RAAM 2013 -- My Second Time Around

This is my second time working at RAAM, the Race Across America. This year, my race experience will be a lot different from last year, primarily because I'm driving and riding solo, instead of riding along as as passenger in Jody's car.

This year it'll be harder for me to take pictures, harder to talk to the riders, and harder to navigate, for instance. However, because RAAM is using a GPS-based tracking system this year, it's a piece of cake to know exactly where the riders and officials are. Instead of having to calculate a rider's position based on his/her average speed and last known location, all I have to do is look at the map on my phone and voilà, there is his/her position. Even though it's great to have that information readily available, it takes away some of the fun of trying to figure out where the riders are.

Another difference between this year's race and last year's race is that I won't be in the lead car, at least not for now. I'm supposed to be in the fourth car, but maybe that will change and I'll be able to move up a bit. I really don't know.

I'm a bit tired, so I'm going to briefly talk about some of what has been going on today, so far.

-- I followed Reto up a particularly tough climb early on in the race and got to see him leave many a racer in his dust. He was absolutely flying up the hill, whereas most racers were struggling.

-- Most of my officiating so far has consisted of reminding drivers to turn their headlights on, reminding cyclists to pull well off the road when they stop, directing traffic at a huge traffic circle so that riders would be sure of which turn to take, and making sure that the follow vehicles are indeed following their riders.

-- I'm back on the liquid diet for RAAM 2013.

-- I've already gotten friendly with this year's Italian team, which includes a member of last year's team, and that has resulted in one cup of coffee so far.

-- Jody scored one biberli so far, but I haven't scored any.

-- Reto is planning to finish the race in under 8 days, which would be absolutely amazing. If he succeeds, I'd hate to miss that celebration, but it looks like I will, unless I go way forward, especially later in the race. One of his main strategies for success has to do with going on the liquid diet for the entire race.

-- Just a little while ago, I talked to one solo rider who is competing in RAW, the Race Across the West (which finishes in Durango, Colorado) who has already lost a crew member due to illness.

-- I rented a Nissan Yaris, which is a pretty small car, so I'm not sure how fun sleeping in it will be. (I will find out soon.)

Solo RAAM rider Chris Hopkinson (England), enjoying a pre-ride meal.














Christoph Strasser being interviewed shortly before the race starts
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As Beau & Babe take off, RAAM (and RAW) is officially under way.













Dani Wyss passes Eduard Fuchs early in the race and the two exchange a friendly handshake.

Brief Update

Since I last posted, a lot has been going on, but I haven't had a chance to post anything.

Some of the highlights, in brief:

Gerhard Gulewicz finished his ride, in 3rd place, but not after a funny incident (details to follow).



Trix Zgraggen has won the women's solo division, giving Switzerland a sweep of RAW (men's solo) and RAAM (men's and women's solo).

We saw both the youngest and the oldest teams finish.

We attended one of the three awards banquets and had the honor of sitting with Reto and his crew. Thanks a lot, guys!

We are still escorting riders in to the dock, but that will end shortly, since I fly back to Japan in 9 hours.

Oh, and we got pulled over by the cops while escorting GG in.

More from Japan!

Reto Schoch Wins RAAM 2012

Reto Schoch has won the men's solo division of RAAM.

His time of 8 days, 6 hours, 29 minutes is the fastest time ever for a rookie (but he is not the first rookie to ever win RAAM). He ended up beating Christoph Strasser by 3 hours and 5 minutes.

The first, unofficial victory celebration started at the point where the timed portion of the race ends, which is in front of the Ram's Head Roadhouse, just outside of downtown Annapolis.


At first, Reto and his crew weren't even 100% sure if Reto had won the race, because Strasser was still out on the course, but when we told them that Reto was far enough in front that there was no way Strasser could catch them, they all breathed a sigh of relief. It was a lot of fun to share that moment with them.

After about 45 minutes, Jody and I had the privilege of escorting Reto and his follow vehicle to the official finish line at Susan G. Campbell Park on Dock Street.

We were not around when Strasser made it to the finish line, but we heard that he had trouble walking and did not want to sit, because his butt hurt so much.

The poor guy had an amazing race but failed to win. He was simply beaten by a better man, Reto.

