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Race Across America - NE
USA, June 19-July 1, 2005
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Day 6 - June 24
Day 6 Race round-up
Women's Solo
Anna Catharina Berg, Berg continues to show strong legs each day. At 15:36 today, Berg traveled through Time Station #31, Collins, Missouri. So far she has put 1755.9 miles behind her with 1295.8 miles left until the finish in Atlantic City.
Men's Solo
Jure Robic seems to have first place sewn up for the moment. Robic last reported in from Time Station #38 in Marshall, Ill. at 14:20. He has less than 1,000 miles to ride to the finish but the mountains of West Virginia—the Mountain State—can often frustrate unsuspecting racers. Second-place Mike Trevino crossed the Mississippi River at 13:33 this afternoon. Trevino has covered 2012.2 miles with 1039.5 to go. With Marko Baloh withdrawing from the race with acute respiratory pneumonia, Fabio Biasolo moves into third place. Biasolo checked in from Time Station #34, Marthasville, Missouri at 12:30 having ridden 1943.1 miles so far with 1108.6 to go.
Two-person Mixed Division
With all three teams chugging along across Kansas, Grupo Guapo continues to maintain its lead over second place, Team Endorphins, with the Free Riders turning the pedals in third place. Grupo Guapo reached Time Station #26 in Pratt, Kansas at 17:29; they have ridden 1457.7 miles with 1594.0 miles to go. Team Endorphins passed through Time Station #24 in Montezuma, Kansas at 13:52. Team Endorphins has put behind them 1356.1 miles with 1695.6 miles still to come. The Free Riders called in from Time Station #23 in Ulyssees, Kansas at 16:47; they have pedaled 1305.5 miles with 1746.2 left to go.
Two-person Men's Division
Team Lower Austria-Krems stays steady in front having exited Kansas today. The team reported in from Time Station #31 in Collins, Missouri at 15:05. So far the team has gone 1755.9 miles and has yet to ride 1295.8 more miles. Nearly at the border of Kansas and Missouri, Team Crazy Gones called in from Time Station #30 in Fort Scott, Kansas at 16:30. Crazy Gones have packed in 1693.9 miles so far with 1357.8 still to come. Team 60+ hangs onto third place but could be set back slightly by a penalty for not calling in at Time Station #24 in Montezuma, Kansas.
Four-person Mixed Division
Cheniere's Making Cancer History succeeded in putting first place Landis Team Phoenix behind them by only 32 minutes at last check. Both teams called in from Times Staion #32 in Camdenton, Missouri with Making Cancer History posting a time check at 17:18 and Landis Team Phoenix at 17:50.
Pay attention, ladies and gentlemen, this could be the race that comes down to the line in Atlantic City.
Four-person Women's Division
Roaring Fork Volvo B2B Divas, With nothing controversial to report, the Divas race against themselves (perhaps in an effort to best last year's average speed?). The Divas last reported in from Time Station #30 in Fort Scott, Kansas at 14:39.
Four-person Men's Division
Team Beaver Creek-Vail overtook Men's Solo leader, Jure Robic, just past 17:00 this evening. Two veteran officials monitoring the Vail racers told of an awe-inspiring team that rotated racers through a non-stop paceline with expert efficiency. On course for an average speed record, Beaver Creek – Vail checked in from Times Station #39 in Putnamville, Indiana at 17:39. Having already ridden 2209.5 miles, the gentlemen from Vail have just 842.2 miles to go in this year's RAAM. In a race for second place Team Kern Wheelmen-Advocare sustains a narrow lead over Team IWC Schaffhausen with both teams checking in from Time Station #36 in Greenville, Illinois just 35 minutes apart.
Four-person Recumbent
Team ALS-Bacchetta sits comfortably in the lead with Team JDRF VeloKraft trailing by more than five hours. At time of release, ALS – Bacchetta had checked in from Time Station #36 in Greenville, Illinois at 18:12; JDRF VeloKraft was last heard from at Time Station #33 in Jefferson City, Missouri at 14:57.
Corporate Teams
Team Insight seeks to set two records in this year's RAAM: one for average speed and the other for completing the race in under six days. So far Team Insight shows promise to break the average speed record but with more mileage and greater elevation gains in this year's race, record #2 might elude the team. Riding with a record-setting pace of 20.1 mph, Team Insight last checked in from Time Station #34 in Marthasville, Missouri at 17:41. In the runner-up position, Team Donate Life called in from TS 33 in Jefferson City, Missouri at 17:52. Team Vern's Inc. appears to have passed Team Dry Heat and even opened up a 90-minute gap over Dry Heat. Vern's Inc. last called in from Times Station #30 in Fort Scott, Kansas at 18:02.
