#085 - 1968 - Tour of Morocco - Stage 11 to 14

Stage 11 - Ouezzane to Tetouan
 

123km was the stage next day, taking us  from Fez to the Spanish Moroccan town of Tetuouan. This city was a beautiful place with tram cars running, just like Madrid. Unfortunately we were again assigned to a camp this time a Spanish Foreign one. After showers and massage we decided to put on blazers and flannels and go into Tetouan to a posh restaurant for a meal (we had won the money to afford this in primes). We had a great time, very restful and miles away from the race atmosphere. Sports T.V. came on in the restaurant and all our team was featured, we were overwhelmed by well wishers and people wanting autographs, just the fillip the team wanted (we had won no prizes that day). Ahmilod came too he was well part of our team now.

Stage 12 - Tetouan to Larache
 

We all felt very relaxed after our evening away from the race environment and ready for the twelfth stage, from Tetouan to Larache, Dave took the early primes, we finished all five in the top ten the race being short at only 102km. 

Stage 13 - Larache to Rabat

Then came the most lucrative stage of the race in terms of remuneration - Larache to the capital city Rabat. The event started OK into a strong head wind. Suddenly we noticed a big fight going on between the Moroccan riders and the Continentals including the Algerians, Geoff Wiles dropped back to our car to tell us that the Moroccan champion El Gouch and his team mate El Farouki were away and the rest of the Moroccans were impeding the chase, the aggression got so bad that the French race commissar stopped the event, meanwhile the two Marocs were allowed to go on.

All the Team Managers were called to a strike meeting, the result being to let the two Marocs take the stage in to Rabat (for their prestige sake) the rest to ride neutralised until 10km to go then race so that the large crowd in the stadium would be entertained, this worked quite well. I cannot remember how our lads finished but were not disgraced. After the race, our team seemed to dawdle in the showers as did the Poles and Yugoslavians. 

When we reached camp for the meal, we sat down at our places marked by a Union Jack and waited to be served. We waited about ten minutes with no activity. I decided to go in the kitchen to find out what the delay was, only to find that the other teams had eaten the lot, there was none left. I promptly saw the Organiser and he promised to take us to a restaurant in Rabat. I got our team and the Poles and Yugoslavs together, we borrowed the large Coca-Cola van, and started for Rabat with an official who was to choose the Restaurant. We went straight through Rabat (quite a big city) and we were wondering where he was taking us, suddenly we turned off left in a  forest and up a rough track, finishing up at a big marquee, to our utter amazement it was a United Nations relief camp, the organiser had phoned the camp adjutant  and they had prepared for us a most sumptuous meal, in fact the best we had in Morocco, absolutely unbelievable! We lost no time in telling the other teams of our good fortune. During this stage Geoff Wiles was fetched off his bike by a Motor Cycle Marshall, that is how bad Marrocans wanted to win this stage.

1968 Tour Morocco, geoff Wiles knocked off his bike by a police motorcyclist!

Stage 14 - Rabat to Casablanca

The last day dawned, we were to travel from Rabat to Casablanca 212km on an undulating, good surfaced  main road and we won several prime prizes. The road ran alongside the Mediterranean and it was quite bracing. Soon the buildings of Casablanca came in to view and appearing from nowhere at the rear of the group was a growing number of youngsters on mopeds. The police tolerated these lads until about two miles from the stadium when we were suddenly directed down a side road. Then the police quickly pulled a pole across the road causing the  moped lads to crash, no half measures in Morocco!

1968 Tour Morocco, Pete Smith with the King of the Mountains Trophy

The race finished on a small shale track - we were well up. The prize presentation took place at the stadium with Pete winning the King of the Mountain trophy presented to him by ‘Miss Tunisia’. Geoff Wiles won the Green points Prize. Mr Frank Barber came to see us in the evening, we were now ensconced in the ‘Atlantic Hotel’. Frank picked us up after our dinner so, donned in our best bib and tucker, he took us to the British Embassy where the staff and the Charge d’ Affairs gave us a marvellous time. Frank collected us again the following morning and took us down to the foreign Consulates private beech. We could not believe our eyes, there were straw roofed bars and beech huts, volley ball and tennis courts, a great restaurant where we were invited to stay for lunch and dinner, the staff could not do enough for us. A wonderful end to a marvellous Tour, thanks to Frank Barber OBE., Legion d’ Honour (Italian).

