Steven Bornfeld wrote:
wrote:
Fellow Dumbasses,

Bike racers, as you all know, span the range of mental stability, the
range, that is, from "a little off" to "bat**** crazy." RAAM may not
be bike racing, but it's got the crazy part down. It's more so than I
thought. Daniel Coyle (yup, the Armstrong's War author) profiles
Jure Robic, RAAM sleep-deprivation contest winner, Slovenian
soldier, a man insensitive to pain, and apparently the biggest nutbar
on a bicycle, even more so than that sketchy guy on your Sunday ride:

"That Which Does Not Kill Me Makes Me Stranger"
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/05/sp...05robicpm.html

I thought our own village idiot Callistus was joking about the
LED-induced hallucinations of the ultracyclist, but apparently not.
Andy Coggan will be happy to see that Tim Noakes makes a
cameo appearance. And the article says (I can't believe this
will ever happen) that LAANCE has made noises about trying RAAM.

Pull quote:
-----
Robic seems to regard his racetime bouts with mental instability as
one might regard a beloved but unruly pet: awkward and embarrassing
at times, but impossible to live without. ''During race, I am
going crazy, definitely,'' he says, smiling in bemused despair.
''I cannot explain why is that, but it is true.''

The craziness is methodical, however, and Robic and his crew know its
pattern by heart. Around Day 2 of a typical weeklong race, his speech
goes staccato. By Day 3, he is belligerent and sometimes paranoid. His
short-term memory vanishes, and he weeps uncontrollably. The last days
are marked by hallucinations: bears, wolves and aliens prowl the
roadside; asphalt cracks rearrange themselves into coded messages.
Occasionally, Robic leaps from his bike to square off with shadowy
figures that turn out to be mailboxes. In a 2004 race, he turned to see
himself pursued by a howling band of black-bearded men on horseback.

''Mujahedeen, shooting at me,'' he explains. ''So I ride
faster.''

Get that man on the Bush cabinet now!!

Steve

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He's at least as rational as our Secretary of Defense so maybe a spot
with Homeland Security? or at one of the Intel Oversight committees. He
could honestly claim to not have seen or remembered stripping anything
the administration didn't like from the packets passed to them before
passing them to Congress and others.
Bill C