Lindsay should be riding Iditabike by now (in fact he started pedalling yesterday). but below is the last email he forwarded from the start venue before his departure - we'll post additional emails as they come to us (or maybe we should say "if" they come to us, seeing as he likely has more important things to focus on).
What the heck are we talking about?...click on the "events" link here to sort posts by events, which recently are mostly about Lindsay's latest challenge.
Also, check out the Iditabike Facebook page here, or Lindsay's own Facebook page here.
Also, check out the Iditabike Facebook page here, or Lindsay's own Facebook page here.
From Lindsay, February 25, 2012 3:04:10 PM CST (CA)
On Friday evening, Greg Matyas hosted a prerace party at his store Speedway Cycle.Greg came 3rd in the race last year but had some surgery on his hip this year and will be an interested spectator this year. He is the designer and founder of the Fatback line of Ti and aluminum bikes. Great guy.
I hitched a ride to the store with two guys from Pittsburg who are "running" the 1000 miles to Nome. It was busy with lots of racers but very easygoing without a lot of the testosterone you tend to find at shorter events.
The first person I ran into was Heather Best whom I met and rode with at last year's Arrowhead. Heather is married to Jeff Oatley, a former champion of this race and a 2 time winner of the Arrowhead. I thought she was there to support Jeff but it turns out she's racing. There were some late withdrawals and she entered in the last week. I've been taking months to get organized and she is going to do it with a weeks notice.
The fast guys in the race will be 5 time champion Peter Bassinger, Jeff Oatley, Tim Stern and Tim Bernsten who recently came 2nd in a sprint finish at the Arrowhead. I should have included Louis Kobin as she came 4th overall last year. She is tiny (she can't be much over 100 lbs. So I guess I need to suck it up and stop worrying about how heavy my bike is compared to me.
I talked to Kathi Merchant and hitched a ride back to the hotel from her. Kathi and her husband Bill organize this party on snow. She had been in touch with Bill who's out setting the trail at present. The word is that we'll be doing lots of walking because of the volume of snow. The race meeting is this afternoon at 2 so we'll hear more then.
Packed my bike this morning and I'm heading out for a short shakedown ride.
Catch you later.