ExpanDrive

The Tour Divide is a mountain bike race along the continental divide from Banff, Alberta to Antelope Wells, New Mexico (on the border with Mexico.) It’s “self-supported”, which means that you can’t pre-arrange any outside help, though you can buy food and bike parts as you go. And it’s “one-stage”, meaning there’s no rest off-the-clock (unlike that wimpy Tour de France bike race).

This year’s winner, Matthew Lee, finished the 2,745 mile course in under 18 days. It rained on 16 of those days. There’s a great interview up on Outside’s blog. Here’s my favorite snippet:

There are certain elements you have to try not to think too much on: comfort, eating well, sleeping well, safety. All those cares are cast with the winds. You establish a new, temporary regime on day 1 and just stick with it religiously. When the alarm on your wrist watch beeps at 4:40am, you don’t roll over. not even once. you sit up, rip the sleeping bag off and suddenly you’re freezing! The only solution is to get dressed. Then the only way out is to saddle up and ride. This forced routine is the key to success. If you get up and go, the biking takes care of itself. after about an hour you start to feel okay. the soreness is masked, the beauty unfolds before your eyes, perhaps a bear gives you a shot of adrenalin.

Ever wonder how you get a new sport into the Olympics? The BBC seems to think that one way to do it is with cash. Big, million dollar stacks of cash. They claim that a Japanese cycling association paid $3,000,000 to cycling’s international governing body (the UCI) to get the “keirin” included in the slate of Olympic velodrome events.

I don’t really care about the scandal. I assume that everything about the Olympics preparation, from the venue to the events, is decided by bribery. It’s just a good segue for me to explain how awesome the keirin is. It works like this: the racers have to stay behind a pace setter (who rides either a bike or motorcycle) for most of the race. The pace setter starts out going medium-slow (about 20 mph), and over the course of about 8 minutes slowly ratchets the speed up to 30+ mph. The cyclists jockey for the prime position, right behind the pace setter. Then, at a prederminded spot about a half mile from the finish, the pace setter pulls off the course and it’s a free for all.

Check out this video (1:33) and you’ll get the idea. The action starts with the pace setter (in purple) pulling off the track.

The Japanese had to pay $3,000,000 to get that in the Olympics? Who wouldn’t want that in the Olympics? How much did Russia have to pay to get Rhythmic Gymnastics in the Olympics?