Our last cycling day today. TDA is good at doing all those end of the trip rituals: handing out jerseys, group photo, last evening dinner, etc. As Ezhil joked, this group is so used to following the routines (follow the white boards: drop your bag, follow the route, dinner, etc) that we’ll now transition from that.

It is Wednesday afternoon and my plan is to depart Thursday night at midnight. That gives me some time to explore around here before departure.

Today was another warm ride. Only 77km so many riders were done early. While we saw some of the busiest roads on the A02 highway, most of our cycling was again on quiet roads. That also explains why we finish here rather than cycle the last 15km to middle of Colombo.

A picture last night from our beach resort.

This morning a group photo before breakfast

On the road while it was still cool temperature.

These folks were harvesting grain. Many of these white birds hanging around.

Sri Lanka coke stop. Still a lot of dogs. Early on they seemed to be sleeping. One or two gave chase but most were bored to see us pass.

Just a few spots of drying grain

Coconut stop

Lunch, by now pretty warm. A little less than 30km to go. The last ~6km were chaotic but before that small roads.

Finish celebration, I was one of the later to arrive.

One last whiteboard with logistics. I’ve boxed my bike and made a booking to get to the airport.

Greg and Eve with one of their bikes boxed.

It has been a fun trip. I will still write out a summary with reflections but overall (1) very much enjoyed my ride (2) Sri Lanka is an interesting destination – not quite as chaotic as parts of India I’ve been but still rather different than cycling in the US (3) for me heat/humidity is on edge of tolerance, mountain areas were a nice variation and glad to finish early afternoons (4) TDA did a good job with this inaugural trip, well organized and not many surprises for first time riding; my first TDA hotel trip which is pretty luxurious compared to the other trips I’ve done.

Hotel room view, beach with Colombo high rises in the distance