Unlike Strasser, Reto was in fantastic shape even at the finish. If you had just showed up at the stage to watch the victory celebration, I seriously doubt you would have guessed the guy just finished cycling across the entire United States.

As a matter of fact, if there weren't a medal hanging around Reto's neck (from 2010?), you would have thought there was some kind of photo shoot going on or you might have thought the guy was about to start a bike race, not finish one.

Even I still can't believe how happy and relaxed Reto was at the finish line, and that he did not appear to be sore at all.

I really think if the guy had to bike back to Oceanside starting today, he could do it.

I'm telling you, we got to see the guy riding up close and often and he was incredible.

Here's one last bit of "proof" regarding Reto's never-ending energy:


After he arrived at Ram's Head Roadhouse, Reto told us that there was some confusion among his crew as to where the actual finish line was.

According to what he told us, it sounds to me that he thought the finish line was Mount Airy, Maryland, about 50 miles from the finish. He said something like, "I gave it all I had to get to the finish and didn't think I needn't to eat anything else, but when I got there, my crew told me I had to ride another 40 miles."

That's hard to believe, considering he rode the last 9.5 miles in a blazing 28 minutes, which includes quite a bit of riding at about 30 m.p.h.

While watching him fly down the road to the Roadhouse, Jody said it best:

"This guy is a machine!"

Indeed, he is.

Congratulations, Reto!

Since we've made it to Annapolis, Jody and I also put an end to the liquid diet. Some of you may think that that was a big relief, but it really wasn't.

Even though the hotel's continental breakfast included things like bagels and cream cheese, oatmeal, and muffins and danishes, the only food I had for breakfast was one hard-boiled egg. Jody had two, plus some yogurt.

I'm telling you, I know have reservations about what I put in my body. I have too much of a sweet tooth, so if I am "allowed" to eat junk, I will. That's not good.

After breakfast, Jody and I both finally had a Swiss snack. He had a "Biberli" and I had an "Appenzeller Bireweggli." A little while later, we also both ate a banana.

I guess I should just try to stop eating junk food and concentrate more on eating healthy food. Wish me luck with that.

Between now and Sunday at 6:00 a.m., when I fly back to Japan, Jody and I are on escort duty. We basically sit tight at our hotel until we are told that a rider or team needs an escort to the dock and then off we go. Right now, we have quite a bit of down time, so we are just chilling and I am obviously back to blogging.

The female solo champion-to-be, Trix Zgraggen, is not due until 4 or 5 a.m., but I plan to go watch her arrive at the dock. After all, what's one more bad night's sleep, right?

See you at the finish, Trix!

Do We Have A Winner?

Reto now has a 40-minute lead, according to the official stats (which I can't guarantee are official), as of Time Station 51.

We are currently "escorting" Reto ahead to Time Station 53 (Odenton, Maryland), which is 40 miles past TS 52.



I'm going to go out on a limb and say that Reto is going to win this thing.

Reto still has about 50 miles to go, and Strasser can certainly pull this off, so you'll just have to sit tight and wait to see who is declared the winner of RAAM 2012.

This just in: Strasser is resting, which just dramatically increased the odds of Reto winning!

Time Station 51

Reto has now passed through Time Station 51 (Hanover, Pennsylvania) and is getting closer and closer to Annapolis.

In the meantime, Strasser's lead has practically disappeared and is now down to just one minute (unofficially).

From what I have calculated, that means Strasser has lost 59 minutes in the last 85.8 miles.

Time Station 52 (Mount Airy, Maryland) is next.

As you can see, Reto pulled over for about one minute in Hanover to have a quick chat with his crew before continuing on his quest for the RAAM title.

If he wins it, I believe he will be the first rookie rider to do so, but I have not confirmed that.

By the way, all riders must stop at TS52 there to verify their penalty status. If they have any penalties, they must serve them our at there. Otherwise, riders are free to continue on.

Time Station 50

Reto has just passed Time Station 50 (Rouzerville, Pennsylvania).

As of the last check-in time (TS 49), Strasser's lead has dropped to 32 minutes (unofficially!).

As soon as Strasser calls in from TS 50, we'll have another update.

Since TS 47, Strasser's lead has gone from 50 minutes, up to 60 minutes, and now back down to the 32 mark.

