5.7.05

BIKE IT SOLO


"Emmanuel Gentinetta, Double World Record, youngest and fastest man in history to mountain bike the longest road in the world: the Pan-American Highway from Alaska to Argentina. The site is an inspiration to all, rich in reports, photographs, maps, etc."

"...I was now nearing the crossing of "La Línea", the main mountain range in Colombia. I had to endure some "false-flat" riding. This is when the road seems flat, but you are actually going uphill. You don’t notice unless you look back. What you do notice is that you are doing 9 MPH instead of 14. This kind of riding tires me the most, I think it’s mainly psychological. I’d been hearing about "La Línea" for quite sometime. I met a Colombian bicycle team in Panama, here is what they said about "La Línea": "Oh man, la línea, you start by barely going uphill, then steeper and steeper until you are going straight up. It continues to get steeper and eventually you are going upside down".

"...60% Report Physics Lesson #1 (60% RPL #1): I tried to explain that the force of gravity would disallow upside-down riding, but they insisted. They seemed very anti physics, so I let them be happy with their upside down línea..."

"...I got back to Pasto the following night, arriving at Jose’s house. Sending stuff back home, fixing my BOB wheel again, washing clothes, and reading some e-mail, took up the rest of the following day. I also decided to paint BOB neon green. Nice. I had more time to talk with my new friend, Jose. Everyone in Colombia treated me well. A friend I made, Dario, even called my house in California a few days after I met him to see how I was doing. And that is not a cheap call. Only 2 teenagers were out of tune. They hit me with a belt as they drove by. I won’t let those two ruin Colombia’s entire image; that would be doing what the rest of the world does. Colombia was great overall...."

BIKE IT SOLO
http://www.bikeitsolo.com

posted by alvaro @ 3:06 a. m.