An extreme bike race across Russia struggles to keep women in the pack

New York

THE Red Bull Trans-Siberian Extreme is the longest bicycle road race in the world, a gruelling endurance test of 14 stages that unfurl over 5,700 miles from Moscow to Vladivostok.

The distance is so great that riders pass through seven time zones. They roll over roads through forested hills, along highways clogged with trucks. They spin along pavement, cobblestone and gravel, and through meadows as vast as the eye can see.