t is now Day 5 of the 2007 Race Across America. Yesterday saw the leaders finish riding across Colorado and well into Kansas. Robic is still leading and increasing his lead. He should be into Missouri soon after dark tonight. Solo racers are now scattered all the way from western Colorado to eastern Kansas.
Yesterday saw the first DNFs of the race. Hana Ebertova dropped citing exhaustion and Fabio Biasiolo from a medical issue. Walter Blaettler didn’t pass any time stations after yesterday afternoon and today he was listed as a DNF from a vehicle accident. Latest report from the live updates on the Race Across America website says he was taken to a hospital and released so nothing too serious but enough to put him out of the race.
Lauren Fithian and Alessandro Colo passed through Cortez over half an hour after the official time cut off. I think adjusted for the staggered start it was around 10 minutes. With the teams still behind them and not being over the limit by much, I’m not surprised that they appear to have been allowed to continue. Lou Lamoureux came in nearly 11 hours over the limit. According to a post from his crew, he had been exhausted and was out of the race but he got energized and is back in the race. It will be very hard though for these racers to ride fast enough since everybody normally gets slower. Patty Riddle appears to still be riding and going through time stations although the next one is Cortez where she should have been yesterday.
I first became interested in RAAM about 20 years ago when I was 15 or 16. I began dreaming about doing it although for a long time I didn’t think I’d ever actually do it. Once there was a website, I would keep close track of the race as it happened. This year I thought it would be pretty much the same.
After my DNF last year, I didn’t think I’d be able to afford to do it again any time soon. There were other things I was interested in. I mentioned in a post a few months ago there was something else probably even harder than RAAM that I wanted to do. I started writing a post about it but things got crazy at work and that post is still just a draft. I thought I had moved on from RAAM but keeping track of the race the last few days has brought back so many memories. I’m not sure how I’ll pull it off but I now really hope to be back to RAAM sooner than later.
I won’t keep you wondering what else I’m interested in that I think is tougher than RAAM. It’s the Great Divide Race. This year’s race starts tomorrow. Text updates and audio updates will be posted as riders check in when they get places civilized enough to have a phone.
My friend Larry is planning on doing it next year. It would be great to do it at the same time he does. We could train and plan together. There’s a lot that would have to come together for me to be able to do it next year. It would also mean longer before I’d get back to RAAM.
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Tags: cycling, Great Divide Race, Jure Robic, RAAM, Race Across America, ultra cycling
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RAAM is harder. Less sleep, more miles, and you have to do it in under 12 days 2 hours or with-in 48 hours of the leader if doing traditional.
You’re right on the distance RAAM is just over 3,000 miles and the Great Divide Race is “only” 2,490 miles. However, RAAM is on pavement and the GDR is on trails and dirt roads. Each mile is harder so I still think GDR is harder just based on mileage.
RAAM has crews to take care of everything except for the riding. In GDR you can’t even use drop bags or have someone bring you supplies. You may be sleeping in a sleeping bag in the middle of nowhere.
True GDR doesn’t have a time cut-off so you can take it “easy” but if you want to be fast it isn’t much different than RAAM. This year in RAMM both Enduro and Traditional have a 12 day 5 hour cut-off.