Humph, grumble. The TransAm is a touring route, IMHO, designed to stretch ordinary cyclists a bit while giveing them a cross-sectional view of the U.S. Trying to turn this into a race is like challenging a few thousand motorcyclists to see how fast they can ride the length of the Ice Fields or Blue Ridge Parkway. I hope nobody does something stupid like dies in a car accident, or cause someone else to die while avoiding a sleeping cyclist, as seems to happen periodically in the RAAM. RAAM changes its route a bit every year, and it's designed as an endurance race. TransAm is basically unchanged for the last 27 years. and I'd hate to see it having to shift to avoid the negativity that could be associated with such an incident.