Twitter with Tour d‚Afrique on 120-Day Cycling Adventure from Cairo to Cape Town

Twitter on Tour with Tour d‚Afrique On 120-Day Trans-Africa Cycling Adventure from Cairo to Cape Town

TORONTO, April 21, 2010 ˆ From some of the most remote places on earth, Twitter connects families back home in touch with cyclists on an epic cycling event, Tour d'Afrique (http://www.tourdafrique.com/epictours/tourdafrique).

Tour d‚Afrique‚s 60 plus riders are currently at Victoria Falls, Zambia having completed the first 90 days of this 120-day event which annually crosses Africa from Cairo to Cape Town. The tour covers 7,500 miles and this year‚s group is sharing the story with people back home via the @tdalive and @tourdafrique Twitter accounts.  As of mid April there were nearly 350 followers of the company‚s Tweets.

The brief, 140-character snippets cover a wide range of topics from foods to the mood of the group, the scenery and the people of Africa. Through these Tweets emerges a story that those back home can enjoy through the Tour d‚Afrique Twitter stream.

Those following the Tweets already know that the riders will cross the finish line at approximately 1 p.m. (SAST) on May 15, 2010. They will be greeted by Cape Town‚s Deputy Mayor and a presentation will be held in which the Tour d‚Afrique Foundation will donate 60 bicycles to Œat risk‚ teenagers.

Here is a sampling of some of the Tweets thus far:

    6:54 AM Jan 21st Another day of brutal headwinds puts 15 riders into the lunch truck
    2:05 AM Jan 23rd Racers roll into lunch avg speed 36 km - Franco says "we took it nice and easy this morning"
    4:31 AM Feb 6th Villages are slowly changing as we get closer to the border from bricks & mortar to straw huts
    2:26 AM Feb 27th A gorgeous morning to be on a bike: sun and lush mist-covered farm fields greet riders as curious locals watch us pack up camp
    11:09 PM Feb 25th Nutella and granola with fresh fruit! chef James is treating us today
    2:14 AM Mar 3rd Jambo dirt roads! Riders embark on their first full riding day in Kenya. A nice warm up - lava rock starts tomorrow!
    12:02 AM Mar 8th We're soaked!! Riders wake up to heavy rains and lightning; it's going to be a muddy ride!
    1:29 PM Mar 19th Locals put on a show for riders who manage to stay awake, singing and play bongos around a roaring fire
    2:40 AM Mar 24th Halfway point today! Only 5850 kms to go.
    6:46 AM Mar 30th Our clan is divided! Riders on both sides of Tanzania-Malawi border
    7:00 AM Mar 30th Biking through banana city!
    2:12 AM Apr 4th The ride so far: Sweet downhill stretches on nice pavement alongside tall yellow-green grass blowing in the wind

About Tour d‚Afrique
Tour d‚Afrique Ltd, (http://www.tourdafrique.com/) is named for its 2003 flagship cycling tour that annually traverses the African continent from Cairo to Cape Town. Directly and indirectly Tour d‚Afrique benefits third world countries by organizing and staging transcontinental bicycle tours and races lasting 10 days to four months, today traversing all or part of four continents and over 30 countries. Other cross-continental tours include; the Amber Route (1,864 miles/42 days, St. Petersburg to Venice); the Vuelta Sudamericana (3,730 miles/80 days, Buenos Aires to Lima); and An Indian Adventure (2,050 miles/46 days from the Taj Mahal in Agra to Kanyakumari at the southern tip of the Indian sub continent).

Tour d‚Afrique‚s mission is to create cycling events that appeal to amateurs and professionals alike. Participants range from ages 18 to 75 and the common thread is a spirit of high adventure and a desire for truly transformational travel experiences.

The company‚s new DreamTour (http://www.tourdafrique.com/dreamtours) web 2.0 concept encourages individuals to submit their own trip of a lifetime that will then be crowdsourced to other riders who may want to join in. A Tour d'Afrique Foundation promotes giving back to the communities touched by the tours and raises consciousness about the many benefits of bicycles as a means of sustainable transportation (http://www.tourdafrique.com/foundation).

For tour dates, prices and more information visit: http://www.tourdafrique.com/, call +1-416-364-8255 or email the team at info@tourdafrique.com.

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