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Jure RobiÄ? in action down under. (Source)
If you have some time, The New York Times recently published a wonderful story about the Slovenian extreme-cyclist Jure RobiÄ? in their weekend sports magazine. RobiÄ? is a local bad ass who transcends the boundaries of sanity when he races. And I mean literally. He gets paranoid, aggressive, loses short-term memory, weeps uncontrollably and hallucinates. At one point, he says, he thought that mujahedeen were chasing him — and pedalled faster. His wife also tells the Times reporter: "The first time I went to a race, I was not prepared to see what happens to his mind. We nearly split up."
My favorite quote, though, is probably this one about Mt. Stol: "Three years ago, I got angry at the mountain. I climbed it 38 times in two months." Quite frankly, it’s depressing that this man struggles to remain financially solvent.
Read the full article here: That Which Does Not Kill Me Makes Me Stronger (bugmenot)
(Big thanks to Darko!)
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Dude, on a scale from 1 to 10, 1 being not so extreme and 10 being extremely extreme, I give this a 9.5!
Wow! (read the whole article). Amazing stuff. It’s the first time I hear about him. Let’s only hope that they don’t send him to Iraq.
The mujahedeen there will be real!
Micahel, Thanks for the mention. What struck me the most about
the articel, aside from the fact that the author obviously got a thrill
out of hanging around Mr. Robic, was that Jure Robic was/is such a
character. I’ve read other pieces on extreme athletes and, while
they share his obsessive nature, they never come across as interesting
folks; they seem to be happy in the dullness of their repetivity.
There’s obsessiveness and then there’s passionate obsessiveness.
Mr. Robic definitely has the latter. His financial sponsorship,
as you pointed out, is truly tragic. Perhaps your favorite
Slovenian Symbol, she of the twin peaks, wouldn’t mind pasting some Robic stickers where, uhmm, his sponsorship would be noticable.
Heh, so you never heard of the guy before, but you think someone should fork over some cash to sponsor him. What’s the point of sponsoring a guy nobody hears about anyway?The dude found a niche and does the sport for his own pleasure. If he were any good, he would be competing in the regular pro circuit. Tour de France and all that jazz. If he had success there, he’d have no trouble getting sponsors. So he knws what to do - quit being a weirdo pansy and go compete with some real men.
The stuff he’s doing is certainly more hardcore than the Tour de France. Definitely longer and harder and uncut. What makes me feel bad is that a mediocre athlete in a larger country can enjoy a nice salary, while this guy’s having trouble paying his food bills. I mean, goddamn. He’s a global talent.
Great article! I’ve always thought this extreme sportsmen are so incredibly typical for Slovenia!"an inky, vegetable-based soft drink he calls Communist Coca-Cola, left over from the old days" … are we talking of good olda Cockta?
I happened to catch this when it came out (I get a heads-up
from the New York Times whenever the word "Slovenia"
occurs in an article). The guy is fucking nuts. Somehow I missed the
quote about Stol. He got angry at a mountain? I suppose at some level I
admire his drive, but I don’t share his philosophy–mountains are to be
respected, revered, loved, caressed, and protected, not to get pissed off at.