Long Distance Competition/Ultracycling, Randonneuring and Endurance Cycling - Race Across America ...

... has begun.

http://www.raceacrossamerica.org/


A friend of mine is on Team JDRF. :)

... has begun.

http://www.raceacrossamerica.org/


A friend of mine is on Team JDRF. :)

Team 207, Joe Peterson and Kevin Mcnulty. Joe is from Bakersfield, CA and I'm live there too. I've ridden with Joe, when he lets me. He's fast!

Kevin McNulty lives up the road from me. He appears at the local TT and smokes the field every now and then. :) The B-Team looks to be doing pretty good, don't know if they can take Peterson and McNulty, but they'll keep them honest. Team IWC Schaffhausen looks pretty good too. You know what they say about RAAM though, it doesn't actually start until the Mississippi.

Is there any television coverage of RAAM? I thought I heard something when watching Cyclism on versus but I cant find anything in the lineup.

-D

Probably post race in november or something. Until then, here's the best coverage you can get.

http://stats.raceacrossamerica.org/2007/reports/TS/4.html

Either that or call your buddies who are crewing, but they have better things to do than update you all the time, so stick with the refresh button on the website.

A fellow is posting some field reports on YouTube:

Try this (http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=RAAMFieldReporter)

Bike Forums SoCal regular George Vargas is on Team Beat Cancer. One of my fellow club members, David Jones, is doing the Solo ride. He is 61.

Machka-
I know two riders on the JDRF team-Mark Metcalfe & Brenda Barnell (the Texans). Mark is an incredible rider.

... has begun.

http://www.raceacrossamerica.org/


A friend of mine is on Team JDRF. :)

Machka, who is your friend on Team JDRF? I’ve ridden several events and some training rides with Bernie Barge.

Machka, who is your friend on Team JDRF? I’ve ridden several events and some training rides with Bernie Barge.

That's him!! :) I've also ridden a number of events with him, and have been communicating with him on forums and via email for .... oh ... about 5 years now!! Nice guy!

I spoke to Bernie and Brenda this AM - I'd sponsored a timestation for them (made a donation for gas money) and they rewarded me with a phone call.

They seemed a little dazed from the desert, nothing serious but a "where am I? middle of the desert" kind of attitude. I mentioned that the desert is beautiful in its own way, just tell yourself that something's alive out there and the wonder will sink in. They were taking 30-minute pulls and approaching Congress, AZ / Yarnell Hill. No problems yet!

Bernie stated that they were probably saving Yarnell Hill for him, I declared that it was very nice of his team to do that. Personally, I think it's a big, nasty hill and it takes me well over an hour to climb it, but I ain't no RAAM rider! 7-9 miles, 1800 unrelenting feet of elevation gain, no flat spots whatsoever!

I reminded them that lots of abandons seem to happen after Yarnell, the change of altitude / cooler temps seems to get a bunch of people down, everyone should take their allergy medication. They were a bit out of touch, I was able to inform them of average speeds & relative comparison with other teams from the website. They're first in their division! (OK, they are the division but what the heck)

I was invited to call again - I'd love to pass along any well-wishes and such tomorrow

Have descended Yarnell hill on our tandem toward Congress in the Answer to the Challenge (with a headwind) broke the 50 mph mark without any problems.

Jure Robic just reached station 22 only 15 minutes after Wolfgang (in 2nd place) reached station 21!! He's destroying everyone!

And an interesting thing: almost everyone's overall average speed has gone down at EVERY time station but jure's has actually gone up a few times, hovering around 16+ mph.

That's him!! :) I've also ridden a number of events with him, and have been communicating with him on forums and via email for .... oh ... about 5 years now!! Nice guy!

I met him last year at the Central Coast Double and then rode with him for a while in the morning this year at the CCD. I run in to him doing training rides on the Central Coast of California. Very nice guy! I'm about the same size as Brenie, when we are riding doubles riders like to be behind us, great draft.

I met John Spurgeon (http://sabertoothsalmon.blogspot.com/) on a couple of brevets that he did with the Oregon Randonneurs (http://www.orrandonneurs.org/) this spring. He is riding on lugged steel single speed bikes made by two local framebuilders here in Portland. Single speed, as if riding RAAM was not enough of a challenge. And clearly he is from the Northwest, since he is the only rider in all the pictures I have seen to far on the RAAM web site who is riding with fenders.

