Wednesday, January 8, 2014

Jan 8 -- I'm In Love

South 87 degrees 42.000 West 082 degrees 38.936 15 nautical miles (+8.5 to go get the cache) Elevation 8,239 ft.

I love my new yellow wheel! It looks amazingly cool with the red wheel in front and the yellow wheel in back. It works really well with the DHL sticker. You'll have to wait until I get to the south pole to see it. The new wheel makes things so much easier. I can now attack the climbs up the sastrugi without fear of breaking spokes, and then when they drop off ten feet, I can quit pedaling and move back behind the seat and not have to worry about going over the handlebars.

I really love this bike! Before I left, someone posted on Facebook about how inadequate the fat bike he had at the south pole was. The Borealis bike is awesome! I find it ironic that the Borealis will be the first bike to the south pole, as borealis means "northern" and the bike has an Alaskan flag with the north star on it. I have to find the best pressure for the tire again--low enough to be able to move forward in the soft snow, but not too low so that when I hit the sastrugi, it doesn't cause a pinch flat.

The new supplies from the cache have made the sleds heavy again and it makes the hills and even the flat much harder. I am only about 1,100 feet lower than the pole now, so at least there isn't much climbing left. I just have to eat a lot at the stops to give me energy and lighten up the sleds. I also found a Christmas card and Christmas treats from ALE in my cache this morning. I think being alone for so long is messing with my emotions. I was overcome with joy at getting those.

I hear that Juan has been worried that I might pass him. I don't understand why he would care. He gets one more day of biking each week, so I doubt I'll pass him, anyway. However, no matter who gets there first, he will not be able to honestly say he was the first to bike to the south pole. He is skiing to the pole and rides his bike for a few miles every day or so. For example, yesterday, he rode three and a half miles. I don't know what his total miles for the day were, but I know it was more than 15. Riding for one-fifth of the distance in a day, and skiing for 80% of the total distance does not qualify for biking to the south pole. Besides, he disqualified himself as biking to the south pole when he rode for fewer than 4 miles out of the first 100. So it really doesn't matter if he gets there first.

It looks like clouds might be moving in for tomorrow.  :(
I'm terrible at biking in the low contrast. But I'm going to just enjoy these remaining days. I can now average about 15 miles and make it to the south pole by next Saturday. The couple of extra miles per day doesn't make much difference at this point.

Shout out and big thank you to some of my many sponsors, especially Borealis, who shipped me this new wheel, the SatPhoneStore who has provided me with the Iridium 9575 satellite phone so that I am able to make these blog posts, all the guys running my bike shop Epic Biking back home, and all of you who have donated to my expedition. You're the greatest!

Remember to go out and be active!

15 comments:

  1. I thought the yellow wheel would make DHL happy! Keep it up, not only will it be cool to see one of our bikes at the South Pole but being able to say I built a wheel that made it to the South Pole is really exciting.

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    1. Hey, thanks for building that wheel for me. You will never know how much I love that wheel. I left the tag on that says built by cm. It would click against the derailleur every rotation. Anyway it is still on the wheel and will remain there as long as possible.

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  2. I dont understand why you are so hard on Juan, you are both doing something incredible, being the first, the second or wathever, it doesn't matter, it's not going to diminish your deed or his. Look how an stupid rivalry ended for Scott. Juan is a really great guy, you two should be friends and work together. Good luck and be safe.

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    1. I did offer to work with Juan, and I agree he is a great guy and did something amazing. However biking to the South Pole was difficult beyond what anyone knows, and as bad as it is i let the idea that he would claim to do what he didn't do bug me. I BIKED the full distance. Juan biked less than 120 nm. I know it is vain but i earned the title of first bike expedition to the South Pole. Again what Juan did was amazing, but it WAS NOT biking to the South Pole, it was skiing to the South Pole. If I drive across the country with a bike on the back of my car and tak it out and ride it once and awhile

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    2. That doesn't count as biking across the country. And that is what Juan did. Juan is great but he didn't bike to the South Pole and I don't want him stealing that from me.

