Great Divide Race | UltraRob's Adventures

Help Me Do the Race Across America Again

June 26th, 2007

There’s a lot that goes into doing the Race Across America. The long hours of training, making a nutrition plan, convincing at least 6 people to take 12 days to cross the country and the list goes on. One of the hardest things if you’re not a top rider is coming up with enough money. I think even the top riders struggle with getting sponsors.

When I did RAAM last year, I didn’t do very well getting enough sponsors. A big thanks goes out to the sponsors I did have. I ended up spending a lot of my own money to make RAAM happen for me. Money is the biggest factor as to when I attempt RAAM again. Time to train is another factor but that can be helped with enough money.

There’s an easy way you can help me get the money to do RAAM again. It won’t cost you any extra and it might even save you some money. At the top of this page there is a cycling and outdoor gear search box. I have over 150,000 product entries from over 40 cycling and outdoor gear stores. They include companies like Price Point, Performance Bike, Bike Nashbar, Jenson USA and I’m working on adding more. Each time you make a purchase, I get a commission and I’ll use it to do RAAM or maybe I’ll make a detour along the way and do the Great Divide Race.

You can also help by linking to my cycling and outdoor gear search page if you have a blog or website. Even if you don’t have a lot of traffic, it still helps for you to link because search engines rank sites with more links higher. Thanks for helping me continue to pursue my dreams.

Tags: cycling, Great Divide Race, RAAM, Race Across America, ultra cycling
Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment »

Race Across America Day 5

June 14th, 2007

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
Posted in Bike, Road Bike | 2 Comments »

Be Nice to Mr. Nice

March 6th, 2007

The Race Across America has been called the world’s toughest sporting event. Some people have put other races such as the Iditarod Sled Dog Race that is taking place now above it on the list. One race that didn’t exist when the list with RAAM at the top came out was the Great Divide Race. It was started in 2004 and at least for those trying to be fast it has to be harder than RAAM. It starts at the Canadian border and finishes at the Mexican border and basically follows the Continental Divide.

Last year Dave Nice started the Great Divide Race. While he was still in Montana, he was tired and took a nap along the road. When he woke up his bike was gone. I can’t imagine the feeling of waking up in the middle of nowhere and my bike being gone! I believe he had to walk about 30 miles to get to the closest town.

Dave plans to do the race again this year. Not only that but he plans to do it on a fixed gear bike. To help him afford the race the Fat Cyclist is holding a raffle. He has a lot of great prizes lined up and only $5 gets you a virtual raffle ticket. You have until Saturday, March 17th to buy tickets. Please help out a fellow ultra cyclist in following his dreams.