Epilogue

Looking back I remember one aspect of the race, no one could find out how we always had ice cold water for our riders at the end of these gruelling stages. Bert had brought with him a large canvas bag with strong handles, we filled this every morning putting in the appropriate water purifying tablets which Kathleen had provided for us,  Bert then hung the bag on the front of the car and air passing by did the rest. No one worked harder than Bert, he was a great help to me knowing that I could leave him alone and everything would be OK. Our Arab driver was also first class, nothing was too much trouble for him. We also had mutual help from our ‘Tour de France’ team mate Andre Chenal  and his French team boss Robert Oubron. We had made good friends with the Polish, Yugoslavian, Tunisians and Algerian team officials, and we would co-operate again in the forthcoming Peace Race. There were only three commissars on the race, one French and two Moroccans , slightly different from our ‘Milk Race’ where there seems  to be more men in blazers than there are riders (this is my own opinion looking from the outside as I was never on the English Milk race).

 1968 Tour Morocco, Brian Jolly, Geoff Wiles, Pete Smith and Andy McGee 

The only blot was that the prize monies that we had won was withheld from us, the reason given that it was Easter Monday (the day of our scheduled departure) and the banks were shut. Bert had made good friends of the two Moroccan ‘baggage men’ he gave them 20 Players cigarettes each day and their assistance went far beyond what was required of them, our bags etc were taken to  our hotel rooms and Bert was looked after like royalty, these two finding him a room to maintain the bikes, all other teams had to find their own. (We were to meet up with these two again in 1970 in the ‘Tour Algeria’ they had big grins on their faces when they saw Bert and I, they were now calling themselves the ‘Baggage specialists’ - quite right too). During the race, prime monies were presented at each stage dinner, other teams gave there winnings to the race authority for safe keeping, we opted to keep ours and a good job we did too because that would be  the only prize money we had.

1968 Tour Morocco, the triumphant foursome in Casablanca

This was the most successful team I was to go with, we had won just over £2,000 which was an excellent result. We flew home to Heathrow and in the airport we had the ‘VIP’ treatment, press and T.V. people were there, we appeared on the BBC ‘To-night’ programme, the strike on the road being of interest to them. We were also on radio the next day. This was the best homecoming yet. Splitting up this team was a sorrowful happening, we had been away nearly 5 weeks.

#084 - 1968 - Tour of Morocco - Stage 6 to 10

Stage 6 - Marrakeck to Beni-Mellal 

The next stage was from Marrakech to Beni-Mellal 196km which was quite a long one but reasonable terrain. After about 50km one of the Swedish riders (Joseph Ripsel) punctured, Pete Smith taking our collusion too far waited for the Swede and paced him back to the group. I thought ‘that’s torn it’ and I was right, the French commissar rode along side me in his official car, he handed me a rule book with a piece of paper marking the rule regarding collusion we were fined 150 dirham for this. We were lucky not to be fined more.

 1968 Tour Morroco, Brian Jolly

We started winning again, Brian winning his second stage with the other four well up. Accommodation here was bordering on ‘bad’ we were in an ex-French Foreign Legion Camp, pick your own mattress and blankets (back to sleeping in track suits a la Tunisia) good job we had bought with us the extra food, because almost all the European riders had slight diarrhoeal  problems, we were able to suppliment our diet. The evening meal was very late causing all riders to eat bread and mustard, when it did eventually arrive it was alright (this had meant my going in the kitchens to rustle things along). For breakfast we had loads of toast and honey.

Stage 7 - Beni-Mellal to Khenifra

Ben-Mellal to Khenifra 125km was the next stage,  Pete won the mountain prime at Ouaoumana at 3000ft - Dave Nie had won the prime at Kasba Tadla. As far as my memory goes this stage was uneventful our lads finishing in the main bunch. The French Foreign Legion barracks here at Khenifra had to be seen  to be believed. The toilets were  on four floors with a steel staircase between, if anyone used the lower toilets you were showered with urine from those above, terrible happenings. The food whilst plentiful was badly cooked. 

 1968 Tour Morocco Rudy Valencic (Yugoslavia) fills his bottle from a mountain stream

Out came our rations once more, we borrowed a Primus stove from the French team who were also supplementing their intake, Bert had bought in Casablanca a crude electrical device which you plunged in a bowl to heat water or soup, so we had tinned chicken and soup and French bread to complement the race food. I washed the daily feeding bottles with Milton (as in Tunisia) we had fresh oranges for the bottles and one of water, Kathleen again to the fore had given me a special juicer for the oranges. Shoes were cleaned, washing and drying done, was becoming a real soigneur. Bert worked well on the bikes and we had no mechanical trouble, we were a good team and in high spirits. 

