Originally Posted by
HC203
I hate to ask but curiosity's got the best of me. How do you sit on the saddle with a bottle in your pants? Oh, reminds me, came across this little challenge while spending too much time surfing and not riding. Iditarod bike race in Alaska, in February!!! Now that's masochistic.
Well Harry, if you want details: the bottle goes down the back and nestles rather nicely between the cheeks. BTW you might remind yourself of this if we're ever out riding together and you're running low on water
Anyway, I also love to follow the Iditabike race. Aside from the bitter cold, riding it in winter is probably better because the riding surfaces are too sloppy in warmer weather. Iditabike is cool, but it's really a bit impractical IMO for bikes as the riders frequently carry their bikes on foot for long stretches through snow too deep to ride on.
My favorite ride to follow is the Great Divide Race. 3000+ miles from Canada to Mex. The organizing is fairly loose because the riders are so far apart and so far away from civilization that they can't easily be tracked. The riders call in at checkpoints. All of it is totally self-supported. The organizer puts most of the call-ins up on their website. Love it. Encounters with cougars, poisonous snakes, weird mountain man survivalists, 1/4 mile road wash-outs, blizzards, baking heat, sand storms. These people are un-freakin-believable. An incredibly tough woman from England, Jenn Hopkins completed this year's ride on a single speed!!! Half way through the ride she lost all of her energy and could barely move. She had a digestive bacteria that was nearly killing her. She managed to get herself to a hospital and 24hrs later she's back on the ride and finishes in good time. I can't even begin to understand what level of mental stamina that takes. At the end of the ride, she's gushing about how beautiful all the scenery in the American west is. She's my hero.
-GB