Wednesday, June 27, 2007

Post Race Thoughts


The Finish: Standing on the podium in Atlantic City was a tribute to Bob Biyleu’s hope for a new liver that made this race meaningful. I’m so happy I could ride in his honor this year. Team Race4Life was successful from the crew that provided the support and encouragement, to my teammates that gave every ounce of effort. Not only did we finish this monumental race across America and complete our goal, but we did it with panache. With complete disregard for conserving energy needed to finish, we raced head-to-head from town-to-town against our rival teams.



Monument Valley: Unbelievable scenery. The sunrise light intensifies the red rock formations. Words cannot describe how awesome this looks on a bike. This feels more like a bike tour. Are we really racing?


Mexican Hat Tacos: Fred Boethling, the president of RAAM, came to Sacramento to meet with Team Donate Life and highly suggested that our crew treat themselves the local tacos in Mexican Hat, Utah. Tacos made in the Navajo Nation were apparently worth the effort. Our crewmate Danny made an all-out effort to find the tacos. When found, he was told that they were only available after 10:30 am. Hearing this I radioed that Danny “bring back anything; we’re starving for real food”. Fortunately, Danny brought back the absolutely best homemade breakfast burritos that I have ever had, complete with eggs, hash browns, chilies and salsa. I then yelled out to my teammate Lorenzo who was racing at the time “there’s a burrito waiting for you!”. His speed immediately increased… Gotta love it.

Name That Tune: As the long hours of the evening wore on, crewmember Lee Smith came up with a novel idea to keep everyone awake. Following a rider for endless hours becomes quite an ordeal. Lee’s idea was to broadcast a song across the 2-way radios to the other support vehicles, playing just a few seconds of music from his iPod. The first crew to correctly identify the song and album (bonus points) wins. Fun stuff. Thanks Lee!



Racing The Local Guy: Somewhere along the Interstate in Maryland, I was riding in the shuttle vehicle when our crew made an emergency pit-stop for bladder relief. A local guy watching the race from his vintage bicycle asked if we would mind if he “chased-down and caught our rider”. We all unanimously said “Go for it!”. As we drove the shuttle vehicle back up to catch our rider Jason, we told him of the impending rider rapidly approaching and wanting to race. Hearing this, Jason turned-it-up-a-notch and kept his distance on The Local Guy. However, after a couple miles of racing it appeared that the Local Guy was desperately closing. So, you ask, what was our strategy? Do what we always do; drop a new fresh rider to take over and kill the competition. Given the fact that I took over on an uphill portion of the freeway shoulder it took me a few minutes to get my hear rate under control and increase speed. I was asking myself how I got into this mess… Just as the Local Guy was closing in, I increased speed and began to distance myself, only to hear him yell “You set me up!”… We all laughed.



Racing the 4-Women Team: Team 416 – Kalyra Women’s Race Team is strong. Very strong! All racers. Before the race began the women mentioned they had ambitions of setting a RAAM record. As we raced across the U.S. we were constantly looking at the times of the other teams as we came into the Time Stations. Amazingly, after racing the entire U.S. and with only 2 Time Stations to go, we saw that we were only 15 minutes behind Team 416. This information lit Jason’s fuse and he was more determined than ever to catch someone, anyone... The heat was on and we gave an all-out effort. Within only a few miles from the end we passed Team 416 but they were not going down easy. As we approached the end of the second-to-last Time Station, the team was only 30 seconds behind… Chris and Jason decided to pair-up and draft each other and I joined in the paceline just a few miles later. Adrenalin must have been oozing because we were otherwise spent. Fortunately this all-out effort gave us the advantage we needed and we were able to hold off the women to the finish. Yahoo!

Wednesday, June 20, 2007

Finished... with Grace

My favorite quote from RAAM this year came from our Crew Chief (and my wife), Kristen. "You need a tremendous amount of grace to be a part of RAAM."

We finished well. We finished, period. That is all that matters.

