MTB Egypt rider of the month: July 2013

Name:

Omar Adel  Soliman

Age:
21

Where are you from?:
Maadi, Cairo ,Egypt

What do you do for a living?
I am still an undergraduate student ( not for so long hopefully ) , I study Economics at MSA university.

When and why did you start cycling?
I never had a bike when I was a child and I always wanted to get one ,but my parents were too protective of me, so I got my first bike behind my parents back when I was 19.

Did you start riding road, off-road, or both?
I started as a roadie till I forgot my headphones on 100 km ride and that’s when I figured out that life is too short to be doing this ,so  after that someone introduced me to MTB and since then my tires only rolls on dirt.

Tell us about your bike(s)!:

My first one was a Chinese mtb bike , I exchanged that one 1 month later with my friend’s hybrid bike, later on when I started mountain biking I got an Orbea Compair (my current bike) , which a decent hardtail equipped with Formula RX hydraulic brakes , XT rear derailluer and a Rockshox Tora fork.

Favorite ride(s) (road or off-road):
Quarry , Blade Runner and extended loop

Do you practice other sports?:
MMA , tennis and football.

Tell us about your cycling-related injuries/accidents:
once I was trying to KOM the short loop and had a flat tire just before the final descent and I didn’t notice at first ,  then near the end of the segment I crashed and fell to the left , ended up with a missing tooth . Also there’s my famous Wadi Hof ride accident  when the wind pushed me off a ridge sand I fractured my wrist and had to ride my bike with one hand  for 22 km to get back to the gate.
Anything else you want to tell us about yourself?

I am very happy and grateful that I found out about MTB while I am still young and also for making a lot of cool new friends on the trails.