MTB Egypt rider profile: November 2008

This month’s rider is Mohamed Zaree, famous (or rather notorious) for the first over the handlebars accident on an MTB Egypt group ride (documented here).

Photo credits: Assem Ali Maged

Name: Mohamed Zaree

Age: 28

Where are you from?:

Dokki, Cairo

What do you do for a living?

I am working as a project officer, in Catholic Relief Services (CRS), especially on the Democracy and governance programs.

When and why did you start cycling?

Well, cycling when I was a lousy fat kid doesn’t count for sure. I started cycling about year and half ago, when I decided to lose 50 KG (110 lbs) of my weight, and enhancing my health, and I saw cycling as the answer for all my needs. Now, having achieved my goal of weight loss, I do cycling only because I feel that there is a strange relationship between me and the bike, I wouldn’t describe it as romantic relationship, because it is definitely much stronger 🙂

Road, off-road, or both?

Both

Tell us about your bike(s)!:

Well, my first bike which I started with is a generic Chinese 25 KG mountain bike. Very durable but heavy, on which and I would quickly feel tired after only 30 minuets of riding (but did over200 KM on it). I needed something lighter and factser.

My new bike is a 2008 Specialized Allez (road bike) weighing in at only 9 KG, I hardly could feel tired even after doing a 90 KM without stops. Only problem is that I could not find its spare parts here in Egypt. (But I think that I should blame Egypt for that)

Favorite ride(s) (road or off-road):

Road mostly, but I really have fun in off-road (but I hate the uphills)

Do you practice other sports?:

I workout at the gym.

Tell us about your cycling-related injuries/accidents:

Ooooops, you can find it on this website lol.

Anything else you want to tell us about yourself?

I want to learn bicycle maintenance.