As I fall asleep tonight in our hotel room in Atlantic City, my mind is primarily surrounded by the following thoughts:

Kristen, thank you for your grace. You will always be by favorite crew chief.

Crew, thank you for your serving attitudes. You kept us safe, and you brought us all the way across the country in 7 days. You are simply amazing.

Teammates: Thank you for your training, your intensity, and your fundraising. We have made history together as the first 4-person team in TDL.

Crew Member Families: Thank you for allowing us to take part of your family away for the past 12 days and for all the sacrifice you have made on our behalf.

Friends, Co-Workers & Family: Thank you for your comments, phone calls, and e-mails of support. It means so much.

Financial Donors & Sponsors: Thank you for making a difference. You are helping us change the world and save lives through our message.

Grace Valley, Heels on Wheels, Primo, Beauty & the Beast, Tex-Oz: Thank you for your alignment with TDL, your passion for our cause, and the incredible sacrifice you have made for TDL. To all teams and Crew, I hope that this memory will last a lifetime.

Kent Mulkey & Tamsin DeLong: Thank you for choosing TDL. We are becoming something very big because of your efforts.

RAAM: Thank you for a great race that was extremely well organized.

I can't wait to start evaluating this year, and to start planning next year! We will only get better.

Please stay tuned for the many pictures that we will download from our cameras when we get home. We will post them to our site through our photo gallery.

To everyone involved with TDL: Thank you.

Tuesday, June 19, 2007

Obstacles & Final Focus

Tuesday, 6/19 – 1:34 AM (RAAM Time)


This is my last blog… one final push to the finish. I’m too tired to write much more.

Today was my hardest day, because it was about survival. It’s amazing how your focus can change depending on your circumstances.

We finished last night strong, but the crew really started struggling with sleep deprivation. Even with our sleep rotation, the effects of a week-long race for 24 hrs / day is staggering. We are making mistakes in judgment and decision-making… nothing major, but a lot of small things that cost us time. I am sure that all teams face the same challenge. How we deal with them is what makes good teams work well together. I’m proud of our team and crew… everyone.

Mid-morning today, Vernon called on the radio to say the brakes on the transition SUV were failing. This is so critical to our strategy! We jumped into action and considered all the alternatives. At one point, we almost flew some crew members ahead to Atlantic City. Bottom Line: we lost the use of a vehicle and sent 4 crew members with this vehicle up to Columbus, Ohio. We didn’t lose the brakes, but we lost the power braking ability. We can’t use the car any more. In spite of this, we’ve got to keep moving with no lost time. Forget the other teams. Forget our sleep rotation. We’ve got to finish the race. Our crew and a new vehicle will be back by 10:00 pm… we hope.

We spent most of the day and into the evening with a single transition vehicle to do both follow and drop-off. We had to use stop transitions in order to meet the RAAM rules. We went to a three-man rotation until Chris could come back from his hotel rest. I will forego my hotel rest tonight.

While we kept our eye on the other teams, this was survival. 4 crew members short, one crew still on rest, Danny and Lee carried us through. It was so hot. Time Station 46 was almost unbearable. We blew up. I think that Lorenzo, Dave, and I all experienced some level of heat exhaustion. I just bonked. I couldn’t generate any power. My head screamed. My legs screamed. I thought I was going to fall asleep on the bike. As soon as we got in the SUV, we nearly passed out until Danny or Lee had the bike out again and told us to go.

But we crawled through… 16.54 mph. Our slowest Time Station, but not as bad as I expected. It actually gave us some hope that we can recover and still finish strong. We hydrated as much as we could. As the temperature finally dropped, we increased our strength and our speed. By 5:00 this evening, we felt almost fully recovered. We started to attack the climbs…because we have a lot of them in the next 12 hours… still 32,000’ of climbing before the finish line.