More exciting racing ahead!

No Time To Rest

We are now 170 miles from the finish and I'm blogging from the car again. We have very spotty Internet service, so I'm typing away and will post as soon as possible.

Because another set of officials has caught up with us, Jody and I are now sticking with Reto, while the other two are staying with Strasser.

We are mostly staying out in front of Reto, but we do occasionally let him pass.


I last wrote to you from Time Station 47 (Keyser, West Virginia), when, according to the call-in times, Strasser was ahead by 50 minutes (unofficially).

We are pretty sure that Strasser did not take a break last night like Reto did, or, if he did, we are pretty sure that it was much shorter than Reto's. We have no way of confirming that at the moment, however.

Earlier today, we arrived at Time Station 48 (Cumberland, Maryland), more or less at the same time as Reto.

We passed Strasser on our way there, at about 7:00 a.m. Because it was actually a bit chilly for once (high 60's/low 70's), he was wearing a long-sleeve jersey, which he'll surely shed later today.

Reto immediately pulled in to the gas station on the corner and headed straight for his RV. Although Reto appeared to be getting some treatment on his knees (a massage and taping?), I'm not under the impression that he is having any serious medical or physical issues.

I believe Strasser is in good shape, too, despite all the pain and suffering that he, too, has had to overcome over the last 2800 miles.

Strasser does have his problems, though, which we learned when we got a chance to see him up close yesterday, while he and his crew were pulled off on the side of the road at one point.

According to one of his crew members, Strasser was having some trouble with his knees (What else is new?), and his butt was sore enough that he was wearing two bib shorts instead of one (What else is new?).

When Strasser came out of the van, the fact that his body was not 100% was confirmed. He walked quite gingerly over to his bike, paused for a moment to talk to his crew, and started pedaling away, ever so slowly.

Usually, when we see Reto, he seems so at ease, and when we see Strasser, he seems exhausted.

Nevertheless, the look on a rider's face does but necessarily correlate to performance, so neither Jody nor I are reading too much into what the rider's look like.

In any case, this morning they both seemed really strong.

Reto is still smiling, and Strasser is still flying along with her jersey flapping in the wind.

Update: We have driven ahead about 20 miles and are waiting for Reto to catch up to us. When he passes us, which we expect to be in about 15 minutes, he will have 20 miles to go to Time Station 50 (Rouzerville, Pennsylvania) and 150 miles to go to Annapolis

Will either rider stop from here on out?

We really wonder.

Almost in Annapolis

Jody and I caught up to Reto and his crew at 1:36 a.m. this morning, 20 miles past Time Station 46, very close to a place called Cool Springs.

We had actually pulled off the windy, uphill road a few minutes earlier for a 15-minute power nap, our first "official" power nap of the trip. Had we known that Reto was just ahead, we probably would have skipped the Z's, but, as they say in Germany, "safe is safe."

Since Reto was sleeping and was going to be sleeping for at least another hour, according to his crew, anyway, we decided to stop and sleep, too.

A while later we were woken up by a really loud noise, which was actually music blaring from the speakers mounted atop Reto's follow vehicle. I barely caught a glimpse of Reto as he started to pedal again toward Annapolis, and I made a mental note of the time: 3:07 a.m.

Within seconds, I was back asleep.

Some time later, I woke up again and noticed that Reto's RV was gone. I think it was about 5 o'clock by then.

Finally, just after 6, approximately 3 hours after Reto took off, Jody and I got up, hurriedly got our things off of the front seats, and drove off to find Reto.

With a little less than 300 miles to go, this is still quite a race.

Because Strasser was awarded a 1:15 time bonus for being stopped by the local police about 5 days ago due to a tornado warning, and because Strasser started 30 minutes after Reto, Reto needs to finish 1:45:01 ahead of Strasser to win.

Right now, that lead is more like 45 minutes, so Reto has his work cut out for him.

Close Is As Close Does

Both Reto and Strasser started off again within 1 mile of each other after Reto's missed left turn situation was resolved, but the Swiss rider quickly re-established his lead, mileage-wise, anyway, over the Austrian.

A mere 28 miles up the road from when we last saw them, Reto was back to being roughly 30-40 minutes in front, which meant the two riders were more-or-less tied for the overall lead again.

