»In which they ride the divide

Last week I was looking out over the Continental Divide, thinking of Kent Peterson and his amazing single-speed ride down the Divide. This evening, talking stoop-side with jimg, he mentioned that frame-building and monocog advocate Matt Chester and a handful of others are riding the Great Divide Race on fixed-gear bicycles. Is that one better than single-speed, or one crazier? I do not mind climbing on a fixie, but always shudder on descents. I have pedalled furiously coming down the back side of Pescadero, or once, gloriously, on Mount Diablo, and neither my legs nor my arms can contemplate the furious pain of holding the brakes while coming down such long descents. The 200,000 feet of climbing on the 2500 mile race imply a very very similar amount of descending.

Cellerrat's bike was stolen while he napped at the side of a Montana road. The race blog has more.