We’re changing our strategy for the finish. Rather than 12 hours, I will take a 6 hour rest in the follow vehicle. As soon as I am able, we will split into two transition teams… Dave and I in one, with Lorenzo and Chris in the other. 4 hours on, and 4 hours rest. Back and forth. We’ll finish the last 150 miles or so all together. We’ll re-group by 5:00 AM and head strong for the finish.

I think we still have a couple of teams to catch. We still need to out-run Bob.

See you in Atlantic City. We hope to be there before dark tomorrow night.

P.s. It’s 1:28 AM. Chris is on a 9% grade descent headed for TS 49 – 38 mph in the dark when Danny calls ahead to tell us a ”Semi” is headed our way. This will be a tough night.

Monday, June 18, 2007

photos from the road

Here's some of the photos sent from the road.
Lorenzo trying to even out his "biker tan" ......



The inside of the car in the front looks a bit like an airplane cockpit. We have a splitter for charging cell phone and the fm radio used for team communication, an ipod tune flex which allows us to listen to our ipods through the vehicle's stereo system, and a laptop computer (not shown) for the GPS guide to the route. We live by every tenth of a mile description of the route. So far the route book has been pretty reliable and easy to use. Then we have our schedule in spreadsheet format for the rotation of team and crew. Lots of tools to use for a sucessful race!






Jason has been so great in detailed blogging. His diary is also being posted on the website for Cycling News.com and excerpts have been on the RAAM homepage as well.
TDL- The Race Experience! Soon to be a major motion picture....






One more day in RAAM… and we lose our rider?

4:00 AM - Three and a half hours of sleep and a shower. Wow… I feel so fresh and ready to ride!

5:30 AM - We catch our team. They’re through Kansas and now into Missouri. They had a rough night. They look haggard. They’re talking slow. They’re laughing really hard at silly things. I can’t believe they even made it through the night! Colette, Virginia, Vernon, and Dave are going to the hotel…they need it bad. Dave looks like someone beat the crap out of him. I pray that they can make it safely to a hotel before they collapse.

But it’s time to ride, and I need to ride at threshold heart rate for 24 of the next 36 hours. Mentally, I’m ready. After making our transitions, the cars need gas… and I end up starting the day on 45 minutes of maximum output on huge rollers through Missouri. The RAAM Route warns of steep climbs and descents. I finally get in the car, and I’m dying. My legs ache so bad I can hardly get off my bike and walk back to the car. But I don’t want to let my teammates down, so I suck it up, keep it to myself, and start drinking water like a fish to hopefully flush out some of this lactic acid from yesterday’s monumental day. Just deal with it and ride harder.

10:30 AM – It’s already 82 degrees and humid. We are out of the rollers and on to the flat lands that parallel the river. This is going to be a hard day. There are no other teams around us, but we now have a comfortable 2 hour lead over the teams we passed yesterday. We pull into TS 34 near the Daniel Boone Monument, and I see Bob! We chat for a moment, and I tell him about my blog. As I walk away, I think, “That was a mistake… he’s going to hunt me down now!”

1:30 PM – My legs can’t take any more. It’s 92 degrees. I’ve been riding for 7 hours, transitioning every 5-7 miles. It’s almost unbearable. Our crew does so much for us, and they don’t complain about anything! (at least out loud on the radio). Water bottles, food, bikes, navigation… they’re great! I hate asking for more, but I finally break down and ask my crew if someone will try to massage my legs. Both Lee and Amalia offer to help with ice and massage in our support vehicle, and Kristen offers a deeper massage when I go on rest in an hour. The ice gets me through the hour.

2:30 PM – Massage from Kristen that makes me jump all over the car. I sleep the next 3 hours.