We actually found out about Reto's position from a bystander who was following the race. He had pulled over in his car and told me that he had seen Reto at least 30 minutes earlier but that Strasser was still on his way.

We wouldn't have missed Reto had we we not made a pit-stop at, where else(?), McDonald's, but we are human, so we occasionally get hungry… er… umm… thirsty!

Yeah, that's it: Thir-sty!

Oh, and check out that picture I took of Strasser as he rode past us. He's smiling, yo! I finally caught him without his game face on. Cool!

By the time both racers reached Time Station 40 (Greensburg, Indiana), Reto was ahead by 37 minutes, which was good for a 7-minute overall lead.

We actually caught up to Reto just before we arrived at the Time Station, so we took some more pictures of him and his follow vehicle, made sure all the rules were being followed, and, because he continued on, we continued on, as well.

As we made our way to Time Station 41 (Oxford, Ohio), we noticed that there were now RAAM signs every mile or so along the side of the road marking the route.

The signs were there to alert drivers about the bicyclists that were likely to be on the narrow roads ahead, as well as to mark the way, since there were quite a few turns around there.

A little bit farther down the road, we arrived in Oldenburg, a quaint little town with obvious German roots. The streets theree were full of bi-lingual street signs as well as other random signs in German, including the "Der Kleinstadt Laden" sign on The Village Store.

Jody and I decided to wait for Reto just outside of town, since we didn't want to get too far out in front of him.

Just after Reto passed us, we followed Saint Mary's Road for about 14 miles. Saint Mary's Road is a really nice, peaceful, windy road in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by mostly flat countryside.

At first, we tailed Reto down the road, but after a while Jody and I drove out a few hundred feet in front of Reto and his crew, just to change up our pace. I enjoyed watching Reto from the front for the first time, even though by then it was dark, but let me tell you, that was some slow going!

We stayed in front until Saint Mary's Road came to an end in Brookville. From there, we drove the remaining 17 miles to the Time Station, which happened to be an actual landmark this time, rather than just an intersection, and that landmark happened to be a, you know it, McDonald's!

(By the way, I don't think intersections should be used as Time Stations, but they often are.)

As soon as we walked into McD's, we noticed that we were at a manned Time Station. For whatever reason, neither Jody nor I got a great vibe from the people who were hanging out, though, so we decided to chill inside the restaurant rather than outside with everyone else.

About an hour after we arrived, so did Reto. I was surprised, but certainly not shocked, to see him pull into the parking lot next to the Time Station, so I went outside to check on his condition.

While Reto was resting, I talked to several members of his crew.

Some of them were still a bit confused and possibly even upset about the left turn issue from earlier in the day, so they wanted to talk to me about it. I tried my best to answer their questions and also offer up any explanations I could come up with, but I told them that Jody and I had followed orders, and that, ultimately, headquarters would be the one who would make any final decisions if there was a protest.

Since both of us were really tired, and because there was a huge, unlit parking lot right next to the Time Station, Jody and I decided it was time to check in to our hotel for the night, the Nissan Royal 4-Door Deluxe Hotel.

A little while later, at 1:35 a.m., we were woken up by the sound of clapping. We looked up just in time to see Reto taking off for Time Station 42 (Blanchester, Ohio).

20 minutes later, we heard more clapping. That time, everyone was cheering was for Strasser as he passed by.

The two leaders were down to a tiny 20-minute gap between them.

How amazing is that?

Here's to a another great day of racing tomorrow!

Time Station 34 Adventures

With all the excitement going on yesterday, I forgot to talk about our Time Station 34 (Washington, Missouri) adventures.

Just like back in Congress, Arizona, this Time Station had a kiddy pool for anyone to jump in and cool down, as well as food (pizza) and drinks. Showers were also available, but getting one was a bit complicated.

One of the volunteers first sent us to the Super 8 hotel down the street to get a shower, but when we arrived, they gave us the bad news: They had rooms reserved all right, but not until the next day.

Luckily, Joe, of Revolution Cycles, which was located directly at the Time Station, had a Plan B. He sent us to the local YMCA and guaranteed us that we could get a shower there.


