This video is the post race recap of the 2009 Furnace Creek 508 race that was held this past weekend. It is one of the top ultramarathon cycling events in the U.S. and is billed as ‘The Toughest 48 Hours In Sports’ taking competitors from Santa Clarita, California, across the Mojave Desert, through Death Valley, and to the finish line in Twentynine Palms.

In less than 4 days, the 24 Hours of Moab is set to get underway in Utah. The 15th annual event is scheduled for October 10-11. This world-class event will see over 4,000 racers, staff and spectators in the desert venue for the 2-day event.

For those that will have to follow the race from home this weekend…the race utilizes RealTime™ Scoring System providing up-to-the-second results. The system uses RFID (Radio Frequency ID) cards which racers use to log-in and out of each lap. RealTime™ tracks and publishes the results to www.grannygear.com. You can also check out other things like total mileage, fastest laps, split times and more.

The 24 Hours of Moab will also serve as the 24-Hour National Championships.

Photo courtesy of Ultra Rob

We found this adventurer who plans on spreading the ‘cricket gospel’ via his bike as he isCycling To The Ashes!

Oliver “Oli” Broom, a 29-year-old Briton plans to depart on October 10, 2009 to cycle approximately 25,000Km solo from Lord’s Cricket Ground, London to Brisbane Cricket Ground (“The Gabba”), Australia and arrive in time to see England play Australia in the first Ashes Test Match (2010/11) in November 2010.

Broom’s goal (aside from biking 25,000Km) is to play, promote and teach cricket in schools in the approximately 28 countries along his route and to raise £100,000 for The Lord Taverners and the British Neurological Research Trust.

The planned route will take Broom across Europe to Istanbul, through Syria to Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia where he will then cross the ocean to India. From there, he will navigate towards Australia via Nepal, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Laos, Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia. He hopes to roll into Brisbane on or about November 20, 2010. Continue Reading

There was recently a bit of a buzz online about Ollie Erkkila, a design student who made a forkless cruiser bike for his graduation project at Design Institute Lahti – Finland. This was just one of his many phenomenal bike design projects. Others including chopping up an old bike and rewelding the same pieces into an exquisite single speed called Kosmos Fixie.

Though, it was the Funky Elephant Chopper that really caught my eye. Thouht I´d share a few pictures of his “old daily driver.”

Check out his PORTFOLIO for other great design projects of his.

We have been keeping tabs on Gracie Sorbello and Matt Burney as they unicycle the entire “Great Divide Cycling Route” to support the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. They began earlier this summer on July 2 and finished last week on September 16. The day after they finished their journey, Gracie posted this thought on their blog:

Thursday, Sept 17, 2009

“It didn’t quite kill us, so i guess we’re… stronger?”

YES, we have finished the Great Divide journey!
YES, we have a big game of media catch-up to play!
NO, I am not recovered!

Early on in the adventure, it became clear to me that riding the Great Divide Mountain Bike Route on a unicycle would not be a test of technical riding ability; it is a test of will. It tests one’s ability to endure: fatigue, extreme weather, dehydration, pain, etc.

We checked on some of their interesting stats from their adventure.. they amazed and humored us all at the same time!

total route mileage = 2,628.7*
riding days = 67
average daily mileage = 39.2
# of pedal strokes (based on route miles, tire circumference, and squiggle factor) = 3,670,621
most # of saddle sores at one time = 11
total # of continental divide crossings: 32 Continue Reading

Jacqueline Windh sent us this short video of British Columbian adventure racer and endurance athlete Jen Segger’s amazing expedition to travel the length of Vancouver Island. The entire adventure was done non-stop by foot and bike over 4 days and 750km between August 24-28, 2009.

Video by Jacqueline Windh.

Back in April we posted a great video of street trials rider Danny MacAskill. And new this month, here is another video of MacAskill performing some pretty dramatic stunts for a Scottish recruitment site, www.s1jobs.com. The video here is an extended version of the ad. Worth every minute!

We have asked another athlete, Jayme Frank, to blog on Adventure World about his training, race reports, nutrition, recovery and more. Follow along over the coming months with Jayme as he shares with our readers his tips on what works and what does not from training to competition.