6:30 PM – It’s time to get ready for our night. Luckily we’ve hit some tailwinds and we’re flying across Illinois. But my mom calls… she’s been tracking us non-stop, like she’s on the race with us. 402 and 412 are coming. It’s Bob again. They’ve made up an hour already. Shannon’s Soldiers are also picking up the pace. They must have gotten the tailwinds as well. But Hoosier’s are loosing ground, and there is an 8-man team only 45 minutes in front of us. Somewhere up there is also the all-women 4-person team. We can’t let the girls beat us! Dave just came back from his hotel… a new man! Dave’s a machine… our strongest rider. Let’s get it on, Dave! We need to put some distance on our old friends, and we have some catching to do! After my massage and sleep, I am ready! Chris is on his rest, but he’ll join us soon enough… he wants to beat everybody.

7:15 PM – Our team has talked about the importance of keeping the follow vehicle on the road. When we meet for our 12-hour transition, the follow is the priority. I ride first while the cars exchange riders, bikes, and bags. But when I ride by, there’s an official talking to Kristen. Now what did we do wrong? Did we get some penalty? No one is there to exchange with me. Did they see me? I’m not stopping… they’ll catch up to me. But 15 minutes later, no one has come yet. It’s only an hour till dark, and we can’t have a rider after dusk without a follow vehicle to keep the rider within the headlights. I can’t even get a hold of anyone. Where is the next turn? Isn’t there a time station coming up in Marshall? Then I see the RAAM arrows that are pointing toward the off-ramp of SR 40 toward Marshall. Well, what should I do… wait for them to find me at the off-ramp and lose precious time, or go for it and hope I see all the signs to the next TS and get picked up before dusk? If I get lost, I’ll need to flag someone down and use a cell phone. That will really cost us time. But I know Bob is coming. I take the off-ramp. I follow the arrows through town. As I pass the Time Station on the right, I note the time… 7:31 PM. Follow the arrows, and 10 minutes later I’m back on SR 40 East. No sign of my team. Just go… you’ve got 30 minutes until dusk. 8:00 PM – It’s been 45 minutes. My legs ache. I can’t ride much longer. My team must be panicked… wondering what happened to me and if I missed the turn-off? Then I hear a series of honks way down the road. They’ve found me! They drive past, asking if I took the off-ramp to the TS. I nod, and they smile. We have a great team! Kristen comes next to pick me up. I check my GPS, and I’ve averaged 19.9. We’re right on track!

8:30 PM – Let’s rip this night up, guys. All night long!! 110% all the way to Indianapolis. We have some more teams to catch. And we’ve got to stay away from Bob.

2:40 AM – We’re past Indianapolis. I am a human bugshield. Something the size of a Super Gumball just went down my throat. I had to swallow… or throw up. The latter would have slowed me down. The last 4 hours killed me… again. I think I rode harder than yesterday. I pretended Bob was right behind me the whole way chasing me. Oh my gosh… he is! I wonder what our pace is compared to the rest. I need to sleep. I have 2-1/2 hours until my next shift. Dave and Chris are ripping it up right now. Way to go, guys! Dave just got chased by a dog. Now he’s freaked out, looking up every drive way. It’s only funny because I am here and he is out there... in the dark. Squirt him with your water bottle, Dave. Ok, let’s race!!

3:02 AM - Only 727 miles to go…

Saturday, June 16, 2007

What about Bob...

Sunday, 6/17 – 12:29 am (RAAM Time)

Bob is fast. Really fast. His team, #402- Burns & Trauma, caught us some place in Kansas about 5:00 AM. This is the same team that we beat up the mountain pass and thought we were over an hour ahead. Bob came flying by me on a mission. I am clearly not as strong as Bob. But Bob doesn’t know my spirit. I was close to my last rotation… 4 hours on, 4 hours rest, 8 hours on… then the hotel for 12 hours. Today would be a great test of endurance in the midst of lactic acid build-up and incredible pain that all of us are experiencing. It would be a bigger test of my heart. The rest of the race can wait until tomorrow. Today is all about Bob. Bob will get tired. Bob needs his teammates, and we already beat them once. Let’s get it on, Bob.

