Bonneville Salt Flats

This weekend 42 US riders will meet, greet, tell tales and enjoy a well-earned rest in Los Angeles, CA. As part of the 42-Below Vodka bike summer to build a buzz amongst vodka-drinking cyclists (and why not?), the 21 riders of the southern route and the 21 riders who took the northern passage will become 42. And so ends their ride across the United States.

42-Below has been filming the summer journey and will be releasing a film as part of next year's Bicycle Film Festival, but since Rapha helped by sorting out the riders with Stowaway Jackets so they were ready for the elements, a few of the riders have been sharing the more entertaining bits along the way.

We first met Chris at our White's Ferry Gentlemen's Ride in Washington D.C. earlier this summer, just a couple of weeks before he got the call from 42-Below group to head west. Chris sent this in of he and Kennedy riding across Utah's Bonneville Salt Flats, a natural wonder so flat, so dazzling, that it's a favorite location for filming car commercials and has been the site of hundreds of land-speed records.

Interestingly enough, the salt flats' potential for racing was first recognized in 1896 by W.D. Rishel who was scouting a bicycle race course from New York to San Francisco. I'm sure that W.D. and now Chris and Kennedy realize the flats' potential for eroding frames, cables, brake pads, rims and anything else that comes in contact with the salt floor.