Last Sunday saw the start of 2008′s Iditarod Invitational, a 350 or 1100 mile race across the frozen Alaskan wilderness from Anchorage to McGrath or Nome.
It’s now heating up into a race with quite a few riders having hit the 150mile mark – you can check the leaderboard here
So far it’s looking good for Brits, James Leavesley and Carl Hutchings in the male category and Jill Homer in the female race – who’s possibly on for a course record to McGrath.
Of course, where there’s a challenge there’s always someone who wants to push it to the limits, this year that person is Mike Curiak as he attempts the 1100 race to Nome, entirely unsupported. You can keep up with his progress on his own site.
I finally got hold of proper high res images of the 08 Niner Bikes range for my day job, so I thought I’d treat you to a nice image of the forthcoming Jet 9.
3.1 inches of travel , 5.9lb frame weight, Black or Kermit Green, USD 1,749 (approx 1,250 GBP)
Following on from The Collective and Roam, Sessions follows seven of thw world’s best riders though the seasons of a year. This film promises to show us what it means to be a full time rider, and probably make us feel deficient in the skills department. It comes out on DVD in April 08.
Santa Cruz have just revealed a new Blur LT, it’s expected to be available in “April” but going off past delivery estimates you can expect this to be more realistically sometime in June in the UK.
The most immediately obvious change is the dropped top tube to give greated standover, less noticable changes include 5mm more rear travel, designed for 140mm forks, Carbon fibre upper link re-designed pivot assemblys to decrease flex and eliminate creaking, this frame will also be the first Santa Cruz to feature grease ports, a welcome addition for any UK rider.
There’s a worrying development in the colour department with the introduction of a option called “skidmark” which, I really hope requires a US-UK translation and it isn’t poo brown!
Following on from last week’s cycle security video, I came across this article by Carlton Reid (BikeBiz) jam packed with useful information which could help you keep your precious machine safe from the hands of thieves.
Mike Curiak’s an Ultra Endurance Racer, amongst his wins are the Great Divide Race in 2004, Leadville 100, and numerous Iditarod races.
The Iditarod is a special beast, hundreds of miles across the harsh Alaskan wilderness, and it demands a bike slightly different from your average everyday machine.
Mike’s just published a timeline showing the progression of his snow bikes since 1997, finishing up with his bike for ’08, which is a very custom Moots with a whole lot of special features intended to use every inch of the bike’s inside and outside shapes. It’s very interesting to see how his machines have been developed though the years to give him his best shot at success.
David C. Joyce, president of Ripon College, has a great idea – dump the car and get a free bike.
Based in the middle of a cornfield in Wisconsin, Ripon College is tackling the unnecessary reliance on the automobile by offering a simple and effect alternative transportation device to 200 of it’s 300 new students. The College has already bought up the only main road though the campus and plans to remove remove it entirely, add this to the already completed relocation of their parking lots from the centre to the edge of the campus the area’s becoming quite inconvenient for cars.
It helps that Mr Joyce is a cycling nut and Trek, the suppliers of the 200 cycles is based in the same city (or town, or whatever Wisconsin is – it is a State? yes, let’s call it a State, for today.)