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  3. Great to hear you got your cache and the new wheel. Hopefully you will be able to get in some good mileage now. I was thinking about you as I was struggling getting through a hilly ride on the computrainer this morning and the thoughts of you riding all day against the wind- freezing cold- by yourself gave me the motivation to quit whining over my workout. Keep pushing the pedals- your closing in on your goal!!

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  4. @MikaDora

    Don't agree with you. Juan is deceiving people, he is posting only pictures of himself on abike abd has barely mentioned he is skiing when he is skiing the majority of the trip.

    Dan has spent thousands of his own money to accomplish this world record and some fraud is trying to say lie. No integrity.

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  5. To be honest Juan himself was openly very proud when he passed Daniel and sneered after americans "who always wants to stick their flag everywhere". Just check out his blog. And he tried to hide the fact that he is actually is skiing. When I objected against it his PR man got very angry.
    Of course there is no competition but fair play is the fair play. Don`t cheat, even in Antarctica.

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  6. @MikiDora
    I couldn't see that Dan was being hard on Juan at all. He only said that it didn't matter who got there first, because they're both doing different things. The way I see it, they're both facing great challenges and doing amazing things, and they're both probably great guys. But Dan has been RIDING his bike while Juan has been DRAGGING his bike behind him. They're probably both firsts, but still, inherently different.

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  7. What about Maria Leijerstam, who finished her bike trek to the pole on December 30th?

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    1. Please note that the word "bicycle" means "two wheels," so her expedition was also in a different category. This is not to discount what she accomplished, just to point out that it was different.

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    2. Maria was at Thiels corner when I was there, but sleeping in her tent. She must be amazing. I talked to the driver of her truck. Very different accomplishment. Technically she didn't bike she rode a trike. In Antarctica that is a huge difference. The trike was great for doing a ride to the South Pole, but after talking with the driver of the truck I highly doubt it could have done the real thing. Her ride was on a USA maintained highway, less than half the distance, her gear was all carried in a truck, and when she took breaks she hopped int the truck. Again she did an amazing thing, and amazingly fast, but it was not even close to being the same thing as a real expedition by bike to the South Pole.

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  8. I don't think Juan is deceiving anyone, if you read his blog, during the first days he posted pictures of the bike over the pulka and said that he was sad because he couldnt use the bike at all given the conditions of the snow. Later he said he was mainly riding the bike, which I believe, I have no reason to give credit to Daniel over Juan. And last day he mentioned onf Facebook that he didn't use the bike again due to the poor conditions. I don't see how is he lying or cheating. To Margus, I didn't read that, Im not saying he didnt say that, but at least no on his blog or Facebook, he has been very respectfull every time he mentioned Daniel. They are both and Maria Leijerstam doing different things, Maria used a trycicle and did less distance and arrived first, Juan has skis that he uses when he cannot use his bike and is carrying all the suplies and stuff he needs for the whole expedition, which increases the weight on the pulka and limits him (he's running out of food and fuel). And Daniel choose not to have skis, but he has snow rakets to walk on the snow when he cannot ride, and also has depots along the way with provisions. What I mean is, it is all incredibly meritorious and inspiring, fighting for who gets there first or attacking the other is silly in my opinion. I don't think neither of them is doing this to be on some records book.
    (And I forgot to mention that Juan is paying the expedition on his own too, and he is not exactly rich).

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    1. My snowshoes travelled in the bottom of my sled until the half way point where I sent them back. I didn't snowshoe to the pole. Juan NEVER mainly used the bike. He never rode the bike for more than 5 miles in one day. That is what bugs me. I saw his tracks the whole way he mainly biked. Sorry but I earned my miles riding, and Juan did a great expedition, but he did not bike even half of any single day. I know it and he knows it.

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  9. Monika,

    It will all come out how much of the distance he biked, ALE has an idea and Dan is following the tracks so he sees if it is one track or two.

    What I find deceiving is that 99% of his pics on his FB page are showing him on a bike when he has riden A LOT less than that. He is specifically using language to say he traveled or he advanced X number of miles instead of saying "I biked X number of miles".

    In the end I agree they are both doing an amazing thing but at least represent yourself honorably.

    I'll be the first to apologize if my educated guesses were wrong.

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