Team riders checked into Sullivan, Indiana at 7:14 pm Pacific. This puts them 2225 miles in, and leaves 789 miles left to race. The team's overall time average is 22.08 miles per hour. Team ViaSat has now passed all but 3 of the soloists. They should catch solo rider Mark Pattinson soon.
The team in first place, Byggkjøp / BMC Cycling Team, looks fast enough to catch Jure Robic, the solo leader. I personally hope they don't - this race is called the toughest race in the world because of what the soloists go through. I think that a soloist should have the honor of crossing the finish line first. Of course, this doesn't look like it'll happen anyway, because there is actually a two person team who got to leave the same day as the soloists. The reason for this is that they're riding fixed gear bikes - which has to be as challenging as racing across the country solo. For those who don't know, a fixed gear bike is a bike that has one front chain ring and one rear cog. What makes these bikes different from single speed bikes is that with fixed gear bikes, when the rear wheel is turning, so are the pedals, as they lack the free wheel mechanism. So if the rider isn't pedaling, they're not coasting, they're actually braking the bike.
It's painful enough to think about climbing the Rockies using a fixed gear bike, but in all honesty, some of the descents - like the Glass Elevator descent into TS2 - just boggle the mind - because there is only one gear option, and the pedals are moving when the rear wheel is moving, this means that the cyclist has to achieve a ridiculously fast cadence during a steep descent. Yikes!
1 comment:
The other challenge with riding a fixed gear downhill is that you can't lean into a turn nearly as much since you have to keep the pedals turning.
I'm impressed how fast they are going, which I guess is faster than expected since they were allowed to start with the single riders.
Thanks again for the updates.
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