Chew's view: Vale Bob Breedlove
By Dan Chew
Day 5 of the 2005 Race Across America was jolted by the second fatality in the race's 24 year history. On Thursday at around Noon, 53 year old solo rider Dr. Bob Breedlove was killed when his bike collided with a pick-up truck West of time station 20 (Trinidad, CO) near the tiny town of Weston. Over 1,000 miles into the race, Bob had just climbed up 9,941-foot high Cuchara Pass. He was in 12th place and leading the 50+ division at the time of the accident, and trying to break his own 50+ transcontinental record average speed 12.26 mph set in 2002. The other death was two years ago when 30 year old Brett Malin hung a U turn at night in front of an 18 wheel truck he didn't see on the crest of a hill near Pie Town, NM. His 4 person Team Vail was leading the Team race when the accident happened. The race went on that year like it is this year. Both Bob and Brett died doing what they loved.
I had a great pre-race interview with the greatest RAAM rider to never win the solo men's race, although he has won the tandem division twice. Bob placed 7th in his rookie RAAM in 1988. In 1989, he set the still standing double transcontinental record of 22 days, 13 hours, 36 minutes by first riding from his home in Des Moines, IA to Irvine, CA as a warm-up for a 3rd place finish in RAAM that year, followed by a cool-down ride back home afterwards. In 1990, he won Tandem RAAM with partner Roger Charleville - their time was 46 minutes faster than solo winner Bob Fourney. In 1992, he won Tandem RAAM with partner Lon Haldeman - their time would have placed them 4th among solo finishers. In 1994, he placed 2nd in RAAM ahead of me.
Bob has been with his wife Gretchen since they were 6 years old. His fraternal twin brother Bill has been on all of his transcontinental crossings. Being in a group practice with 19 doctors made it easier for him to slip away for long rides. He used to ride 15-20,000 miles per year, but this year rode 8-10,000 miles, which were more quality. He has ridden 4 Paris Brest Paris' on tandems, and considers his 1999 Elite PAC Tour with his 14 year old son on a tandem to be his most cherished athletic feat.
In Bob's RAAM bio, he said his ultimate goal was to keep riding a bike until he's 80 and he was most intimidated by illness, injury or death. The thing he would most like to express to the world is love. With love this world would be paradise. Bob was full of love and extremely humble and helpful to all those who knew and loved him.
As we were interviewing Mike Trevino late last night, he revealed to us that Breedlove was responsible for him to turn from marathon running to ultracycling. Growing up in Iowa, Trevino heard all about Bob's transcontinental crossings, and sparked Mike's interest in our sport. Bob can never be replaced, however his spirit can live on through those people he touched so dearly. I was very lucky to have been able to ride some of my million miles with Bob in my rookie 1994 RAAM. My long term mileage goal becomes more important than ever because of people like Bob.
Leader Robic rode 324 miles his 5th day giving him a 5 day split of 1,789 miles. This is 72 miles less than he did last year, and 142 miles less than Pete Penseyres rode the first five days of his 15.4 mph record. When we asked the Robic crew about Jure and the 15.4 mph speed record, they told us that Jure doesn't care at all about breaking it. Our camera guy briefly jumped into Robic's support crew, and found out the $40,000 it costs him to do RAAM is a huge factor to overcome. One of Robic's support vehicles ran out of gas near time station 17 in Mount Vernon, KS (the halfway point of the race). Although Robic's pace has slowed to less than 15 mph, he now has a very comfortable 9 hour lead on Trevino. Rookie MacDonald was closing in on Trevino, so the interesting race might be for 2nd place.
I ate a free lunch and dinner at McDonalds restaurant in Pratt, KS along the route. The owner Steve Strecker offered to feed any RAAM rider, crewmember, official, or media person for free. He wants his restaurant to become a time station next year.
The minimum speed of 10.52 mph has started taking its toll on the riders. At or after time station 17 in South Fork, CO, Kevin Walsh dropped out when his average speed was 9.23 mph. Kish is in big trouble, as he hasn't moved from time station 19 in La Veta, CO for a full day. Karl Traumueller was able to increase his speed after it reached a low of 10.13 mph. Riders have to reach the halfway point (time station 27 in Mount Vernon, KS) by Saturday, 15:00 race time.
Team RAAM
Just as Robic is dominating the solo race, Beaver Creek - Vail is controlling the 4 person team race keeping 2nd place Kern Wheelmen 4 hours back. BC-V rode 544 miles on their 2nd day giving them a 48 hour total of 1,105 miles.
