Hipcycler

Did you watch the TV show Sat?

The old dude with a broken pelvis makes it!
Those guys are crazy, in an inspiring way of course.

jppe

I caught the last half and agreed it was a great show. It made the 100+ mile rides that I've done that I thought were fairly challenging take on a whole new meaning. I can't imagine being in a saddle for as many hours as those guys, going without sleep, etc. The fellow with the broken pelvis, neck support was incredible. Talk about mind over body........

livestrong91

Nooo! I forgot to watch it!

slvoid

The pelvis guy was kickass. I mean all the other guys are kickass too but that pelvis guy, you gotta give it to him. Almost like Tyler finishing that stage with a broken collar bone.

Richard Cranium

I think it was best "RAAM" show ever put together. Too bad there couldn't be a little more balance of film-time for all the riders.

I think it was pretty neat how the producers finally melded enough info about the support-crew/rider dynamics to give the viewer a real feeling of just how weird the whole race is.

norton

I hope the broken pelvis guy doesn't have future health problems....

socalrider

The broken pelvis guy was very inspiring in an insane kind of way that a lot of cyclists can relate too..

I just found some older Raam races 1985 -1986 that I just converted to DVD. Great for those long days inside when the weather doesn't cooperate.

I am still amazed that Jock Boyer won the Raam being a traditional road racer his entir career.

sdouglaslt

That was increedible. You know, after watching that show, I was going to post a new thread called "We get no respect" because it amazes me that these guys did what they did, and it garnered little more attention than a 5K run. When is America going to recognize cycling for the challenging sport that it is? If these guys would have been runners or doing a RAM on roller skates, they would have been headline news for the whole duration. Instead, all they got was 90-minutes of a non-advertised show that was buried on the Saturday afternoon program schedule. How about a LITTLE heads-up to those of us who might actually be INTERESTED in their accomplishments! I mean, c'mon, these guys were getting broken bones, dehydration, physically exhausted...that's a hell of a lot more challenging than what the Hollywood wanna-be's do on Survivor.

I need to go ride.

OK, I'm done ranting.

JoeOxfordCT

Ok...I'm going to take what will probably be seen as an unpopular stance on RAAM. Now don't get me wrong, I have nothing but the utmost respect for the courage and dedication that these guys put into training and preparing for this event......but

Riding for so long that your neck muscles give out and you have to strap a bungee cord to the back of your helmet to keep your head upright not what cycling's all about.

Riding for so long that your muscles begin to break down which in turn causes your kidneys to begin to fail is not what cycling's all about...

Getting run over by your own support vehicle is not what professional cycling's all about...

Is that really the face of competitive cycling that we want to show the country and/or the rest of the world and to inspire young riders ???

But I will temper that with my appreciation of the team riders......at least they finished the event looking fairly fresh and didn't have to celebrate in the emergency room. Other than that I'll stick to reruns of the TDF on DVD thank you...

Of course the chief athletic event on tap today would be snow shoveling followed by NFL playoff watching...

Go Patriots & Falcons !!!

SDS

I'm conflicted too. There's cycling on television, but the way it was presented looks like that NBA bleacher brawl a few months ago. It looks like "....the human drama of athletic competition..." when I KNOW those guys had to do a RAAM qualifier, which is already a harder nut than I ever want to bite down on...

Actually I wish that that broadcast of RAAM had not happened, because it confirms the opinions of sedentary SUV drivers about cyclists (all those skinny cyclists are sacrificable flakes at best...).

Robich (?) and Trevino and the teams looked pretty good, but the slower riders just made me shudder.

I've done a 400K. I've done 300's and I often do 200's. I have friends who have done PBP and BMB. These days I don't like to do more than 200 before I go home.

It seems to me that the presentation could have been better, and the event choice could have been better. Wouldn't the CoreStates Pro National Championship (Manayunk Wall, etc., what do they call that these days?) have been better? If it had to be an ultra event, wouldn't the Furnace Creek 508 have been better?

I'm uncomfortable with the reported incidence of initial organ failure during the event. It seems to me that the risks evidently normally incurred as part of the event exceed my definition of sport, let alone cycling.

DXchulo

Well, RAAM coverage is better than nothing, and nothing is what we usually get.

I enjoyed the RAAM coverage, and I admire all of those guys. I think this sort of "cycling drama" would be more appealing to the masses than coverage of a normal race. Like it or not, most people think watching guys ride around on bikes is just plain boring. I mean....would you want to watch a marathon? I admire marathon runners, but I don't run, so just watching guys run around seems pretty boring to me.

I have to disagree with the notion that RAAM isn't what cycling is about. Cycling is beautiful in that it can mean so many different things to so many different people. To some people, riding around in the mountains is the beauty of cycling. To others, riding on a leisurely tour to see some scenery is what cycling is all about. To me, riding fast on the emptiest road I can find to get away from it all is what cycling is all about. But I think all of us can relate to what these guys did...It was just man on bike surrounded by the elements in a quest for self-improvement. Sounds like the spirit of cycling to me.

pjbaz

Sorry, I didn't see this thread when I started the other one.

Guest

And no one saw the original thread that's been going on for a few days now.

https://www.bikeforums.net/33-road-bike-racing/84215-nbc-air-raam-04-jan-22-a.html

Please continue your discussions there.

Thanks!

Koffee