A hand picked team of South African adventure racers have joined forces and have begun training for the second annual Abu Dhabi Adventure Challenge scheduled to take place December 12th - 17th.

Back in June, Lisa de Speville, owner, editor, and Queen of Adventure over at AR.co.za, South Africa's premiere adventure racing website, announced that she was looking to build a team to compete in Abu Dhabi. Members of the AR community were invited to fill out an online form and questionnaire, and their answers were used to select the other three members of the team. You can read all about the selection process in this press release, where it is also revealed that Lauren Greeff of Johannesburg, Garth Pienke from East London, and Christiaan Greyling of Pretoria will join forces Lisa, also from Johannesburg.

When searching for a team, the press release reveals, it was important to look for chemistry and compatibility. Anyone who has ever been in an adventure race, knows that those elements are often what separates teams in the field. The questions given to the applicants were designed to help determine who would work well with one another. In the end, there were 36 applicants, including 9 women, and these racers were selected from that pool.

Lisa is best known for her excellent work in writing about races, and has covered events for both SleepMonsters and Checkpoint Zero. She recently covered the Bull of Africa which took place in her home country just a few weeks back. You can also read her insightful blog at AdventureLisa.blogspot.com. This will be her first chance to actually compete in a race outside of South Africa however, and I'm sure she's very excited at the prospect.

Good luck Team SA! I'll be following your progress and cheering you on in Abu Dhabi!

Costa Rica's national parks are its greatest glory. The Costa Rican authorities have set aside one-third of the country as protected areas, and dozens of private wilderness reserves have helped elevate Costa Rica to star status for ecotourism. The country has a stunning variety of landscapes, microclimates, and flora and fauna, and nature lovers will not be disappointed by the superb wildlife viewing. Visitors looking for an active holiday are spoilt for choice, with options from whitewater rafting to surfing. In urban areas, the country's Spanish heritage provides the main features of interest, although sites are relatively few.

Columbus landed in what is now Costa Rica in 1501. Under the rule of General Tomas Guardia between 1870 and 1882, Costa Rica developed many of its principal modern characteristics, notably the minimal role of the Catholic Church in secular matters and an adherence to the principles of democracy. Throughout the 20th century, Costa Rica has enjoyed peace and a steady growth in prosperity, with the notable exception of a civil war in 1948, which followed a disputed presidential election. Significantly, Costa Rica is the only country in the region to have abolished the national army.

In recent times, one of the most prominent political figures has been current President Oscar Arias Sanchez, who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1987 for successfully bringing warring parties elsewhere in Central America to the negotiating table.

About a six weeks ago, in the middle of the Tour de France, I posted a story about Greg LeMond and his legal woes with Trek Bicycles. The two have sued one another over implications that each has done things to harm the others business. Trek accuses LeMond of damaging the sales of his line of bikes, which they build, because of his outspoken criticism of Lance Armstrong and the state of cycling in general. LeMond says Trek is in breach of contract since they down played his line of bikes to more fully support and promote Armstrong.

Well, just when you thought it couldn't get any stranger, along comes this story from BicycleRetailer.com which says the following, and I quote directly from the article:

In an odd twist, an inmate at a federal prison in Williamsburg, South Carolina filed a motion to intervene in the lawsuit in July, alleging that he and other inmates produce bikes for LeMond under the Federal Prison Industry Unicor Program for 12 cents an hour, a violation of minimum wage laws. The inmate also claimed LeMond bicycle are shipped to Iranian troops for training purposes, violating the “Training with Enemy” Act.

One word. "Wow!" So now we've got labor laws possibly involved and who knew that LeMond Bicycles were a threat to national security?!? Crazy stuff. This case is now expected to drag on into 2010, which is when the contract between LeMond and Trek was scheduled to expire anyway. You can't make this stuff up folks! (On a side note, in the image I used for this post, LeMond looks as shocked as everyone else to hear this news! And is that Gary Busey standing behind him?)

Thanks to The Goat Blog over at Backcountry.com for the heads up on this.