Medan, Indonesia’s 3^rd largest and fast growing city with 6 million citizens, is located in the north east part of Sumatra, the 6^th largest island of the world.  It started its wealth as a center of the tobacco industry, followed by plantations of oil palms, tee and natural rubber and the discovery of oil.

The taxi drive from the airport to the hotel gave a first impression about the traffic challenges we waiting on us, when riding through densely populated areas. Outside the city the traffic obviously seems immediately to evaporate. At least this is what I found on my first short practice ride. But not only the traffic diminishes, but also the quality of the pavement deteriorate. Good to have suspension on my MTB