Riding at over twice their speed, The lead team (BC-V) only needed 40 hours to catch the last placed solo rider Kevin Walsh on Thursday morning 900 miles into the Team Race between time stations 16 & 17. Because of heat, headwinds, and more feet of climbing this year, only 2 divisions are on pace to set new records: BC-V and the corporate 8 person team leader Insight.
Standings
Men's Solo 1 Jure' Robic 2012.2 5.18.12 (14.56mph) 2 Mike Trevino 1866.8 5.15.00 (13.83mph) 3 Christopher MacDonald 1809.6 5.14.49 (13.42mph) 4 Fabio Biasiolo 1809.6 5.17.00 (13.21mph) 5 Pius Achermann 1755.9 5.18.10 (12.71mph) 6 Valentin Zeller 1755.9 5.18.57 (12.64mph) 7 David Haase 1755.9 5.19.25 (12.59mph) 9 Chris Hopkinson 1634.8 5.17.25 (11.90mph) 10 Benjamin Couturier 1634.8 5.18.05 (11.84mph) 11 Mark Metcalfe 1512.9 5.12.41 (11.40mph) 12 Ben Robinson 1512.9 5.14.42 (11.23mph) 13 Karl Traunmueller 1512.9 5.16.18 (11.10mph) 14 Alexander Gepp 1512.9 5.16.22 (11.09mph) 15 Jim Trout 1512.9 5.20.57 (10.73mph) 17 Patrick Autissier 1457.7 5.19.42 (10.43mph) 18 Thomas Rodgers 1417.4 5.16.40 (10.37mph) DNF Marko Baloh (Medical) 1634.8 5.02.32 (13.34mph) DNF A. Colo' 1457.7 5.09.12 (11.28mph) DNF Rob Kish (Medical) 1047.0 4.05.16 (10.34mph) DNF Kevin Walsh (Medical) 941.7 4.06.04 (9.23mph) DNF Urs Koenig (Medical) 824.9 2.23.40 (11.51mph) DNF R. Arap (Missed cutoff) 635.2 2.06.17 (11.70mph) DNF John D'Elia (Exhaustion) 450.3 2.00.44 (9.24mph) DNF Dave Kees (Medical) 340.4 1.00.31 (13.88mph) Women's Solo 1 Anna Catharina Berge 1634.8 5.20.48 (11.61mph) Two Person Male 1 Team Lower Austria-Krems 1570.4 3.12.22 (18.61mph) 2 Crazy Gones 1512.9 3.13.45 (17.64mph) 3 Team 60+ 1251.6 3.13.09 (14.70mph) 4 Team Wisconsin 1112.5 3.12.02 (13.24mph) 5 Citta' Della Speranza 1047.0 3.11.08 (12.59mph) Two Person Mixed 1 Grupo Guapo 1251.6 3.11.00 (15.08mph) 2 Team Endorphins 1183.1 3.10.29 (14.34mph) 3 Free Riders 1112.5 3.10.40 (13.46mph) Four Person Male 1 Beaver Creek Team-Vail 1943.1 3.11.50 (23.18mph) 2 Kern Wheelmen / Advocare 1866.8 3.12.47 (22.02mph) 3 Team Schaffhausen 1866.8 3.13.44 (21.77mph) 4 Team Inspiration GB 1570.4 3.10.32 (19.03mph) 5 Webcor Builders Endurance 1570.4 3.10.39 (19.00mph) 6 Team 3V 1570.4 3.13.12 (18.43mph) 7 Mucho Gusto Team 1570.4 3.13.22 (18.40mph) 8 Team Give Life 1457.7 3.13.10 (17.12mph) Four Person Female 1 Roaring Fork Volvo B2B Divas 1512.9 3.12.14 (17.96mph) Four Person Mixed 1 Team Cheniere's 1570.4 3.11.57 (18.71mph) 2 Landis Team Phoenix 1570.4 3.12.16 (18.64mph) Four Person HPV 1 ALS-Bacchetta 1809.6 3.13.41 (21.12mph) 2 Team JDRF VeloKraft 1693.9 3.13.18 (19.86mph) Corporate Challenge 1 Team Insight 1693.9 3.11.54 (20.19mph) 2 Team Donate Life 1634.8 3.13.09 (19.20mph) 3 The Vern's Inc. Team 1457.7 3.12.31 (17.25mph) 4 Team Dry Heat 1457.7 3.13.21 (17.08mph) Hour Corporate Challenge 1 Clif Bar Team 492.8 0.23.23 (21.07mph) 2 Swami's/Raceplan 492.8 1.01.26 (19.38mph) 3 Kaiser Permanente R2R 492.8 1.02.35 (18.54mph) 4 JMI Rookies 492.8 1.05.46 (16.56mph) 5 Team Bicycling San Diego 492.8 1.05.52 (16.50mph)
