Originally Posted by
livedarklions
I rode 33 solo centuries last year. All of them but one very late in the year ended before dark. Generally, I take a fairly long break at somewhere between 50-65 miles to have lunch with my sons or something, and I generally get the miles in within about 10 hours, just about 6 hours or so of riding.
The trick to make sure you finish before sunset is simple-- start right after sunrise. Looks like you'll hsve about 11 hours between sunrise and sunset this weekend (I looked up the times for the Negev), so if you start early enough, you shouldn't have any problem getting the miles in during daylight. I'm assuming your roads are decent, of course. I've never been there.
Yes, we *should* finish in plenty of time. The plan at the end is to dip our wheels in the Gulf of Aqaba which leads into the Red Sea. Hopefully I'll have pics to share.
The roads in Israel are pretty good. We haven't been that far south of Jerusalem but between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, the roads are good and maybe better than many roads in the US. Israel doesn't get those freeze/thaws like the US so not a lot of potholes and there isn't much traffic going south. Roads in Egypt are a different story. Jordan is somewhere in between but I would totally love to ride in Jordan. My wife thinks I'm nuts.