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The Art of Escapism, an essay on an ultra-distance race called Bikingman Portugal.
So the only question that really matters is why?
Why do you ride more than you like?
Why do you let something you love hurt you so much that you start hating it?
Why do you finish it?
Why do you want to do it again then?
What’s the point?
Ok, you defeated your limits but then why again?
Are you so limited in your own life?
What is the outcome, what is the takeaway but most importantly why do you need this?
Here’s a film teaser from Race Around Rwanda, a 1000km race through the country of a thousand hills, by Ryan Le Garrec and Lander Deldime. It’s a bike packing race, non stop and unsupported, the fastest riders will finish it under 50 hours.
Antonin Michaud-Soret’s film ‘Onboard the Transcontinental Race’ is now available for VOD purchase via Vimeo. This video looks at the beauty and the struggle of one of the hardest ultra-endurance races, the TCR.
“To ride the TCR is to explore who you become at the side of a road in the Alps or the Balkans, low on sleep, lucidity, hygiene and any notion of comfort: in the saddle, rolling over rough tarmac sixteen or eighteen hours a day; finding what exists beyond fatigue and exhaustion.”
THE GREAT DIVIDE
Like my four-year-old son said the other day: “You can’t survive death.”
Somehow this made me think of this race. It’s all about surviving in the end. But it’s mostly about being alive, to the fullest.
Ryan le Garrec, one of our contributors here at the Radavist, followed cyclist Josh Ibbett during his 2019 Tour Divide attempt. This is his story. Watch this documentary here and be on the lookout for a photo gallery later this week.
On the 6th of July 2019, 84 riders arrived at the Scottish city of Inverness to take on the Pan Celtic Race is the longest ultra-endurance race in the British Isles.
“The Transcontinental Race is rarely a race against fellow competitors, nor against oneself. It is, primarily, a race for oneself.”
Onboard is a film that has been four years in the making, documenting the immense beauty that is the TCR. Be on the lookout for the full-length in the coming weeks!
Gear Junkie sits down with Lael Wilcox, a woman who needs no introduction here and asks her 21 questions about her career, life, and ambitions.
I put my bra back on and brush my teeth and walk from the dorm room past the pool table salon to the restaurant and out the door to my bike. It’s four in the morning and still dark outside. It’s a new day. I’m ready to ride. Rue is on her computer waiting at a table and follows me out.
The gravel pit turns to good, hard dirt and I begin the ascent. It’s my favorite kind of road, an even grade that feels like climbing the fortress walls to the castle as the road snakes up. It’s the morning of day 3 and I feel like I’m on a quick training ride, almost like the past two days haven’t happened or they’re a distant memory. I’m listening to music and my legs feel fresh and I’m having so much fun. The climb is an hour of effort and then a quick winding descent to the valley floor and dry Lake Kel Suu. Towering, freshly snow-covered mountains surround that makes me feel really small. I pass a couple of other yurt camps on my way to checkpoint 2 until I see the SRMR banner. A couple of little kids cheer me in. Jakub the Slovakian is packing his bike. I have to keep my focus. I take off my gloves and change the track on my GPS and take a couple of puffs from my inhaler and get my brevet card and my wallet and a couple of plastic bags and go inside the yurt. The floor is grass, so I don’t have to take off my shoes. Inside, a volunteer stamps my card and we get to talking. In some way, she’s related to Yura, the man with my favorite guesthouse in Bishkek. Yura doesn’t speak much English, but he makes jokes with his eyes and his hands.
Read Lael’s first Reportage at You Can’t Win a 1,700km Race in a Day: Lael Wilcox’s Silk Road Mountain Race 2019 – Part I
I open my eyes to daylight, take a couple of puffs of my inhaler, compress the air out of my sleeping pad and get out of my sleeping bag. A rider with bags cruises by waving, a reminder that we’re still in a race. I stuff my whole sleeping kit into a dry bag and strap it to my handlebar harness. I turn on my GPS and put the race track on and on goes my SPOT tracker, pressing the boot print to initiate tracking. I move a pastry from my framebag to my gas tank for breakfast. I chug a full water bottle and put on my socks and shoes. The whole process takes twenty minutes and I resent the time lost. This style of racing is all about economizing time. The valley is cold, even at low elevation. I’m still wearing my down suit and rain jacket and I’m back on my bike, pedaling washboard downriver. I pass a pulled over rider and he passes me back. We don’t talk.
Race to the Rock touts itself as one of the most difficult ultra-endurance races in the world. This documentary looks to showcase the event’s beautiful landscapes while focusing on the struggles faced by the contestants.
Take the Andes, a mountain range that stretches for an impossibly long 7,200km down the West Coast of South America. Chuck in 32,000m of climbing, crazy gravel sections, remote towns and villages, altitudes of nearly 5000m, huge canyons, glaciers and some of the best views on the planet, and you have a heady cocktail of elements that make up the craziest ultra-cycling race in the world. BikingMan Peru – The Inca Divide.
Nine days into the PEdALED Silk Road Mountain Race, the top five has revealed themselves. It took winner Jakub Sliacan an astonishing 7 days, 6 hours and 46 minutes to complete the 1,708-kilometer route of decrepit Soviet roads, river crossings, and alpine passes. He was followed by Lael Wilcox, Jay Petervary, James Mark Hayden and Jeff Kerkove.
May 22nd Phounkhoun outskirts 01435 am
The jungle can be the darkest place on Earth,
at night with just a moonbeam through thick clouds,
vaguely dislocating from the smoke of the melting tarmac,
the broken road,
it doesnʼt break this man,
the sounds came up a little more,
screams and songs from the sleepless jungle,
the law of Laos…
Rue and Spencer are working on part four of the 2019 Tour Divide coverage, sit tight, it’s coming down the hole early this afternoon.
Ryan, who did that killer Bikingman Oman story, has been releasing 1-minute long teasers from his forthcoming project, “Elephant.”
Today we’ve got a feature from Ryan Le Garrec featuring the BikingMan Oman and one of those riders featured is Josh Ibbett. Here’s Josh’s own account.
