A call to the pros

August 13, 2005

It's 6 AM and the sun is just coming up. I am on the wrong schedule today. Seems I've become accustomed to waking up at 6 in order to start at 8, the normal start time for all but the first, and apparently the last day. We start at 10 this morning, a very sensible hour. So, cup of coffee in hand, I will put the time to good use. The early start on this is fortunate since it is unlikely that my brain cells will be firing in any sort of predictable order after the first beer this afternoon anyway.

Keith Bontrager is best known as the bike and component design guru behind his eponymous road and mountain bike components, but behind the scenes the man universally known as KB is an enthusiastic and well-respected endurance mountain bike racer. KB has taken part in a over 50 24-hour races in the last few years, and in his diary takes us inside the mental, physical and technical challenges of long-distance mountain bike racing, starting with one of the sport's greatest tests, the seven-day TransRockies Challenge.