Following a lifetime of basketball that ended when I graduated university I decided to give adventure racing a shot – seems logical right? You can thank Mark Burnett and Eco-Challenge for that. Between 1998 and 2003 I pretty much became an adventure racing addict competing in races from 36 hours to 6 days. I raced across Canada, the US and even into Brazil and Switzerland. Highlights include multiple top finishes in Canada’s toughest race, the Raid the North Extreme, winning the Raid the North Series Championships and competing in the inaugural Discovery Channel Adventure Racing World Championships.

After 6 exhausting, stressful (but totally enjoyable) and very expensive years of racing my mind and body needed a break. That break ended in 2009 when I finally got the itch to get back into competition. This time things would be a little different, gone are the multi-day races and teams; I decided to come back and race in solo sprint style adventure and multisport races (toss in the odd trail race too) on a more local front…for now. Who knows where this next foray into things will take me.

I’ve been back for just over 4 months and have a very busy September coming up. I’ll be racing 3 of the 4 weeks in some great events. I’ll be sure to have some great race reports coming soon!

I’ve also started my personal blog to chronicle my return to racing. Check it out at http://can-i-get-an-encore.blogspot.com

PURE SWEET HELL tells the story of cyclocross, a sport that has emerged as bike racing’s punk rock cousin. Told from an insider’s perspective, the filmmakers traveled to ‘cross competitions throughout North America, dug up vintage photos and film footage, and followed ‘cross luminaries Justin Robinson, Gina Hall, Barry Wicks and Rick Hunter. Shot entirely on Super 8 and supported by experimental rock music, PURE SWEET HELL surfaces both the strong community behind the solitary sport and the grace that arises amidst all of its grit.

More information about the film can be found at http://www.cyclocrossfilm.com

Recent college graduate Sean Maher is set to travel unaided through West Africa to escape the world wide recession and raise £10,000 for charity. He tells Adventure World why:

In November this year I plan to cycle from the UK to Cape Town. There are two reasons for doing so: The first is to keep myself occupied for a year and the second is to prove to myself, and to other people that even though the recession is biting, we don’t really have it all that bad.

The worldwide recession which began in 2008 has affected a lot of people but as a graduate I really felt the brunt of it. I graduated in June this year with a politics degree from Exeter University in the UK. After applying for hundreds of jobs, literally, I was still left unemployed. Instead of moping around and waiting to apply again next year I decided to keep myself occupied by cycling from the poorest area of the UK, Cornwall, to the richest area of the world’s poorest continent, South Africa.

Most people ask first of all, why Africa? It’s because it’s so different. A very small percentage of the world’s population live in temperate climates, the majority live in hot climates. Living in Northern Europe the African climate will be a massive shock. The continent is also so vast that it is like a microcosm of the world. From desert to scrub to tropical rainforest and back again with the equator as the line of symmetry. The people are colorful and varied, the communities are vibrant and these people of the sun live in the land of our ancestors in the continent which gave birth to humanity.
Continue Reading

The Freedom Riders Story
Gravnetic and KGB Productions and its partners for the film Freedom Riders, does not promote illegal trail building, rather we encourage riders to work with local land managers to create and promote sustainable trails.

Freedom Riders a core group of riders who evolved from covertly building rough and unsustainable trails, to creating a precedent setting relationship with the Forest Service and creating some of the best Freeride trails in the country.

Welcome to Freedom Riders a look at the evolution of the sport and the progression of trail building in this country. From its days as an activity reserved for the few who rebelled against the spandex clad status-quo, to the multimillion dollar, mainstream sport that it is today, see the true inside story on a group of riders that would never see their passion die.

They are the Freedom Riders…
On the morning of July 12, 2008 a large group of dedicated Mountain bikers gathered at the base of Teton Pass. Everyone was dressed to work and the atmosphere was festive. There were tents set up with food from local restaurants, soda, tools and fulfillment in the air. Representatives from the US Forest Service walked around and mingled with the riders. The mission for the day was to add a new massive dirt jump to Lithium–one of the handful of trails in the National Forest dedicated and with a purpose: sustaining the tail systems for downhill mountain biking.
Continue Reading