Right now three people are competing in a bike race from the edge of Antarctica to the South Pole. The winner will be the first person to bike there ever. And 35-year-old Maria Leijerstam is attempting to trike there on a really weird/badass-looking tricycle.
Leijerstam left the Novo Russian Airbase on December 17th on a recumbent tricycle by the British design group Inspired Cycle Engineering (ICE). Biking against two competitors with traditional bikes, Juan Mendez and Daniel Burton, she's hoping that her three fat wheels will provide stability and better traction during the grueling 400 mile, low temperature ride.
Leijerstam tested the aircraft-grade steel trike in Siberia, Norway, Iceland ad industrial freezers to make sure it was going to be reliable on her intense South Pole ride. Antarctic bike share coming soon. [Discovery via Digg]
This Tricycle Is Headed Across the South Pole