Perhaps bored by the ho-hum world of alpine mountain-biking, bog-snorkelling competitors incorporate the threat of drowning into their extreme-cycling experience. The racecourse is a forty-metre-long, two-metre-deep water-filled trench cut into a peat bog. Cyclists wearing masks, snorkels, and lead-filled backpacks must complete two laps of the channel fully submerged riding bikes with water and lead in the tires to stop them from floating. Participants sometimes panic in the murky depths—in 2000, one woman had to be rescued twice before eventually winning the female title—but thanks to vigilant, wetsuited medics, all the entrants in the race’s eight-year history have made it out alive.
