The time station shown where I dropped to 5th from 4th was because I had been off the bike a lot because of my IT band and quads had knotted up on the left knee. In fact I finally got to the point of not being able to ride. At that time I got shuttled back to the last control point, Ulysses, KS, and slept until business hours and my crew was able to find a chiropractor with help from my family doctor.
In eastern Colorado we had 30-40 mph cross winds for hours. Talking to officials today, I found out riders a few hours behind us enjoyed a tailwind. Through fighting the wind, my pelvis managed to rotate which was causing the muscle problems. Over the next 2 days I had a couple chiropractic treatments and a couple massages. It was really frustrating because I felt good overall but had too much pain and even worse I couldn’t get any power out of my left leg. If it had only been pain, I probably could have pushed through it. Even though I was off the bike a lot I wasn’t sleeping much because of going to chiropractors, massages, and my crew was massaging and stretching me up to every 15 minutes when I was trying to ride. I had a decent day of riding yesterday but got really sleep deprived in an effort to get my speed back up. Even so I had to be stretched out several times.
This morning as I rode about 20 miles basically asleep on the bike, I realized I could not safely get my speed back up before the cut off tomorrow morning in Indy. Rather than draw it out, I rode to the time station at the Mississippi River and dropped out.
As to my thoughts on the Enduro category, I had issues with it before the race but because the time cut-off was longer plus known at the start I decided to do it. I didn’t like being forced to sleep at certain locations but never realized how bad the mandatory stops would be. With the regular control points you can shift your sleep a couple hours one way or the other but the mandatory stops can end up totally throwing off your sleep schedule.
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Tags: cycling, RAAM, Race Across America, ultra cycling
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Congratulations on a great race! We were pulling for you all the way, and we’re proud of your accomplishment! I don’t know any one else who could do even 10% of the race you just did!
Sorry to see your having to drop out. I was following you on the net all the way. If I had to get up at night to put Muffin out I would check your progress and try to guess when you would get to the next TS. Looking forward to seeing you.
Uncle Lew
You did AWESOME! It was fun to follow you through out the race! We were rooting for you! Bummer about your IT Band. Having had problems with that myself, I don’t know how you pushed on as far as you did! That was a great ride. So, are you riding next year?
Great job. I’m bummed to hear that medical problems plagued you, but encouraged by the way you fought through them as long as you did. I’m curious if you’re going to enter again next year. Either way, it’s an amazing story.
Hey Rob, I hope your IT band feels better now that you’re off the bike. Bummer that you didn’t make it to NJ, but dang, what a ride! What an amazing thing to do! I hope you’ll post more thoughts and stories once you’ve rested and recovered.
It was an inspiring effort. Thanks!
Still an incredible effort Rob. You should be proud. I can’t even fathom the effort it took, nor the emotions involved when facing those physical setbacks. WTG. Big round of applause.
Much Respect
JB
Well done Rob. Sometimes heroes win, sometimes they go down fighting. You clearly fought with everything you had, and that’s something you should be very proud of.
awesome perfromance!!!! just having the guts to line up makes you amazing in my book!!! i have no doubt we’ll see more of you down the road!!!!!!
Hey man, great job. You rode my monthly average in about 3 days!
Botched