I'm not counting Ryan out yet. First of all, and most important, he's 22. Most of us are so far past 22 that we don't remember how much your body can take at that age, and how quickly it recovers.

Second, many touring cyclists start slowly and build up. This is especially likely to be true for somebody such as Ryan who was so incredibly poorly prepared and equiped.

On the other hand, it seems he may be stuck in Phoenix for a while trying to accumulate enough gear to be self-supported. And he's likely to be in for some surprises about how much more work that is.

Some of you seem to be hoping he'll fail--I really hope that's not true.

Regardless of whether you support him or not, you've got to admit that he does generate a buzz. 342 posts have been recently entered about him in this forum alone, not even counting the 85 posts entered in the "Assistance or Freeloading" thread which seems to have been inspired by his trip.