Insight Race Across America - NE

USA, June 20-July 2, 2004

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Day 3 - June 22

Has RAAM found its next masters?

By Wendy Booher, RAAM

With the solo and team races within the Insight Race Across America (RAAM) taking shape, two outstanding newcomers to the event are making their presence felt. These are Solo rider Mike Trevino from San Diego, California, and the 4-Person Team contender, Action Sports, organized by Kerry Ryan of Bakersfield, California.

Trevino is not leading the solo race, but in his debut year of RAAM he has established himself solidly in second place.

As the riders passed through Mountainair, New Mexico, Slovenian soldier Jure Robic led with a margin of about 90 minutes over Trevino, a Cornell graduate, with three-time RAAM winner Wolfgang Fasching riding at about five hours back in third place.

Race director Jim Pitre said, "We're seeing an exceptional display of athletic ability in Trevino. The big question in my mind is this: 'Is Trevino the next leader of Ultra Cycling?' "

In the 4-Person Teams category, Action Sports has been leading this race since San Diego. But late Tuesday, during the ascent to Pinetop (elevation 9,125') between Show Low and Springerville, Arizona, Team Vail-Go Fast of Colorado took the lead for the first time in this competition. Both of these teams are comprised of professional cyclists: Action Sports, averaging 22.84 mph, has road pros; Vail-Go Fast, averaging 22.92 mph, has mountain bike pros.

Although neither of these teams has yet broken the average speed record for this category (23.04 mph) set in 1996, both are injecting a new degree of professional athleticism to the race. Action Sports leader Kerry Ryan, 45, was a member of the legendary Kern Wheelmen team-the same team that set the average speed record of 23.04 mph in 1996.

The 2004 edition of RAAM thus far is considerably faster than it was in 2003 in both the Solo and 4-Person Men's categories. Racing on a virtually identical route, the average speed of the leading team at Time Station 11, Show Low, was 20.41 mph, compared to 22.93 mph this year. In the Solo Men's category, at Time Station 15, the leader had an average speed of 15.49 mph in 2003, compared to the 15.93 mph average of Robic in 2004 at this point.

In other categories, Vail B2B Divas held a commanding lead of 3 hours, 11 minutes over the German Team Frauleins when they passed through Congress, Arizona. The 2-Person category sees the Canadian team Coast to Coast, from Missasauga, Ontario, with a commanding lead of 2 hours, 52 minutes over Team TBW of Brazil. In the Corporate Challenge category, two teams from Arizona are swapping the lead with only 4-5 minutes separating them. Team Insight is battling tenaciously with Team Rim to Rim for second place, while Team R2R-Kaiser Permanente is holding a comfortable 51-minute lead (R2R stands for "Ride to Remember").

Solo rider Russ Goodwin was hit by his following support vehicle last night. Although Goodwin was not injured in the collision, reportedly there was a heated exchange, following which, according to Goodwin, his crew left him there, forcing Goodwin's retirement from the race. It is against race rules to ride at night without a following vehicle.

Chew's view

By Danny Chew

Soloists

After the breathe taking 12 mile descent thru classic Jerome, AZ, firefighter Scott Dakus arrived in 13th place at time station 8 in Camp Verde with knee trouble. Little did he know his fire department buddies at home in Henderson, NV had called up the Camp Verde fire department, which came out in full force to cheer Scott on. Things like this can make all the difference in the world to a tired/injured RAAM rider. The high temperature on the 2nd day peaked out at about 90 degrees F.

After the first 24 hours, the time spread between the first and last rider was over 20 hours. Leaders Robic & Trevino continued to build their lead on the rest of the field. After holding 3rd place for 6 time stations since the middle of CA, Dino Nico Valsesia took an afternoon sleep stop, which dropped him to 7th place. I hung out at time station 11 in Show Low, AZ for quite a while. Gerry Goode and his friend manned it. Last place Bob Rich trained with Gerry this spring in AZ. While out riding one day, Bob came upon the scene of Gerry & his wife who were out riding their tandem and had just gotten hit and seriously injured by a vehicle. Having to spend time at the hospital with them, Bob missed several days of training. At the time station Gerry looked good to me and told me he is able to ride an indoor trainer now, but his wife is still in a rehab center. I also saw John Hughes & woman friend Carol there, and talked with 12 year Kish Krew veteran David Olds who told me he is one of 4 people who never gets into the follow minivan with Brenda (she stays in it all the time Rob is riding).

Pius Achermann slept 1.5 hours each night the first two nights. Peter Holy had 3 one hour sleeps in the first 48 hours. Robic was running about 2 hours ahead of Trevino and he increased that lead to 3 hours in the wee hours of the morning before going down for a long sleep break. Having not slept yet, Trevino caught and passed Robic just after time station 12 in Springerville, AZ. Once he was "awake", Robic easily rode away from tired Trevino. This pass did not show up in the time station data, and I do not call it a valid pass because the only reason Trevino caught Robic was because he chose to sleep later. Muffy Ritz used to catch/pass Seana Hogan this way. After Trevino took a short sleep break, Robic had a 90 minute lead on Trevino.

