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@Archie's_Grobags
I've spoken about Mike Curiak a few times on here. He's a cycling hero of mine, being a legend in the often overlooked endurance cycling field.
He holds records for the Great Divide mtb route and Iditarod trail amongst others, both seen as some of the longest and hardest bike events on the planet.
He's been hinting for a few years about his plans for an unsupported epic ride and has been testing various equipment, food plans, as well as his own mental strength on various rides.
This year he has once again been riding the Iditarod trail invitational route, though not as a competitor.
It's over a thousand miles through Alaska.
Competitors normally stop at checkpoints along the way and can shelter and get warmth and food and resupply at various places.
Mike is completely unsupported however. He is carrying everything he needs himself, which brought his total bike weight to approx one hundred and fifty pounds.
I've been following his progress on his blog which is being updated by friends of his and shows spot points of his route. The last update shows that he's just ridden a section that isn't even on land, but is actually part of the frozen bay.
Having followed his blog it shows that despite being about 2 days behind his pace from his last attempt he managed to claw that back and has now gone further than any of his previous unsupported attempts, having covered over eight hundred miles so far.
He's managed to resist all temptations when riding past checkpoints and through towns, which must be one of the hardest things ever when you've spent nearly three weeks away from real warmth and shelter, not to mention people.
He's losing between one and two pounds of bodyweight per day and will have been riding for approx 3 weeks by the time he finishes.
It looks like barring anything serious he should make it all the way to Nome which will be an incredible achievment.
For anyone interested it makes great reading following his journey on his blog. There are some amazing pictures and videos.
I hope you enjoy reading it and gain as much inspiration from it as i have.