Scott Napier, Record Breaker
Post categories: guest blogs
| 13:29 UK time, Wednesday, 9 December 2009
Mark met Scott Napier in Edinburgh before they both headed off to Alaska at the end of May; Mark to climb mountains and cycle south; Scott on his bid to break the cycling Pan-American World Record.
There was an outside chance they might meet on the road, but the nearest they got was within a day of each other at Tok Junction back in eastern Alaska. Ever since then, I have followed the parallel journeys of the two bearded Scots. I'm delighted to say that Scott is safely back home and with a hard-fought World Record. He has kindly been helping me with a few logistics, particularly through the Atacama Desert, and I asked him if he would write a blog to share his experiences through this remote part of Chile.
Hi, I'm Scott Napier and earlier this year I broke the world record for cycling the length of the Americas. I took 125 days to ride the 14000 miles from Deadhorse, Alaska to Ushuaia, Argentina.
Taking a rest before the long down and up of my first canyon in the Atacama
As a fellow Scot I was in touch with Mark for most of the trip and his support and banter were very welcome on the long lonely road. Although our routes through the Americas were quite different, the stretch that Mark is currently on (along the Peruvian coast and down into Chile) is almost the same as my own. Here are a couple of my experiences from the road south.
When I was asked to write a blog about this part of the trip the first thing that came into my mind was wind. Most of the time in Peru there was a strong headwind coming off the Pacific. On the whole it was manageable, I just stuck the head down and plugged away until I reached 100 miles (anything over 100 miles and I was up on record pace). One day in particular sticks out in my mind. It was the section of road about 50 miles south of the Nazca Lines and boy did the wind blow. The road was going through very open exposed desert and the wind was so strong I spent most of the day getting sand blasted. It was like taking a shower in a stream of smashed glass. Ouchy! The metal on my chainset and cranks started the day with a nice glossy finish but by the time I ducked for cover in the evening they'd become distinctly matt. Now, from a world record point of view this was a frustrating day. My mileage was way down and my effort was way up. But there's something exciting about putting yourself in these extreme conditions. If I looked out of my window at home and saw such weather I'd have had no hesitation about crawling back into my scratcher for some more kip. Going out for a ride in it would be the last thing on my mind! But there I was, churning away at 6 miles per hour facing up to all that Mother Nature could throw at me, and it was kinda fun.
It was so windy in this part of Peru that the sand dunes were covering the road. These guys were out trying to clear the sand, and make a buck from the passing motorists!
Further south the weather once again played a big role. The Atacama Desert in Chile stretches some 600 miles from near the Peruvian border down to Copiapo. I was getting a fairer crack of the whip when it came to wind direction, catching some sweet tail wind and making it count with some good daily mileages. More of a problem was the extreme range of temperatures. The nights were very cold. I'd got into a habit of just throwing my mat down wherever I stopped and jumping in my sleeping bag. This was good from an energy and time saving point of view but man was it Baltic trying to get going in the morning! The first couple of hours riding would be really cold as the sun slowly made its way up from behind the mountains. Having destroyed my gloves by turning them into pads for my handlebars I was left with a combination of socks and poly bags for my hands. Not glamorous, not practical, but surprisingly effective!
Amazing road. Why I am I not on a motorbike..?
The desert is a dry and harsh place to be cycling. A lot of time is spent wondering where the next drink of water is going to come from. But for all the wind, heat and cold for me the desert is a special place. It's so peaceful and quiet; just you, the bike and the open road. And once the days cycling is done could there be anything more special than lying cosy in your sleeping bag under the stars? Enjoy it Mark!
Enjoying the local produce, I drank so much Inca Kola I swear I had withdrawal symptoms when I left Peru. As for the blood on my knee, this is evidence that men really can't multi task. I was riding along, attempting to scoff an ice cream, when I spotted some bananas in a shop. With my eye off the road my wheel went into a rut and before I knew what was going on I was grinding tarmac with my knee as a brake. It should be noted, however, that the ice cream came through this incident unscathed, and was very tasty.
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