By Emery Paquette
  

  20 teams. 120 riders. 1 winner.
  
  It isn't exactly Survivor: Russia. But it's close.
  
  Come Day 41, some of the best riders on the OCM circuit will be contesting the 4 stages of the Perm Tour. It's only two days of racing but is far from being an easy ride in the park. For one thing, every one of those 160 cyclists will be pedalling away not just to keep touch with the leaders, but also to keep their core body temperature up. For when the race gun goes off and the riders push off at the traditional start point on Hill 52 in Ochjor, they will be descending into their own personal frozen hell.
  
  It takes more than just talent and willpower to conquer Perm. And each and every one of those riders know it the second the race starts. For while to finish is an achievement in itself, to conquer is to ascend to the pedestal that few of the greatest riders in OCM reach.
  
  Stage 1 is a relatively hilly 178km ride through inhospitable Ochjor. There is supposedly a town nestled away somewhere in this arid waste, but it is of no consequence for the peloton will not come anywhere near it. If any of them manage to navigate their way through the tough opening course without the obligatory share of punctures and crashes, they will find themselves faced with a dash to the finish. If the specialist sprinters have managed to hold on till then, it is all set up for a sprint finale. Things get a bit more tricky if the leading group have managed to shake them off. In this kind of no holds barred racing, it is usually the one who wants it the most that gets the win. After 178km of tough riding, with your lungs screaming in pain, and the only living thing you've encountered being the snivelling competitor hanging grimly onto your rear wheel, you really don't have much left to contemplate whether it is worth killing yourself that little bit more for personal glory.
  
  There is little time to rest up before Stage 2 begins. This time, the teams will be travelling to Perm, the place

where the tour gets its name from. The race distance is officially 187km, but that extra 9km holds little significance considering the four categorised climbs that await those brave enough to continue on the tour. Many a strong rider has quit at this point, for it takes some freak on nature to even consider tackling mountains after the grueling first stage. The climbers will no doubt reign supreme in this stage, while the sprinters will be happy just to make it to the end alive. The final climb of the day to terminate the race stage is the hardest of the lot. The other 363 days of the year, the only travellers to attempt the climb are the sprightly mountain goats. You have to be crazy to volunteer for Perm. And it's only halfway through.
  
  Overnight, the riders will attempt to grab some sleep over the protests of groaning muscles and aching bones. The morning sunlight will not be welcome at all, as it heralds the arrival of Stage 3, a somewhat tame sounding 48km time trial through the streets of Perm. It must be nice to be back in civilisation once again, as the city's population of more than 1 million inhabitants will no doubt turn out in force to watch and snigger at the spectacle of crazy foreigners in tights pedalling like mad on a tricky course around the city. The task is not made any easier by the fact that parts of the city slope upwards ominously. It is not a sight for sore bums and blistered feet. The fact that you are riding alone and not with your buddies makes it so much more worse. The leering crone of a woman grinning gaptoothed at you over the metal barriers streetside does little to cheer you up.
  
  As if it is not enough racing to put you off the sport forever, the riders have to undergo one final indignity, the fourth stage of the Perm Tour. The Perm Parade is anything but a formality, and while the route is fairly level throughout, this only leads to a bunch sprint right at the end. It would be such a horrible end for any rider to get through the opening three stages of the tour only to crash at the final hurdle. And yet it has happened on numerous occasions before.
  
  As the locals say, you have to be crazy to ride in Perm.