Yeah, we passed him on RAO last year. We just thought he was some local out for a ride, until we saw his support van about a mile up the road. Fenders definitely said non-racer. I thought him doing RAO was insane on a fixie, but man...

edit- looks like he's using a single speed for raam. On video he's coasting in the gas station parking lot, still, I'd want to change gears. :)

Holy crap! Jure Robic's not only 2 time stations ahead of the 2nd/3rd place guys (with almost the same exact time) but he's doing it with 45 minutes of penalty time tacked on! (His penalties were his support group driving in an area they weren't allowed to and he rode against traffic when he missed a time station)

Robic is pretty ,much in the drivers seat, but Fasching always claims he can attack in the hills of missouri. The trouble is, everytime he's tried to pull that off - it's too hot in Missouri for him to work hard.

In any case, Fasching must close on Robic by Marthasville, MO, or the race will be completely controlled by Robic. Robic, hates anyone getting too close, if he makes the Illinois prairies out ahead, it's all over but the riding.....

What's even more incredible is that he's actually in third place among the two-men teams! The two men teams started afterwards, so they've only gone through about 15 stages and after 15, the third place team (which, remember can draft each other) was averaging 16.41 mph, after 15, Robic ALONE was averaging 17.06 mph!!!

Third place two man team was averaging 17.79 at TS 18.

http://stats.raceacrossamerica.org/2007/reports/rider/251.html

Yeah, yeah, they're recumbents, but remember, they "can't climb" and up to this point it's been mostly climbing. :)

Oh, here's some pre-race stuff one of the guys put together.

http://www.youtube.com/user/NMERider

Third place two man team was averaging 17.79 at TS 18.

No. You're reading the stats wrong. They averaged that speed for that TS alone. At TS 18, they were averaging 16.25 mph for the whole race.

So are there any restrictions on the type of bikes used in RAAM? Can the recumbents use fairings, can you use trikes, or diamond-frame bikes with 20" wheels etc?

So are there any restrictions on the type of bikes used in RAAM? Can the recumbents use fairings, can you use trikes, or diamond-frame bikes with 20" wheels etc?

You bet. The recumbents, faired or not, are in their own category. Wheels could be any diameter. If someone could qualify in one of those uniwheel bikes where the rider is inside the wheel even that. Restrictions would be is it safe? Do the brakes work? Does it have appropriate lights and such at night? In '89' two standard bikes with front fairings raced against two fully faired recumbents. Relays of riders powered them. Hand-cranked machines would likely be ruled out as they are too slow. Back in '89' a Nam vet started cranking across a month early. The lead recumbent ridden by Jim Penseyers passed him about half way across. Later the man who won the LA Wheelchair marathon crossed the country in about 19 days.

You bet. The recumbents, faired or not, are in their own category. Wheels could be any diameter. If someone could qualify in one of those uniwheel bikes where the rider is inside the wheel even that. Restrictions would be is it safe? Do the brakes work? Does it have appropriate lights and such at night? In '89' two standard bikes with front fairings raced against two fully faired recumbents. Relays of riders powered them. Hand-cranked machines would likely be ruled out as they are too slow. Back in '89' a Nam vet started cranking across a month early. The lead recumbent ridden by Jim Penseyers passed him about half way across. Later the man who won the LA Wheelchair marathon crossed the country in about 19 days.

They class them different. Recumbents have 3 catagories, unfaired, partially faired and fully faired. Both recumbent teams are on unfaired bikes, which in Bacchetta's case are real world ride everyday bicycles. The cool thing about RAAM is that it's a place where you're actually racing against the clock and anyone else who left the same time you did. Bacchetta is big on ultra races as it's one of the few places where recumbents aren't banned. Unfaired recumbents vs uprights in a distance event with climbing is pretty much a wash as any aero advantage the bent has is negated by the disadvantage climbing. Last year, Jim Kern pushed and got RAAM to list him with the regular riders, and not as the separate recumbent guy. He DNF'd in third place in the mountains, but gave them a good show. Then in July, Bacchetta fielded two teams in RAO, and took two third places. This year, there are 2 recumbent teams in FC508, and they should do well. When you start getting north of 100 miles, fit is everything, and I'd rather have a 20lb lounge chair than a 15-17lb wedgie under me at that point in the game. The Bacchetta's are becoming an excellent platform for distance riding. Here's the 2007 calvins report from the King of Calvins, Danny Chew. http://www.dannychew.com/2007Calvins.html

No. You're reading the stats wrong. They averaged that speed for that TS alone. At TS 18, they were averaging 16.25 mph for the whole race.