Stage 8 - Khenifra to Meknes

The route from Kenifra took us to the historic town of Meknes 151km hence. Dave Nie took the prime at  M’rirt and also at Azrou. Pete won the 5000ft mountain prime at Ifrane  in fine style. None of our riders were in the first twenty in the bunch sprint in to Meknes, finishing in a fine stadium. Accommodation and food improved here, after yesterday this did not take a lot of doing, but it was much more civilised here in Meknes.

Stage 9 - Meknes to Fez

The ninth stage was time trial, 50km from Meknes to Fez, we decided that as we were well off a ‘general class finish’ to take our time and save our strength for the tough stage from Fez to Oezzane, Brian Jolly was in terrible trouble with diarrhoea having to dismount quite a few times, I suggested he retire but he would not hear of it, he caught the bunch after each bout. In Fez we were met by an English couple, after exchanging pleasantries they asked if we had any diarrhoea problems, we obviously answered in the affirmative. They then produced a phial of powder telling us to put a teaspoon full in just a little water and then swallow. This stuff was magic cured us in a few hours (I was to take this product on all races in the future). Food here was better and the accommodation was fairly good. The English couple called at the camp in the evening and we had nice chat. 

Stage 10 - Fez to Ouezzane

The tenth stage from Fez to Ouezzane was the most successful for us in the whole Tour. Pete had jumped off the front to win the 2000ft mountain prime, he now had just under a minute lead. He was riding comfortably so I advised him to carry on, his lead became 1min41secs then it dropped to a minute, he then put on the pressure on the undulating road and with his Time Trial experience in England he was off, , Pete won the stage by five minutes, the 2nd rider in was Dave Nie, Brian Jolly 4th and Geoff 6th, Andy finished in the main bunch. We were all  ecstatic, the only problem was we had reverted to French Foreign Legion barracks once more. We again supplemented our rations but they were now dwindling fast. Our driver Ahmalid took us to a small shop where we were able to buy honey, jam and tinned chicken etc, we could not afford to go hungry as our winnings in dirhams was quite substantial.

 1968 Tour Morocco, Pete Smith wins mountain stage by 5 minutes

#083 - 1968 - Tour of Morocco Stage 1 - 5

Stage 1 - Casablanca to Safi
 

First stage was from Casablanca to Safi, a town on the east coast, our car soon came in to its own. One of our riders was in trouble and waving for us to come up to him, we got the OK from the Chief Commissar. The road at that time was narrow, but each side of it was a rough path, our driver in his trusted Peugeot shot up this path and was with our rider in no time, he had a slow puncture, Bert gave him a wheel and very quickly he was back in the bunch. Memory fails me as to who won the stage, but we were best team. The 230km stage had been slightly undulating all the way with no breakaways. Accommodation here was quite fine and the food at a restaurant was good and plentiful.

Stage 2 - Safi to Essaouira

The next days stage was shorter - from Safi  to Essauquira 128km, no hills of note so another bunch sprint, our riders were prevalent but not risking any heroics, we had twelve days to go yet. Again accommodation was OK and food alright, I helped Bert with the bikes after I had given the lads a full body massage. Some weeks before we left England I had mentioned to  Kathleen a potential problem we would have in these hot climes, that of saddle sores.  She wondered if a barrier cream – Siopel – that they used in her hospital might help and ordered a 500g jar from the chemist in Sawley.  This cream was ideal for the environment of Morocco and for the first time in any race we had no saddle boils or even any sore bottoms, (thanks again Kathleen). 

Stage 3 - Essaouira to Agadir

Still on the east coast and the weather brilliant we travelled from Essquira to the well known seaside resort of Agadir, the terrain was fairly hilly and towards the finish we managed to get Geoff Wiles away with a top class Swedish rider Joseph Ripsell, Geoff was narrowly beaten in the sprint by a wheel. The other three were in the next leading group giving us the team award. Geoff due to his high daily placing held the green points jersey. Unfortunately in the final sprint for the line Pete Smith touched a wheel and fell heavily.

 1968 Tour Morocco geoff Wiles finishes 2nd to RipVel (Sweden)

Ahmilod our terrific driver and I took Pete up to the hospital, this was situated on a mountain overlooking Agadir. The sister in charge was German and she soon had Pete sorted out and declared fit. I asked here how she had come to be in charge of this hospital, we were then told of the horrific disaster that befell Agadir in 1956. The weather that spring had been bad and coupled with melting snow caused an avalanche which engulfed Agadir wrecking their houses and killing hundreds of people, eventually dumping all the debris in the sea. This nurse had volunteered to come out to Agadir to help, and liking the people and terrain so much she had elected to stay.

