Beineu to Nukus; (4/X); 13/05
Monday 13th — Karakalpakia to Zhaslik
We woke to clear skies and a strong wind in the direction we are heading — east.
After stocking up in the village, we headed out. The Uzbekistan government have been building a new road, parallel to the existing one, for a few years now.
When Hugh rode this route two years ago, the road was not ready to ride. Currently, it is not complete but for large sections it is ready to ride, but not to drive. This means it’s actually almost the perfect time to cycle it, as for most of the road is smooth, with the bonus of no cars to share it with.
The first 25km is smooth road. The next 25km is bumpy bumpy. Then the final 90km to Jaslique is perfectly smooth.
Although technically the road is not open to cycling, the construction workers were happy to see us, waving and cheering as we went past. At the point where the road transitioned from being bumpy to smooth, we were pushing tue tandem of the road to a side track as the workers were up ahead, and the they were trying to tell us something. I thought it was get off the road and into the side road, but as we’re got closer to the side road, it became clear they were actually telling us to get into the section of the road they had just laid down — they were telling us it was much smoother and a better ride, so we should push out bike back into it :)
We arrived into Jaslique as the sun was setting after a long day — 145 km — but it with a smooth road and a strong tailwind, it wasn’t the hardest day of the trip.
As soon as we arrived, I took off the front whee to inspect the tyre and fix a slow puncture. For the last three days riding, I’ve had a slow puncture and have had to patch it 4 times. The weird thing is, I was 99% sure there was nothing stuck in the tyre that was causing it, but having so many punctures in 3 days is more than a coincidence.
So I had put the tyre logo in relation to the the tyre valve, which would help identify where in the tyre the puncture had come from. At this spot, I could feel an almost imperceptible snag on my finger as I caressed the section of the tyre. I squeezed the tyre together and asked David to come over as I thought there was something. With Pierre holding the light, me squeezing the tyre and David with the tweezers I felt part of a surgical team — and indeed there was something tiny stuck in the tyre. After some effort, David extracted a tiny piece of wire — about 4mm long, and about .25 MM thick — this was the culprit, and we were all quite excited to have finally found it.
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