Olympics 2010 - Skier Ted Ligety: The Two Sides of American Alpine's Golden Boy

American alpine skier Ted Ligety will compete this week, weather permitting, in Vancouver. See the schedule. See our Beyond the Olympics feature for training tips, ski trips, gear, and more.

Text by Christian Camerota; Photo courtesy of Shred Optics 

The lives of an entrepreneur and a ski racer seem diametrically opposed. That is, until you meet Ted Ligety. Ligety is not normal, of course. Far from it. How else do you explain a compulsion to fearlessly hurtle yourself down a 45-degree-angled, skating-rink slick mountain of ice at 70+mph? But that’s what Ligety has chosen as his career, at least for the time being. And he’s not shy about professing his love for the perks of his job.

“Sometimes you feel like there’s other stuff you’d wanna do,” Ligety admits when asked if he ever feels like he’s missed out on anything. “But at the same time, like, being a ski racer is a pretty kick ass job, you know?” He laughs freely at the thought. “You get to go all over the world and you get to ski…I mean, I wouldn’t be doing it if I didn’t love it as much as I do…my college friends are talking about fun college stories and I’m like, ‘Okay, well, I’m off in Europe right now winning races.’”

New Zealand Hiking Challenge: One Man, One Week, and 223 Miles of Trail

New Zealand's Great Walks, nine hiking loops that range from about 20 to 50 miles around, provide the country's ultimate scenic tour. "They're iconic long distance hikes," said Kiwi adventurer Malcolm Law. “The very best New Zealand landscapes.” Good thing, because Law's sure going to need something to distract him on his daunting endeavor.

Starting November 25, Law, 49, will attempt to do in a week what might usually take a month: covering seven of the Great Walks in as many days on foot—that's 223 miles of challenging trail running. Law came up with his 7 in 7 Challenge to raise money for Leukemia research—a cause that's been close to his heart since age nine, when his older brother died of the disease. From the time he sold his market research business last year and began training for the event, to the day that Law embarks on the challenge, he'll have run roughly 2,000 miles in preparation. “You just have to remind yourself," he said, "would you rather be out here feeling some pain in this beautiful scenery, or giving a presentation to a bunch of people about toilet rolls?”

Lance Armstrong and Other Top Cyclists Race Onto the Big Screen

As cyclists—including Lance Armstrong (pictured)—dealt with the 100-mile trail and 14,000-vertical-feet climbs for the annual Leadville 100 mountain bike race this past August, cameras followed to catch all the drama in the former mining town in Colorado. Now, Race Across the Sky: Leadville Trail 100 is set to debut on October 22 at 8pm EST in select cities. Along with the film, all audiences will be privy to a pre-recorded panel discussion with Armstrong (who, of course, won the race by nearly a half an hour), his coach Chris Carmichael, six-time Leadville 100 champion Davie Wiens, and other elite and amateur cyclists. They'll tell you how to use their personal, race-proven techniques to overcome every challenge, whether its the clock, the weather or a pesky 2 mile-high elevation. —Laura Buckley; Photograph courtesy of Race Across the Sky

Adventure Town Poughkeepsie?

Move over, New Paltz, Poughkeepsie is making its way onto the adventure town map. After 35 years of dormancy, Poughkeepsie’s now-complete railroad bridge opens up a new playground for hiking, biking, and taking in the Hudson River Valley, just in time for leaf-peeping season. 

At 212 feet high and 1 ¼ miles long, the Walkway Over the Hudson is also the world’s longest elevated pedestrian bridge and will eventually connect 25 miles of rail trails on either side of the Hudson. Some residents celebrated the opening of the bridge with a Rooftops to Tree Tops 5K Run yesterday, sponsored by the Mid-Hudson Runners Club.

So you missed the race? Find a 5K in your area, check out runnersworld.com, a comprehensive race search engine where you can search by location, distance, size, type, name, and date range. Or click through runningintheusa.com or runtheplanet.com. —Michelle Faber

See our top 100 adventure towns here. 

The Amazing Race: A Previous Winner Tells All

Imagine a chance to travel all over the world with your best bud and share a million dollars—if you can handle the obstacles that true adventure travel throws at you. Well that’s The Amazing Race, which pits teams of two against each other as they race around the globe for the pot of gold at the finish line. With the premiere of season 15 at 8 pm EST on CBS, we wondered, what does it mean to win the race? ADVENTURE caught up with season three winner Zach Behr in New York. Behr, now a supervising producer on MTV’s Made, explains what you do when you win half a million dollars, the importance of experiencing local color, and the simple pleasure of eating Vietnamese chicken satay from a street cart.

So you won The Amazing Race and split a million dollars with your partner, Florinka Pesenti, a friend from your days at Vassar College. What'd you do with the money?

I took a chunk of it with my then girlfriend, now wife, and went to Costa Rica for ten days and traveled around. 

Lance in the Leadville 100…Lead Out or Lead-Out?

Lance Armstrong finished the Leadville 100 mountain bike race this past Sunday in record-shattering time, dethroning local six-time champ Dave Wiens. Then, again in record time, criticism started rolling in from various corners of the bike racing community.

Armstrong's most high-profile critic was USA Today cycling columnist Sal Ruibal. In what read as a half-joking Sunday evening post to his blog, he wondered aloud why a sponsored professional—especially one from Texas—was sandbagging in a local mountain bike race (about one-third of finishers were Coloradans)? And hadn't two pro riders for Trek—Matt Shriver and Travis Brown—given Armstrong a road race-style lead-out, pushing the pace upwards of 20mph during the opening dirt road portions?

