Fifty Plus (50+) - Anybody following RAAM?

A 50+ rider is leading the race today ( Boyer). Not sure how I feel about him, but a guy from my club is doing it, his first try, at the tender age of 60. He is going pretty slow, but still moving. I am amazed that he has gone this far and hope he can finish. His name is David Jones.

Marko Baloh is only 16 minutes back of Boyer. That is nothing in this kind of race.

Edit: Baloh also has a 15 min penalty 31 minutes is not bad.
Isn't Boyer a former Tour de France rider? He may be the better athlete.

In the traditional Fabio Biasiolo has a 50 mile lead. Thats over 3 hours of sleep at 15 mph and he would still be ahead.

David Jones is 395 miles back. At 10.83 mph that would be 36 hours back. As I remember the Mississippi River is the cut off if you are more then 2 days behind. At least that is the way the rules used to be.

I actually have 2 very good friends participating as part of a 4 man team. I can't believe they are doing it. Watch for Eddie Bates and Doug Brown. As part of the ride, thety raised $50,000 for charity. Good for them!

It's disappointing there aren't any good HPV entries this year. [no the handicapped entry doesn't count]

The Austrian handcyclists DO count. Those guys are maintaining an impressive average speed.

... His name is David Jones. The guy with the famous Locker? :)

The Austrian handcyclists DO count. Those guys are maintaining an impressive average speed.


No argument there. I was just hoping for some HPV type to lead the way in speed and then perhaps lead to more innovation in bike design.

The guy with the famous Locker? :)
No, and not the guy from the Monkees, either.

I am following Team Type 1, http://www.teamtype1.org/. This is a team made of of Type 1 diabetics. Check out the Website. These are some impressive people.

Phil Southerland is on the team. He used to live here in Tallahassee and his mother still does. Our non-racing bike club provided some financial support to Phil when he was an up and coming junior.

Boyer crashed not bad though. And one of his support cars crashed. Logistics problems for Boyer may allow Baloh to keep up.

Well, David Jones is out. His wife wrote that he was a little sick yesterday and he was advised to get off the course because of near tornado conditions. Waiting out the storm would put him too far back to be an official finisher, so he called it. Pretty awesome for a 60 year old recreational cyclist to go 1300+ miles in 5 days+.

Well, David Jones is out. His wife wrote that he was a little sick yesterday and he was advised to get off the course because of near tornado conditions. Waiting out the storm would put him too far back to be an official finisher, so he called it. Pretty awesome for a 60 year old recreational cyclist to go 1300+ miles in 5 days+.

I agree. My hat is off to anyone that rides in this race.

It's disappointing there aren't any good HPV entries this year. [no the handicapped entry doesn't count]

What is a good entry to you? Kern was doing fine til he had to drop out. Make it to Atlantic City yourself or as crew then comment. I was on the phones at RAAM HQ during the first HPV relay race back in the 80s and had the leader of the number two crew melting down on me at some unGodly hour of the night. Something about being unsafe to continue when they had to slice thru motor tafffic at 60 MPH in the dark. I later heard an allegation that they had gotten lost and were trying to finish by following the lead team through New Jersey, in traffic, at night.

1989, Lightning 4 person HPV team, over 24mph average. I would love to see pictures of great HPV racers:

-- lightning
-- P40's
-- any of the battle mountain wonder machines, see http://www.wisil.recumbents.com/wisil/speedruns2000/worlds-fastest-bicycle-2000.htm for examples.
-- a speed bike, ala http://www.speedbikebgl.de/eng/index.html ,or http://www.speedbikebgl.de/eng/sbc2004e.html the varna diablo

Basically any fairing, or innovative design that allows riders to go faster. Big problem with battle mountain is its not quite real world, they quit with heavy winds. How about a design that can handle winds? challenging, yes; but why not. One idea I have never seen tried, is having 2 side drop down stabilizer wheels for high winds. Think adult training wheels for fully fairing'ed bents. Then according to conditions, rider could drop one wheel for constant side winds to convert from a 2 wheel balance to a 2 wheel and 1 stabilizer wheel, or drop both stabilizer wheels for rotating winds.

Speaking of RAAM, why are they using cell phones for communication between pursuit vehicles and riders? Why not use walkie talkies? Some of them have a rated range of 5 to 12 miles.

Also, what's with the "enduro" category? Why not require at least 6 hours of sleep a day? It would be more interesting to be not just the quickest time from CA to Jersey, but quickest time without sleep deprivation.
Average speeds should rise which should help draw media coverage.

Also, why is there so little coverage of RAAM? Has this always been the case, or has it just fallen off this year?

I came across Daniel Wyss on my ride today about 30 miles from the Mississippi River. I snapped a couple shots of him and wished him good luck. He was in very good spirits considering he has been on a bike for almost a week straight. These guys/gals are amazing athletes.

View photos http://www.brendenmcnamee.com/cm/displayimage.php?album=9&pos=10

That must have been a lot of fun. If the course were closer, I'ld drop down and watch the riders also.
Good photo.