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Bicycling (long-distance): The sixth semi-annual Pan-American Great Race. This is a

bicycle race from Prudhoe Bay, Alaska, USA to Ushuaia, Argentina. The Pan-American Great Race starts at the official beginning of Spring at each location, thus twice per year. The race route must go through the downtowns of Fairbanks, Alaska; Calgary, Alberta; Billings, Montana; Denver, Colorado; San Antonio, Texas; Mexico City, Mexico; San Salvador, El Salvador; Panama City, Panama; and Lima, Peru. Each city that wants the race to travel through its downtown has to offer a meaningful cash prize to the first 1,000 cyclists to do so. These milestone cash prizes must be directly and immediately deposited into the cyclists’ bank accounts so teams (cyclist[s] and pursuit vehicle[s]) can access such funds to help pay for their race expenses. [For the race to be an event that people will travel a long distance to see, it needs to last more than a few seconds. By having prize money given to the first 1,000 cyclists who pass through, the tourism association can guarantee that it will be at least a day-long event.] If needed, cyclists must use mountain bikes across the Darien Gap.

Cyclists may use a variety of different bicycles over the course of the race. Cyclists do not have to carry anything with them. Each cyclist must have at least one pursuit vehicle: it must digitally videotape her/his entire journey and the digital contents are regularly reviewed by race officials traveling with the cyclists each night. The pursuit vehicle must have a GPS locator that race officials and the race’s official website can use to track the racer’s progress and location. All pursuit vehicles must have four blue and four red flashing lights on top of them. Based on the color shift that occurs during the Doppler Effect, the pursuit vehicle of the current race leader must have its red flashing lights activated and the pursuit vehicle of the cyclist in the 1000^th place must have its two blue flashing lights activated. [With the Doppler Effect, things pulling away from you have a red tint to them and things behind you and catching up have a blue tint to them.] This way spectators know for sure which is the leader and which is “pulling up the tail” in the race. [Very likely, the leader will become known as the "Red Racer" and 1000th place cyclist as the "Blue Racer."] Cyclists may not draft behind any vehicle or non-race cyclist. Cyclists may travel as teams. The race is non-stop in that there are no official stops for cyclists. Cyclists may travel as long as they wish to each day and are allowed to sleep alongside the road. Cyclists may sleep in a motorhome (or even in a hotel) and may stop for meals (and restroom breaks), but they must start the next period of cycling at the exact spot at which they stopped for their rest period. Someone from each cyclist’s pursuit vehicle must clearly mark the ground where the cyclist’s last cycling period ended so it is clear where the cyclist must start for the next cycling period. Cyclists may cycle during the night, which is encouraged when cycling through hot deserts.

Future Challenges:

1) First North-America-to-South-America race to have the Governor of Alaska fire the starting pistol.

2) First South-America-to-North-America race to have the President of Argentina fire the starting pistol.

3) First TV documentary to document the full running of one of the races.

4) First reality TV show to cover both semi-annual races from beginning to end for three years straight. [Very likely such a show will pick a few, if not several racers and follow their attempts to win the races. The TV production company loading up the pursuit vehicles of these racers with video and audio equipment to get as much high-quality footage as possible for their editors to work with and this possibly resulting in the pursuit vehicle crews becoming more the stars of this show than the racers themselves.]

5) First blind person to finish the race. [Blind people can ride bicycles by themselves by using echolocation. They click their tongues and can literally hear objects around them.]

6) First person under the age of 13 years to complete the race.

7) First person over the age of 64 years to complete the race.

8) When the Bering Strait Bridge is constructed, first semi-annual Pan-American Great Race to be converted into the first annual Pan-World Great Race. This expanded race goes from the southern tip of Africa, up Africa, through the Middle East, through Russia, across the Bering Strait Bridge, and down the Americas to the southern tip of South America. Each year thereafter, it alternates which end at which the race begins.

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