******* hardcore

[fandacious]

stop bitching and ride your bike

 

http://www.telegraph...Jure-Robic.html

 

Robic won the Race Across America, a gruelling 3,000-mile coast-to-coast sprint, a record five times. The race is unusual in that there are no stages. Once the riders begin, there are no scheduled breaks until they reach the finishing line – so an ability to go without sleep is the main determinant of who wins. During the 2004 race Robic cycled an average of 350 miles a day to complete the race in just eight days, claiming only eight hours sleep, and pedalled into the record books by covering 518 miles in 24 hours.

 

Despite this achievement, Robic said later that he had not been in top form and that under ideal conditions he could have improved the world record by an additional 20 miles.

In 2005, six weeks after scoring his second victory in the Race Across America, Robic won Le Tour Direct, a 2,500-mile race on a course contrived from the most testing Tour de France routes. Robic finished in seven days and 19 hours, climbing about 26 miles in all – the equivalent of nearly five trips up Everest.

 

Known to his friends as "Animal", Robic trained 335 days a year, covering more than enough miles annually to circumnavigate the globe. He trained himself to go without sleep by including in his programme 48-hour stints in which he would undertake a 24-hour ride followed by a 12-hour break followed by a 12-hour workout.

Robic pushed himself beyond any natural physical and mental limits. He confessed that for weeks after the Race Across America his hands were so swollen that he could not hold a key, and as a result of lack of sleep he was prone to violent outbursts of paranoia and terrifying hallucinations.

Towards the end of the Race Across America, he was known to weep uncontrollably and was sometimes to be seen hopping off his bike to fight imaginary assailants – bears, wolves or aliens – which turned out to be mailboxes. He imagined that cracks in the road were coded messages, and on one occasion became convinced he was being pursued by the Mujahedeen on horseback; his support team encouraged him to ride faster, pretending that they could see them too. "Sometimes during races he gets off his bike and walks towards us in the follow car, very angry," recalled a team member in 2006. "We lock the doors."

"In race, everything inside me comes out,'' Robic explained. "Good, bad, everything. My mind, it begins to do things on its own. I do not like it, but this is the way I must go to win the race."

Jure Robic was born at Jesenice, Slovenia, on April 10 1965. He attributed his determination to succeed to his father's neglect of his family and to the poverty in which he grew up: "All my life I was pushed away. I get the feeling that I'm not good enough to be the good one. And so now I am good at something, and I want revenge, to prove it to all the people who thought I was some kind of loser."

He began cycling as a child and, during his early twenties, rode with small Slovenian teams, supporting himself by working for a dealer in bike parts. He became a soldier in the Slovene army and a member of its athletic corps, which meant that he could train full time. From 1988 to 1994 he was a member of the Slovene national cycling team.

The death of his mother in 1997 marked a turning point in Robic's life. After a friend suggested that it might help him to get over his grief if he took up long-distance cycling, he entered the 1999 Crocodile Trophy, a notorious 10-day race across Australia. He came third.

In October 2001 he set out to see how far he could cycle in 24 hours, and almost beat the world record: "That was the day I knew I could do this," he recalled. "I know that the thing that does not kill me makes me stronger."

Robic won the Race Across America in 2004, 2005, 2007, 2008 and 2010. He was in second place at the final time station in 2009 when he dropped out to protest about time penalties he had incurred. Among a total of around 100 victories, he also won the DOS-Ras Race Across Slovenia four times; the Tour Direct twice; and the Tortour (a non-stop cycle race around Switzerland) earlier this year.

Robic placed heavy reliance on his support team of six Slovene soldiers to act as his brain when his mental faculties deteriorated. Among other methods to motivate him, the team would sometimes blare Slovenian marches through a loudspeaker or tell him that his home town was only a few kilometres ahead. "He was very polite and nice when he was not on the bike," one member recalled. "During races, he was absolutely the most unpleasant person you could imagine."