We left the hospital and joined the rest of the team at the showers. They greeted us with “ How do you do it?  we cannot go anywhere without meeting someone you know !” - two Canadian girls on their way south in a land rover had seen the promotional  posters that a race was in progress and they had stopped to view. One of the girls was none other but Ginette Vachon from Quebec, she had been to the Rover factory in England and had this jeep-type vehicle converted in to a caravette. After we had dinner and massage the girls came to see us and took us out for drink in a small “estamina”. When the time came for us to leave, we could not find the Land rover, what a laugh - and they were going over the Spanish Sahara later on that week! After a search we found the vehicle and they took us back to the school which was our lodgings. Goodbyes were said and off they drove. (we had a postcard later on telling us about the trip, they were recovering in the Canary Isles)

Stage 4 - Agadir to Taroudant
 

By now our team were hitting their top form and rode in to Taroudant from Agadir only 80km and very fast, Brian Jolly won the stage with our other four 3rd, 4th 6th and 8th. We were easily taking the ‘overall team’, Geoff had the ‘green’ points jersey, Pete Smith the ‘polka dot’ mountain jersey and all were well up on general class. 

1968 Tour Morroco, Brian Jolly wins the Taroundant stage

After dinner and massages I helped Bert with the bikes so we could finish early - we had an invitation to meet the chief of this lovely walled village in his palace. Rounding a corner on our way a bunch of kids came hurtling towards us, they were enacting the bike race and were using bent heavy copper wire shaped in to handle bars, aping the riders, it was both funny and sad. Obviously they had no chance to buy a bike. We had mint tea at the palace and were entertained by an Arab band and men dancing -  Dave Nie joined in, we had a terrific time , relaxing and taking our minds off the race. After the dancing we were invited in to the Chiefs large black tent. On a spit turning in the centre of this huge low tent was whole goat. We had a terrific meal, each of us pulling off the meat we liked using only our right hand as tradition goes. The Chief offered me the delicacy of the evening, sheep’s eyes. Not wanting  to give any offence I accepted graciously and then  swallowed them whole, at the same time praying that they would slip down my throat without getting stuck and choking me! We slept well that night, woken of course by the loudspeaker at the Mosque calling the people to prayer (5am).

Stage 5 - Taroudant - Marrakech

The next stage was one we were fearing, on leaving Taroudant the road gradually climbs to the top of the ‘Tizi n Test’ summit at 7500 feet, reached after 62 miles of climbing. Pete Smith in his first International road race won the prime, a terrific ride, he had about thee minutes lead on the strung out bunch when disaster struck - he punctured both wheels. As we were changing wheels the race leader Kurt Soederland came past with two more of his team mates, he also punctured but his car being way behind he changed his own tyre with his spare, (carried by all riders due to the terrain). Riders were having trouble right and left, the reason being the road was good on the seaward side but over the summit it deterioted in to sea-bed boulders and small stones (this was due to the bad winters they had to contend with on the Marrakech side).  

 1968 Tour Morocco, Kurt Soderland punctures both wheels on the Taroudent – Marrakesh stage

Our other four  riders breasted the pass, we opted to wait for them as it was obvious we were going to have trouble. Altogether we had twenty punctures, Bert at the back of the team car having hell of a job sticking tyres on. We eventually ran out of tyres, but fortunately  we caught up with the Rumanian team, and luckily I knew the mechanic from the Peace Race, he lent me some ‘Barum’ tyres, and for the last 80 miles as the road improved we, the Romanians and us, chased hard hauling other riders in. We eventually made it to Marrakech, but we had lost all our leading positions and the points jersey, but Pete Smith still held the ‘polka dot’. 

 1968 Tour Morroco, Pete Smith punctures both wheels on the summit of the Atlas Mountains

We had good accommodation and food in Marrakech and the following day was ‘rest-day’, so we were able to have a good look round this ancient city, of special interest is the market place where I think you could buy  anything. There were snake charmers and an open air cinema, little workshops making all sorts of trinkets from brass, leather shops making super suitcases and of course coats, it was a cacophony of unusual sounds. During the meal on the rest day, the Swedish Team manager who I had met in Sweden came over to discuss tactics. His rider Kurt Soederland held the ‘Mallaout Jaune’ if we would help him retain this jersey they would pay us 1000 dirhams (about £90), they - the Swedes - would also help us to win stages. We could not lose and although collusion carried a hefty fine, we accepted.