Robic's follow minivan flatted, and Trevino's follow minivan flatted twice. We stopped at time station 13 in Pie Town, NM close to the Continental Divide near where Brett Malin was killed last year. The Pie-o-Neer store was closed for remodeling, but owners Kathy Knapp, Stanley King, & Niels Mandoe opened their doors for us and helped us put out Brett Malin Memorial sign out on their front porch.

Riding very well in 4th place, David Haase froze in the early morning when the low temperature dipped down to 35 degrees F around Springerville, AZ. Near Datil, NM, we ran into official John Ellis who was out in disguise on his bicycle. Robic & Trevino were both drug tested. Robic rode 338 miles in his 2nd 24 hours giving him a 774 mile 48 hour total. This is 57 more miles than Larsen rode last year, and 146 miles more than Robic rode last year. Robic has now fallen behind the over 400 miles per day average which Pete Penseyres cranked out the first 3 days of the 1986 RAAM to set the all time average speed record of 15.4 mph.

Teams

31 hours after the solo riders started, 18 teams started in 7 different categories. Action Sports was the first team to the first time station in Pine Valley 4 minutes ahead of Vail - Go Fast and 14 minutes ahead of Royal Air Force.

Vail B2B Divas beat Frauleins by 15 minutes.

All the climbing must have slowed down ALS Lightning, which was the 8th team to get to Pine Valley. They were 28 minutes behind Action Sports.

Standings

                                    Dist)    Time    Av. speed
                                   (miles) (d.hh.mm) 
Men's Solo
 
1 Jure Robic                        968.5  2.12.31  (16.00mph)
2 Michael Trevino                   928.0  2.12.10  (15.42mph)
3 Wolfgang Fasching                 863.3  2.11.01  (14.63mph)
4 David Haase                       799.6  2.08.23  (14.18mph)
5 Pius Achermann                    799.6  2.09.01  (14.02mph)
6 Dino Nico Valsesia                799.6  2.09.41  (13.86mph)
7 Rob Kish                          799.6  2.10.25  (13.69mph)
8 Peter Holy                        716.0  2.08.10  (12.75mph)
9 Andrew Otto                       716.0  2.08.16  (12.73mph)
10 Enrico De Angeli                 716.0  2.11.28  (12.04mph)
11 Randy Van Zee                    646.7  2.04.24  (12.34mph)
12 Guus Moonen                      646.7  2.06.31  (11.86mph)
13 Andrew Lapkass                   646.7  2.08.24  (11.47mph)
14 Scott Dakus                      646.7  2.09.15  (11.30mph)
15 James Rosar                      646.7  2.09.34  (11.23mph)
16 Alessandro Colo'                 589.6  2.07.22  (10.65mph)
17 Tracy McKay                      589.6  2.08.54  (10.36mph)
18 Robert Rich                      589.6  2.10.22  (10.10mph)
DNF Russ Goodwin (Crew left)        553.7  2.02.18  (11.01mph)
 
Two Person Male
 
1 Team Coast To Coast               553.7  1.05.53  (18.53mph)
2 Team TBW Brasil                   485.8  1.05.00  (16.75mph)
3 Team New England                  441.9  1.04.39  (15.42mph)
 
Two Person Mixed
 
1 Team Velowear.com/Co-Motion       441.9  1.02.38  (16.59mph)
2 Team No Limits                    441.9  1.05.52  (14.80mph)
 
Four Person Male
 
1 Team Vail - Go Fast               646.7  1.04.13  (22.92mph)
2 Team Action Sports                646.7  1.04.19  (22.84mph)
3 Team Royal Air Force              589.6  1.04.20  (20.81mph)
4 Team Swiss Canon                  553.7  1.04.25  (19.49mph)
5 Team Extra Distance               485.8  1.04.00  (17.35mph)
6 Team Grand PAC Masters            441.9  1.03.06  (16.31mph)
 
Four Person Male HPV
 
1 Team ALS Lighting                 646.7  1.06.00  (21.56mph)
 
Four Person Female
 
1 Team Vail B2B Divas               485.8  1.03.29  (17.68mph)
2 Team Frauleins                    441.9  1.04.39  (15.42mph)
 
Four Person Mixed
 
1 Team Just Sweat - No Tears        485.8  1.04.58  (16.77mph)
 
Corporate Challenge
 
1 Team R2R-Kaiser Permanente        589.6  1.06.03  (19.62mph)
2 Team Rim 2 Rim Cycling            553.7  1.05.22  (18.85mph)
3 Team Insight                      553.7  1.05.30  (18.77mph)