Phenomenal Feats (feets)

[bags27]

1. I remember hearing from someone that at this year's Paris-Brest-Paris (1200 KM in 90 hours) the great Lon Haldeman went out with the fastest group, chatted up everyone the whole way, and still finished with a very fast time...on a fixie.

2. The directors of the Furnace Creek 508 are considering putting in a fixie category. Could you imagine 35000 ft of climbing and, perhaps worse, 35000 ft of decent on a fixie?

What's your best feat? (Mine was completing my first century so cramped [nearly 100 degrees and I vastly underestimated body fluids] that I rode the last 35 miles pedalling with only one foot at a time, while stretching cramps out of the other.

[weisan]

Read up more about this race here:
http://frank.harvard.edu/~coldwell/bicycle/PBP/

I am thrilled to see that Brooks was the saddle of choice among the riders in those pictures. I can't wait to try it on the MS150 ride I will be doing in April from Houston to Austin. My steel serotta will probably take the place of the Legend Ti.

[bags27]

Thanks so much for that URL, which has a terrific story, wonderful pictures, and great stuff about Haldeman.

[Too Tall]

I might be wrong on this...but think Lon left with the 80 hr. group...rode fast and got a decent sleep each night finishing in 79hrs. and change. If his MO did not change from the past, he rides a very regimented approach to maximize daylight riding and basically get his money's worth out of the ride eg. not ride for a blazing fast time. In 1999 he rode the entire route with wife Sue who was a past first finisher.

FC508 only has one ugly climb and it is not that steep, just relentless. It is a supported race, by rule, so you could switch to a climbing bike and back to your normal gear for the rest. But hey, IT'S THE HEAT not the gears that will crush you! Oh golly it's dry.

PS *Was the fixed category a fixed only or did it allow a single speed? I did see the discussion...just don't recall this bit.

[bags27]

You're right about Lon: the URL supplied above sets the record straight. I guess they haven't decided about the category, if at all: you're right again, if they can flip it and free wheel that would solve the problem of decent, but some folks on other sites were worried about that.