Paddleboard Racing: The Hardest Adventure Sport You've Never Heard Of?

Text by Tetsuhiko Endo; Photo Bernie Baker, www.surfersvillage.com
Paddleboard racing is the hardest adventure sport you've never heard of, which makes Australian Jamie Mitchell the best athlete you don’t know. On Sunday, July 26^th, Mitchell won the unofficial world championship of the sport – the 32-mile Rainbow Sandals Molokai to Oahu Paddleboard Race – for a record eighth consecutive year, clocking in at four hours, 58 minutes and 25 seconds. While such dominance is almost unheard of in any sport, it is especially impressive in Mitchell’s case, due to the nature of paddleboard racing in and the difficulty of the Molokai to Oahu race.

Freeskier Kristi Leskinen is a Superstar, Officially

Text by Christian Camerota

Kristi Leskinen has skied all over the world, throws rodeo 720s, almost went pro in wakeboarding, and has graced the pages of everything from FHM to ESPN the Magazine. And tonight at 8 pm EST, ABC aired the finale of her latest project, The Superstars, a reality show that pairs Hollywood celebrities with professional athletes to take on assorted physical feats. The big news (in case you missed it): Kristi and her partner, Dancing With the Stars's Maksim Chmerkovskiy, won the whole thing. (Watch it on Hulu.com.)

The 28-year-old took time out from kayaking and biking along Newport Beach to talk about her recent footrace with Buffalo Bills wide receiver Terrell Owens, her favorite ski spots, and her Olympic aspirations, among other things.

Read the interview >>

Tour De France Update: King Cavendish and Ventoux's Shadow

Text by Christian Camerota

Neither the peloton's blistering pace nor the looming shadow of Mont Ventoux kept Mark Cavendish from his fifth stage victory of the Tour De France on Friday.

The sprint-prone Team Columbia star propelled himself to his Stage 19 win, edging Tony Martin and making him the first rider since Lance Armstrong in 2004 to capture that many legs of the race. Cavendish excelled despite an average peloton pace of over 46km per hour (28.5 mph), a speed that consistently increased throughout the 178 km distance.

"It's beautiful," Cavendish said of his accomplishment. "We were just determined. Today was a really, really hard day and we've seen five or six guys from my team just empty their tank and I'm sure they're going to suffer for it tomorrow and for them to put themselves in the box before Ventoux, to enable me to win, shows how special they are.  How they worked today was brilliant...just perfect."

Meanwhile, Lance Armstrong finished in the second group, gaining what could turn out to be four key seconds in the chase for the podium on Bradley Wiggins and and Andreas Klöden, who are fourth and fifth overall behind him.  He also gained four seconds on Andy Schleck, who is in second behind Tour leader and Armstrong's teammate Alberto Contador.

Though the Tour de France does not officially conclude until Sunday's ride into Paris and parade on the Champs-Élysées, that portion is largely ceremonial. Tomorrow's 167km climb to the top of Mont Ventoux, a mammoth peak of prodigious lore in the Tour's history, will determine the winner.

Riders will return to Mont Ventoux after a seven year absence and for only the eighth time in the Tour's history. The mountain is best known for its grueling ascents and for claiming the life of British cycliist Tom Simpson in 1967.

Tour De France Update: Rising and Falling

Text by Christian Camerota

It appears Lance Amstrong's role has decidedly changed: from contender to protector.

In years past the steep climb from Bourg-Saint-Maurice to Le Grand-Bornand, considered by many to be the 2009 Tour de France's most difficult stage, has left Armstrong looking over his shoulder at the competition and the valleys below.  But the 37 year-old Texan finished fifth in Wednesday's 17th stage, losing more than two minutes to tour leader and teammate Alberto Contador and falling to fourth place overall.

Contador extended his lead to 2'26", fending off multiple attacks by and finishing between Saxo Bank teammates and brothers Andy and Frank Schleck.  The three man group ended the day more than two minutes ahead of the nearest riders and rearranged the leaderboard as well, with the Schleck brothers now second and third respectively.

The most notable move of the stage, however, may have been Armstrong's lack thereof.  As opposed to accelerating to catch the lead pack and perhaps giving challenger Bradley Wiggins the opportunity to draft and pass Contador, Armstrong hung back and maintained his distance until he was sure his teammate and the race's current leader were out of reach.

"I was there stuck with Wiggins," Armstrong said afterward.  "I had to wait until it got steeper, when you knew you could definitely get away."

That point came with just under 9 miles left in the 105-mile ride, when Armstrong seized an opportunity to surge forward.  Still, it was too little too late and he ended the day 3'55" behind Contador.  His goal now, he admitted, is to be next to Contador on the podium when they reach Paris.

"I think it's possible," he said of finishing second.  "I just need to work hard on the time-trial tomorrow.  I've been very careful today."

Tomorrow's 40.5 km trial in Annecy represents a good chance for Armstrong to regain the ground he lost before Saturday's grueling climb into Mont Ventoux, as he typically excels in the individual portions.  In the meantime it appears that, barring a spectacular collapse or an unforeseen disaster, Alberto Contador will likely be this year's tour champion.

To follow the action live, the Tour has set up a great live feed here.