Was it the masochism or the miles? Either way, John Stamstad proves—yet again—that he is one badass rider.

Stamstad, 34, is a three-time winner of Alaska's 320-mile Iditasport Extreme race (not to be confused with its predecessor, the 160-mile Iditabike race—which, by the way, he won four times). We last profiled him in these pages in 1996 ("That Which Does Not Kill Me Makes Me Stranger"), and as his Great Divide odyssey makes clear, he's as impressive as ever: He managed to polish off the journey from northern Montana to the Mexico border in a mere 18 days and five hours. "Normal people take 70 days to do the ride," says Kevin Condit, spokesman for the Adventure Cycling Association, which finished putting together the route in the spring of 1998 after four years of negotiating access, splicing maps, and meticulously patching together a network of existing single-track, BLM trails, and Forest Service roads.

To achieve his time, Stamstad barreled along the spine of the Rockies with little more than a sleeping bag and some water, purchasing junk food at the occasional grocery store and logging a measly four or five hours of sleep each night. This month, he contemplates continuing his extended affair with jaw-dropping endurance quests by riding across Africa for the Travel Channel. "I'll have to miss 24 Hours of Moab," the soon-to-be cable star concedes. "But I'd just like something a bit more adventurous."
—PAUL KVINTA