It started out with me and Chris, then Dave and Lorenzo, then me and Lorenzo, then me and Dave. The whole team. None of us wanted to let them pass us. But Bob just did. We all agreed… let’s take these guys today. Just look at our time splits… we jumped to the challenge. When Bob transitioned to their next rider, we passed them. When Bob got back on, he passed us. Our crew started cheering and yelling, pounding our palms on the car doors in Lorenzo’s patented cheer, “GO, GO, GO, GO, GO” You have to say it with just the right amount of Italian flair… and make your eyes really big and animated. He has taught us all this new technique.

It was getting hot and humid this morning as we came out of the flat lands into the gentle rollers in Kansas. And the headwinds were strong. I hate the wind. Today it made me stronger. I don’t know how many times our teams passed each other… maybe 15 times? It was the hardest I’ve ever ridden my bike. After my first 4 hour shift, I collapsed in the follow vehicle for my 4-hour rest. I slept almost the entire time. Virginia actually put a sleeping bag on the floor of our SUP and slept there while I stretched out in the entire back seat from leg cramps. But I knew that I was coming back… and I would give everything I had – just 1% more with each transition. I thought about heat dehydration, so I drank as much as I could. I took in as much carbohydrate as my stomach could take… I just didn’t want to bonk. When Colette woke me up for my final 8 hours, we were still neck and neck with 402. It was time for me and Lorenzo.

If anybody’s got heart, it’s Lorenzo. He isn’t our strongest rider, but he won’t be intimidated. He just plain got to it. Bob was resting, and Lorenzo passed their other rider. It was unbelievable… He transitioned to me with a long stretch on the Interstate, and I gunned it. Everything I had to keep a lead before Bob came back. Back to Lorenzo for 7 miles. Off the Interstate and we don’t even see 402 anywhere. In fact, we start to see the transition vehicles for 412, so we know we are catching other teams as well. We transition one more time before the time station – Unbelievably, Kristen comes flying up past me in the Transition Vehicle. “Bob just got off the Interstate, and he’s flying to catch you. GO!” My legs hurt so bad… I still had 6 hours left to ride. Ok, Bob… you may be faster, but I’ll race you to the Time Station. Then I see a signal light. Its green and still 200 yards ahead. Ric Morales in the transition vehicle with Kristen stays in the intersection as long as possible to keep it green for me. Everyone is in this race, and everyone is yelling.

The light turns red, and here comes Bob. We have 30 seconds for me to ask how in the world they caught us after an hour lead and get his name), and he says that we crushed them in the mountains. (Dave and Chris are both great climbers). Light turns green, and I start sprinting. Bob probably thinks I’m crazy. Hey, buddy… remember we’re going all the way to Atlantic City? No… right now the ONLY thing in my mind is the time station 1 mile ahead. But another light turned red just one block before the time station, and we crossed at exactly the same time.

Now this race within The Race really heats up. Lorenzo is almost ready for his rest, and I have 4 more hours. Bob disappeared… must be on his rest rotation. We start up a climb, and their new rider passes me. That’s it. Now I’m pissed. I haven’t worked all morning to beat Bob, then get passed by his teammate. I charge up the hill after him, more determined than ever. This is my favorite moment of the race! Just before the top, I transition to Lorenzo, and he takes off like a bat out of hell… right past their rider! This guy just motivated me like never before. Unbelievable, Lorenzo. You earned this rest! When Lorenzo transitioned back to me, I flew. Gave it everything I had. I focused every ounce of concentration into my quads, and I raced like it was the only race in the world. I saw the yellow bracelet I am wearing on my wrist for Felix, and I said this one’s for you, buddy. 24 mph into the wind. We haven’t seen 402 since.

