Race Across America Day 12

cycling, RAAM, Race Across America, ultra cycling | UltraRob | Thursday, June 21st, 2007 at 9:52 pm

There’s about 17 hours before the finish line cut-off for the 2007 Race Across America. There are still 10 men trying to make it to the finish line in time. Some have willing minds but unwilling bodies. I know that feeling all too well.

Yesterday when I wrote that it would be hard for Richard Vollebregt to catch Attila Kaldy, I hadn’t checked the time penalties. It turned out Kaldy had 4 penalties for 2 hours and 30 minutes. Vollebregt only had 1 for 15 minutes. The amount of time given for a penalty isn’t determined by what rule was broken but by how many previous penalties the rider had. The first penalty is 15 minutes and they keep being 15 minutes longer. Six penalties results in a DNF.

Rookie Jeff Oatley from Alaska crossed the finish line this morning in 7th place to be the first American finisher this year.

It looks like David Jones will be close to the cut-off but he currently is on pace to break the 60+ record by about 3 1/2 hours.

Although Kerry White didn’t make the Indianapolis time cut-off, she has continued to ride. There were so many e-mails about here that she’s being tracked unofficially. The last update showed her in Grafton, West Virginia.

This is Alessandro Colo 3rd attempt at the Race Across America. In 2004 he dropped out 1,191 miles into the race from saddle sores. That year I had ridden with him on a 4 day pre-ride of the Race Across Oregon course. He then did the Race Across Oregon only 2 weeks before RAAM. It didn’t seem like a good idea. I heard his butt was in pretty bad shape by the end of RAO so it didn’t surprise me when he dropped out of RAAM. In 2005 he made it to Pratt, Kansas. I never heard the whole story but it seemed to have to do with the hot weather, crew, and money problems.

Alessandro is now less than 110 miles from the finish and has been riding really well for the last day. It looks like he’ll ride the 2nd half faster than the first half. This is very tough to do as the body gets tired and sleep deprevation kicks in.

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