No, I'm not reading the stats wrong, I even posted the link to Bacchetta's stats. The 2nd and 3rd place two man teams are 250 and 251 right now. Heck, looks like they'll be passing 405 in a TS or two.

Here’s what was printed in our local paper about Joe Peterson, Two Man Team 207, short version. “Peterson began suffering from fever, vomiting and diarrhea before the Trinidad Fire Department and an ambulance were called for assistance at about 9pm. Thursday. He was taken to the Trinidad Community Hospital where he was stabilized and then transferred to St. Mary-Corwin Medical Center in Pueblo. Team manager Arin Resnicke said “they are dumping antibiotics and fluids into him”. There is a chance he will be released today.

Wish him well. Hope he's not too hard on himself, he was putting up a good ride with Kevin and kicking some butt.

Here's a race report by velonews.

http://www.velonews.com/race/dom/articles/12423.0.html

Hey!!!!! I Think I saw the RAAM leader, Jure Robic! I was driving back from Indianapolis (US Grand Prix), and instead of stopping for the night, I thought I'd drive straight through to get back home to Northern Virginia.

Between Cumberland, MD, and Hancock Maryland, US 68 parallels route 144, which is on the RAAM route. I saw a camper or van with REALLY bright lights going slowly up 144, and as we came up on it, I saw a biker in front of it climbing...and I thought..."Why would someone be riding out this late?"...then realized - that's a SAG vehicle.....and thought...."When is the RAAM?" (I didn't know it was going on right now)...

When I checked the standings, it said that Jure Robic had a 6 hour lead, and that he was about where I saw this rider.

That was REALLY cool to see, and got me alert enought to make it all the way home.

Hey!!!!! I Think I saw the RAAM leader, Jure Robic! I was driving back from Indianapolis (US Grand Prix), and instead of stopping for the night, I thought I'd drive straight through to get back home to Northern Virginia.

Between Cumberland, MD, and Hancock Maryland, US 68 parallels route 144, which is on the RAAM route. I saw a camper or van with REALLY bright lights going slowly up 144, and as we came up on it, I saw a biker in front of it climbing...and I thought..."Why would someone be riding out this late?"...then realized - that's a SAG vehicle.....and thought...."When is the RAAM?" (I didn't know it was going on right now)...

When I checked the standings, it said that Jure Robic had a 6 hour lead, and that he was about where I saw this rider.

That was REALLY cool to see, and got me alert enought to make it all the way home.


THAT is really cool! Too bad you didn't get a chance to yell encouragement his way. I want to see him set a record.

This year I was on the support crew for Team Phoenix, the two women team. It was 8 days, 18 hours, and 26 minutes of living in a van, sleeping only the minimum required, and eating crappy food. And to think I gave up a couple weeks of vacation to do it. When calling in at TS #53 the lady on the other end asked me if I would do it again. Heck yes! :)

Last year I was Jim Kern's solo effort, where he DNF'd in Cortez, Colorado. Fortunately this year I got to see the entire country. I had always wanted to see Kansas, once.

Speaking of hand cycles, last year there was a six person team from Austria. They started with the solo riders on the Sunday morning.

I guess I should stop by this forum more often; I'm also a friend of Mark Metcalfe. I rode with him a lot this last winter as he was recovering from last year's accident.

I'm just a beginner in the long distance stuff. I've been on a bicycle less than 3 years, and have ridden just one 100 mile ride and one 200k.

Here (http://www.bikeforums.net/showthread.php?t=316009) is a thread all about the crew perspective from RAAM.

I hope that this provides helpful information to people!