Jure Robic died on September 24 when he collided with a car on a mountain road near his home in Jesenice.

His marriage was dissolved, and he is survived by a son. His brother, Saso Robic, a former professional skier, committed suicide in August.

 

Edited December 1, 2010 by fandacious

[GrumpyOldGuy]

Hmmm, interesting character.

 

.....a bit too hard core for me though.

[koukie]

This IS hardcore!!! I think overtraining is a "myth"!

[Just Keep Pedaling]

I think most cyclists have an unconscious desire to be like Robic...

 

(note: I said unconscious - so denial of this will not further your argument any)

[HowellingWulf]

Jeez, that is super hardcore. His mineral intake is probably real minerals. Probably eats an iron file in the morning and washes it down with sulphuric acid just because he likes the taste.

[HowellingWulf]

He began cycling as a child and, during his early twenties, rode with small Slovenian teams, supporting himself by working for a dealer....

 

Definite drug use here!

[HowellingWulf]

OK finished reading the article now. What a sad end to a truly remarkable athlete's life....

[LeTurbo]

Slovenian marches over a loudspeaker? Pathetic. You'll recognise me in training by my support team of Caledonian bagpipers.

[FlashJordan]

518 miles in 24hrs!! That's a 34km/hr avg. for 24 hrs straight!!!! ... and then keep going! Thats CRAZY hard core!

[Danger Dassie]

Farrrrrrrkit! ... What a character, this is what cycling is about, personality

['Dale]

Frail, you out there?

 

You would be a good candidate for this type of endurance event - stamina, love a daring challenge, etc.

[fandacious]

Slovenian marches over a loudspeaker? Pathetic. You'll recognise me in training by my support team of Caledonian bagpipers.

 

Swedish strippers...

[Shebeen]

sjees, why did it take so long for the news to travel?

 

this oke was insane. just reading his training schedule was enough to make you want to flog your bikes.

even in winter when the roads are frozen and stuff he would just hike up and down the mountain.

[NielC]

Stories like this always makes me feel that I am not anywhere close to raising the bar on my own mental and physical limits! It really brings about a deep desire to push harder, further, faster in both my work an sport! Wow!

[GrumpyOldGuy]

sjees, why did it take so long for the news to travel?

 

this oke was insane. just reading his training schedule was enough to make you want to flog your bikes.

even in winter when the roads are frozen and stuff he would just hike up and down the mountain.

 

Yeah, people like this are very one dimensional, the event becomes their lives and nothing else matters.

 

Its similar in many endevours, I read a book about a guy who found a U-BOAT off New York, finding the history and the name of the U boat became his life, he ended up bankrupting himself personally, he drained all the funds and put his business into liquidation, his wife divorced him, his kids stopped speaking to him, he lost his house and lived in his car he actually ended up with only one friend, and that was his dive buddy - the quest took over his life, he eventually achieved his goal, "but what the cost?" - reading a bit about Jurie it seems he was pretty similar.

[NielC]

Yeah, people like this are very one dimensional, the event becomes their lives and nothing else matters.

 

Its similar in many endevours, I read a book about a guy who found a U-BOAT off New York, finding the history and the name of the U boat became his life, he ended up bankrupting himself personally, he drained all the funds and put his business into liquidation, his wife divorced him, his kids stopped speaking to him, he lost his house and lived in his car he actually ended up with only one friend, and that was his dive buddy - the quest took over his life, he eventually achieved his goal, "but what the cost?" - reading a bit about Jurie it seems he was pretty similar.

 

I agree but instead of thinking of them as 'madmen' I always ask myself what I can learn from it and how I can push myself beyond my own boundaries - getting out the comfort zone so to speak. I think alot of our thinking is also moulded by society. I never even knew of a tougher race than the TDF, but seeing what this guy did makes them look a bit 'soft' (for lack of a better word! We need to get off our asses and get going!