#082 - 1968 - Tour of Morocco

I had two invitations from the BCF early in 1968 to manage the team, one for the Tour Of Morocco and one for the Peace Race, Berlin-Prague-Warsaw. The team for the Moroccan tour was

1. Geoff Wiles,
2. Brian Jolly,
3. Dave Nie
4. Andy McGee.
5. Pete Smith

Masseur would again be Neil Walsh, my mate Bert Humphreys was coming as mechanic. Early in March we arranged a training weekend in the Lake District, Geoff Wiles came up from Kent and stayed with us at Toton.

1968 - Brian Jolly, Pete Smith, Geoff Wiles, Alf, Dave Nie and Andy McGee

On the Saturday Geoff and I set off and  picked up Pete Smith and Brian Jolly who had been in a race at Newark, then on to the Lakes where we were  staying with Mrs Edmondson at Wolloway Farm, near Penrith. Neil Walsh and Andy McGee joined us  from Glasgow. Mrs Edmondson welcomed us  with a drink of wine whereupon Neil produced a bottle of Scotch for the lady and himself (Mrs Edmondson was a native of Arbroath) Neil poured her a large ‘noggin’ she asked should she put anything in it, No said Neil just put your finger in it. We had dinner at a local hotel called the “Sportsman” taking Patsy, Mrs. Edmondson’s daughter and her friend Mary with us.

We had entered in the “Red Rose” Grand Prix” starting at Maryport the next day, the course took us round part of the Lake District and the team pulverised the opposition by taking all four places. We returned to Wolloway for a mid-day meal, but on our way back from Maryport the 1800 Austin blew its top hose. We could not get a replacement anywhere, we did a temporary repair, Alf Edmondson gave us a 5 gallon can of water, and we stopped religiously every 20 mile to top up the radiator and limped back to Long Eaton. Still  - we had a good weekend getting to know each other.

The details of the race were late coming, to speed matters up I rang the Moroccan Federation, I got the phone operator to interpret for me, and she informed me that tickets and all information were waiting for us at Charles de Gaulle Airport. As the race was due to start in a weeks time I rang all the lads, Neil and Bert, then I rang the BCF, they had known all along that our documentation was at  Charles de Gaulle Airport but had  forgotten to tell us! (after all, we were only riding in the race).

The BCF arranged flights to Paris where we joined up with the rest of the international crowd. The charter plane was late getting in to Casablanca, after customs we were herded in to two coaches, accommodation had only been arranged for 4 teams and so the French, Belgian, Russian and DDR teams were dropped off at the swank Atlantic Hotel, our coach then went round hotels in Casablanca to try and get accommodation for us, the Poles and Yugoslavians, eventually finishing up in a Arab Hotel near the Kasbah, a good start we thought. However this hotel turned out to be very clean, the food was good and they found a nice bright room for Bert to work on the bikes.

The race authorities came round to see us, saying they had found another hotel for us, we liked it at this Arab Hotel and the three teams elected to stay there. A young Arab lady was in charge of the hotel and she spoke impeccable English (it appeared she had been on a student exchange visit to Llanidloes in Wales and had been treated very kindly by the family she was boarded with) she reciprocated this kindness by helping us. First she asked to see the route the race was to take, on looking at it she stated that food would be in short supply especially in the mountain region. She advised us to buy tinned chicken, cheese, jam and tinned fruit, this we did and by God was she proved right. An amusing incident happened before the start, we all went to the bank to change money, we all changed £20 (as we were in Morocco nearly four weeks) except for Andy McGee the Scotsman – first at the counter he said much to our mirth that he had better change a lot whereupon he changed £5, this was to last him a month.

We were introduced to our Arab driver, he was a royal looking Toureg, six feet tall with flashing eyes, every inch a gentleman. He had a Peugeot 404 Diesel - ideal for  Moroccan highways, which we would discover  later. Just before we left our hotel to go down to the start, an Englishman came to see us, he had been unable to find us before because we were in the Arab hotel. His name was Mr. Frank Barber OBE. Legion d’ Honour, (Italian) and he was a prominent local business man with an export/import and insurance company, he spoke fluent French and Arabic.  

He had been awarded these prestigious decorations for helping the then recent disaster  that had struck the ‘Lacania’ – the liner had caught fire near the Gibraltar Straits, the survivors being landed at Casablanca. Frank had arranged for passports and clothing at his own expense, for both Italian and English passengers. 

We were the first British sportsmen to compete in Morocco and Frank was eager to introduce himself and make our acquaintance. We arranged to see him on our return to Casablanca in fourteen days time.