A bike race at the North Pole: Sign up now

What should we call this? Is it cyclo-cross? A mountain bike race? It's certainly not a road race. Definitely call it historic.

I just learned that you can now sign up for a 2008 bike race at the North Pole. It will happen in April 2008, and participating racers will do 26.2 miles on a loop course at the geographic North Pole.

This will not be the first bike race at the pole, but maybe you still could call it that. The deal is that Richard Donovan, who organizes the annual North Pole Marathon for runners, is taking seven bikes and bikers to the pole this April, where they'll do a trial bike race on the same course as the runners and for the same length -- to see if this is feasible.

In April 2008, assuming everything works out OK, Donovan will hold the first real bike race.

Start saving your pennies, because the entry fee (which includes a bike you get to keep, air travel to the North Pole, and food and lodging before and after) is pricey: €12,000. It can't be cheap to fly contestants to the pole and keep them warm for 48 hours in heated tents (except when they're out on the course or on the ice sightseeing).

Donovan says the race is for "bike extremists." If that's you, check out the North Pole Bike Extreme website.

(BTW, sister website YourRunning.com is sending an entrant to the North Pole Marathon this April. I'm hoping that Bobby Bostic will bring us back some photos of the first mountain bikers at the North Pole.)