I've still got more in my head regarding Patagonia; there's the navigation, my feet, sleeping bag and tent insights to share . . . but I'll save those for later this month. Instead, we've got a new Untamed Adventure Media section up on the homepage with a couple video snippets from the 2007 race. Scroll to the bottom of the home page if you don't see them straight away. Yes, we're entering the realm of multi-media and it's long overdue. The clip of the A-List transitioning cracks me up. Maybe it's because I've seen the clip so many times as we were wrestling to get it into web-ready format, but the muttered phrases from Scott Pleban are entertaining and illustrate just how serious a competitor he is. I get the impression he'd like for Jim to wrap up his chat with the film crew and get the hell out of there . . . not in a mean or angry way, just in a matter-of-fact "we're here to win this race, not to talk" sort of way. I also like the clip because it's a peak into the dynamics of that team and how each person helps the others out etc. You can just feel the energy bubbling out of Kristin Eddy, their female teammate, and how she's prodding them out the door. They're all very conscious of the clock ticking and a 4 minute (or 5 minute as Mike says at the end of the clip) turn-around is very speedy.
We've got a ton of footage and interviews to start bringing to the website, so let me know what you think and if you have any suggestions (you can comment at the bottom of each video clip or just use the "Contact" link on this blog). I'm particularly interested in knowing if the videos actually play in your browser -- it's one of those things that's hard for us to test so a broader field test by the readers of this blog would be very helpful. The Untamed Revolution, our 3 day alpine stage race coming up in about 6 weeks, will be a big beneficiary of this multi-media setup; we'll have video from each stage so that those who couldn't make it to Switzerland can still feel a part of the action.