An hour later, we caught 412 – JDRF. They didn’t like it, so they took off and dropped us. Mark is their fast rider, and we had a blast waving to their riders and crew as we started our 2nd race of the day! It’s on again! Dave came back into the rotation, and we chased them down. They told us to enjoy the lead while we had it. We told them we’ll see you in Atlantic City. After another 2 hours, it was 5:30 pm, and my rotation was over. We have caught and passed two teams today. Our team was incredible… everyone. I am beyond exhausted. My legs ache to the bone. But I was able to push to a new level that I have never seen before. I am not the fastest rider on this race by any means, but I have the spirit of RAAM. It’s the mental challenge, the physical challenge, the limits of our abilities, plus that extra 1% more. I belong in RAAM, and so does my team, and so does my crew. Today was the most incredible experience I have ever experienced in an athletic endeavor. What a great feeling!

Tomorrow is a new race day. My teammates are racing through the night while they let me rest (and Im blogging!).

I wonder if I’ll see Bob tomorrow.

Atlantic City, here we come.

Friday, June 15, 2007

Over the Mountains...

Friday, 6/15 – 9:29 pm (RAAM Time)

It seems like days since my last blog, but it was just last night in South Fork. While I slept for about 4-1/2 hours, the guys made great time up Wolf Creek Pass. We woke up at 1:00 AM when Kristen called to tell us they were 11 miles past South Fork, so we got up quickly and jumped in the car. We all met up for our next 12-hour transition around 3:00 AM, and there was a little conflict going on through the radios… nothing major… all part of RAAM.

As soon as we started the next shift (8 hours for me), we raced Team 402 for a few hours. Finally we passed them for good up the mountain pass. It was 42 degrees… very cold, windy, and dark. This was one descent that no one really wanted to take! We climbed the last mountain pass – about 3,000’ climb in 12 miles with Chris, Lorenzo, and me all transitioning about every 2 miles.

Danny’s “transition memo” is working great. We have cleaned up our transitions to very minimal time, but the “tired factor” is also creeping up. I will say that everyone is much more rested than previous years, but we are still sleep-derived!

It was great to come down the final descents out of the Rockies… such a milestone. Lorenzo took the first big descent at about 57 mph! Then I took the 2nd half for about 10 miles of downhill. We have passed 2 teams, and I think we are making ground on the other teams. I think our rest protocol / team transitions is really going to pay off. They say the race really starts after the Mississippi. I will try to keep blogging throughout the trip, but no promises!

We had a couple of mishaps today… after stopping for ice in Trinidad, Virginia ran across the street to get McDonald’s for breakfast. I took off my shoes because I didn’t want to walk on the cleats, then ran across to remind her to get food for the other car. Well, you can guess what happened next. We got to the Time Station, and my shoes were on the sidewalk a block away with Lorenzo only about 2 minutes away for transition. Colette became a race car driver, and we made it back in time for transition with 5 seconds to spare!

Our big mistake today was making a wrong turn at the start of Kansas. We had turned off both GPS units because it was so easy to follow, then we made a turn at the Time Station where we should have gone straight. Thank God for the farmer that actually flagged us down to tell us that he was tracking the race and we were going north instead of east! We lost about 10 minutes, only because we got on the radio and had Chris jump on his bike from the transition point. He was already sleeping, so he threw on a T-shirt and his shoes (he already had his bibs)… looked hilarious!

This must be one of the hardest areas of RAAM… through the high desert of Colorado and into the flattest land of Kansas that I have ever seen. As I am riding, the road goes on forever… hours and hours on end. And there is a headwind… I think we are averaging just under 20 mph. I’ll be very glad when we hit Missouri some time tomorrow.

I can’t find our cable for the camera to download! I have searched in all my bags… and I am frustrated. We’ll have to send pics from our phone camera now and post the rest later.

Ok, I need to sleep for a couple of hours here in the follow vehicle until my next 4-hour shift at 12:30 AM. I am exhausted. One more 4-hour shift, then one more 4-hour rest, then my 8-hr shift before my 12-hr rest! That will start tomorrow afternoon at 4:30 pm. Talk to you then. Everyone is doing awesome!