some small snow patches visible on the higher peaks. These mountains mark the start of the high roads through Kyrgyzstan, which I will not be tackling on this phase of my journey. I arrived in Angren and settled down to do my usual laundry and email checking. Ed arrived an hour later, and we spent time catching up on the latest from both our lives, and having a very pleasant dinner together at a nearby restaurant. We plan to ride together for the next few days, possibly into Osh, albeit on our own departure schedules, which we both agreed was the least stressful way to manage inividual requirements! Tomorrow will be a challenging day in terms of altitude gain. We climb from 960m to 2200m over approximately 60km before a sweeping descent to our next stop, and the onward undulating lands leading to Osh.

Today's ride: 99 km (61 miles)
Total: 1,809 km (1,123 miles)

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