Bombing downhill in the Holy Land

Cycling blooms in the most inhospitable places. Take New York City. There are few places in the world that are less pleasant to ride a bike. Blocked bike lanes, flying car doors, a palpable grit in the air, legions of incompetent jerks on fixies.

This morning, someone pointed me to the downhill mountain biking scene in Israel. How can a scene thrive without the essential resources it would need -- in this case, you know, a lot of elevation.

Personally, I call it the "alpine skiing in Minnesota" theory: Why would this flatland state produce a disproportionate number of alpine skiers and snowboarders at, say, the Olympic level?

It's because what little elevation we have is skied and biked endlessly, in all conditions. My man Simpson calls this "doing sketches" for the big landscapes out West, and I think that makes a lot of sense.