Race Across America RAAM

Come on hippy, you were saying you needed a fresh challenge for 2010. How about a two up ride across America. I am sure Irene would drive support for us and take photos.

Hahaha.. you're fucking mad.

Although...

I'll be on your support crew.

If you don't want me to ride it.

2010: LFGSS conquers RAAM?

I think they still let teams of 8 in.

Can we all ride lo-pros with risers and wear jeans and carry everything in curryer bags?

While we are dreaming, sure.

While we are racing across America, sure.

Well, that much should be obvious.

It wouldn't be any fun without some traffic lights along the route where we can be spotted trackstanding.

You can practice to sped things up.
This could be an opportunity to really make yourself standout job wise.
Nothing worth doing is easy, we all need to push ourself to the point of failure. What's the worst that could happen? Apart from failing to adjust someone brakes and they fly down a hill into a crowd of school children singing at a war memorial killing them all.

2010 RAAM

Riders

cliveo
hippy
!Nhattattack!
Oliver

Support

ireneo

You can practice to sped things up.
This could be an opportunity to really make yourself standout job wise.
Nothing worth doing is easy, we all need to push ourself to the point of failure.

I'm planning on finding out the specs for the bikes ASAP and learning everything I can about them. Working in the workshop has been great, but having something to focus on will be helpful.

Dunno if this is any use, but 3 or 4 years ago there was a documentary following the RAF cycling team doing the RAAM, and very good it was too.

You might be able to contact someone for advice and tips via the website.

http://www.raf.mod.uk/rafcycling/teamsanddisciplines/coachescredentials.cfm

Just been looking at the RAAM website. It really is an awesome and tempting challenge although, at my time in life, I suspect that I would be better off doing it solo that as part of a relay team. They say that you need a crew of about four people and two cars at least. Expensive but tempting....

Have you had a whiff of the sherry again Clive? It's for mentalists (which we established earlier)!

You are not a mentalist.

Are you?

It's all about getting a sponsor, really. I would love to do a ride across america (thinking of this for year 30), but I think the raam might be a bit too fast paced for me to enjoy.

Nhatt, it's a time trial. Go at your own pace.

http://www.raceacrossamerica.org/raam/home.php?N_webcat_id=1

Andy. I am here.

It is, but a time trial with a cut off point for each day. If I did a ride like this it would be about having rest days, and it would take over a month.

I've also seen that you have to qualify by doing a looney tunes ride or two in the three years before you attempt it.

Here's one of the qualifiers which makes hippy and my recent ordeal seem like a walk in the park.

http://www.racearoundireland.com/

Dream over....

My god clive, you are optimistic:

"The route is over 3000 miles... Solo racers finish in 9 to 12 days, averaging 250 to 350 miles per day."

That puts even your hard core winter training rides to shame.

http://www.raceacrossamerica.org/raam/raam2.php?N_webcat_id=22

The solos at the front of the race will sleep for as little as 90 minutes a day. Just to finish within the time limit. Racers can't afford to sleep more than about 4 hours a day at the most.

Teams have the advantage here and can continue racing 24 hours a day as racers rotate. While one sleeps, another races on down the road.

We expect that some racers will experience a situation where they can be entirely awake and lucid and still hallucinate, or they can be so tired that reality starts to shift. Officials and crew will be constantly paying attention to a racer's condition and to safety. Safety is the top priority and officials and crews will stop a racer or crew for a sleep break if they feel a racer is past the safety margin of sleep.

Besides the entry fee, every racer and team has to provide their own support crew and support vehicles. Depending on the number of crew, the number of vehicles, and how deluxe your race is, the costs starts at $20,000. With a Team of racers this costs gets split multiple ways. By contrast, typically it costs over $50,000 to climb Mt. Everest and a year of college can cost over $30,000. For some, this is certainly a lot of expense - and you will never regret spending any of it. The rewards of this race far outweigh any dollar value. As they say in the Visa commercials - Finishing RAAM - Priceless.

Each Solo and Team will climb more than 100,000 feet.

Mentalists.

It sound like the event for people who thing a 1200km Audax is just too easy.

And if you can't be bothered to go to the US:

http://www.ltu-letourultime.nl/

It's the Tour de France route done as a single non-stop race.

It wasn't run in 2008 (not enough interest) but the 2007 solo winner did 4183km in just under 12 days. The other two solo entrants DNF'd.

The two teams (one mixed, one of two blokes) both finished in under 8 days (22kph average).