Sure enough, when we arrived at the "Y," we were told that they would accommodate us. What's more, they even let us use their other facilities, besides the showers. You see, as soon as Jody heard that we were going to the YMCA to shower, he told me that we were going to go for a run on the treadmill.

Considering the fact that I had been falling asleep in the car before we arrived in Washington, and considering the fact that both of us were about to do a workout on an empty stomach, I wasn't so happy about having to go running. Then again, sitting in a car all day for days on end isn't exactly healthy, so getting in a run under any circumstances was probably a good idea.

Or was it?

Unlike me, Jody is a running machine. The guy can run a marathon with his eyes closed. The most I've ever run is a half-marathon.

Since Jody's the far more experienced runner, he told me the plan. Basically, we did a 40-minute run, divided into 5-minute intervals. It wasn't a "killer" workout, but it wasn't a walk in the park, either, by any means.

Every time we were about to change speeds, Jody called them out to me, and, because he could see I was struggling a bit, he continuously gave me words of encouragement.

When we finally finished the run, Jody said, "Congratulations. You have just completed the Official 2012 RAAM Official Treadmill Workout."

He also noted that, because he was wearing his red RAAM Official shirt and I wasn't, other people working out in the gym probably thought he was my personal trainer.

My response: "You are!"

After the run, we headed on back to the Time Station, checked in on things there, took a look at some of the nice bicycles in the shop, and said "Goodbye" to everyone.

Just before we left, however, we decided to donate the cookies that we had gotten from McDonald's to the Time Station volunteers. (Sorry, Team Trix!)

Of course, our donation made them very happy, especially since we had just been talking about how fattening cookies could be.

As soon as we got back to the car, Jody and I encountered another minor bump in the road: The car wouldn't start.

Thanks to the assistance of one of the Time Station volunteers, though, we were back in business a hop, skip, and a "jump" later.

Me and My Big Mouth

On our way to Time Station 39 (Bloomington, Indiana), I mentioned to Jody that today had been so uneventful, I had no idea what I was going to blog about.

Me and my big mouth.

Jody and I caught up to Team Beau&Babe about 2/10 of a mile in front of the Time Station at the corner State Route 46 (to the left) and College Mall Rd. A lot of construction was going on, with some of the lanes closed, so it made for a rather confusing intersection.

We could tell right away that “Beau” and his crew were disagreeing over where to go. Beau was fairly adamant that they were supposed to turn left (incorrect), whereas his crew was telling him to proceed straight through the intersection (correct). We think that Beau was thrown off by the CVS Pharmacy on the left, because the route book says the Time Station is the CVS Pharmacy on the right, past the intersection.

Luckily, Beau listened to his crew. Since we were just ahead of them, we would have directed them to the Time Station, anyway.

Fast forward a few minutes to the Time Station.

Jody and I were hanging out, chatting with the Time Station volunteers, and also talking to RAAM owner Fred (we’ll probably see a lot of him until we reach Annapolis), trying to figure out when Reto and Strasser would be passing through. Since it took “Beau” 4:10 to make it from the last Time Station, we used that as a ballpark figure for the two solo cyclists, too, so we knew we had at least a half-hour wait.

A little while later, one of Strasser’s crews arrived and updated us as to the two riders’ positions. According to them, Reto was close to arriving (whatever “close” means) and Strasser was about 20 miles out.

I told Jody that I was actually a bit worried that one or both of the riders might get confused at that intersection back down the road, just as “Beau” had been. I even said something like, “Man, at this stage of the race, it’s so close that one little mistake like a wrong turn can cost a team the win.”

I then nudged him to walk back to the intersection with me, but he didn’t want to.

After some hesitation, I finally decided I’d go there by myself, to see if I could see Reto or Strasser coming.

When I got pretty close to the intersection, I noticed that two of the Time Station volunteers had just finished putting up an additional sign there, pointing the way to the Time Station (straight). Although the intersection was a zoo, with all the traffic, construction cones, and construction vehicles, and I wasn’t sure therefore just how visible that sign was, I felt a bit more reassured that neither Reto nor Christian would not understand that they had to go straight.

I also saw a few members of Strasser’s crew close to the intersection on the lookout for their rider (and probably Reto, too), so I didn’t feel it was necessary for me to hang out there any longer.

I really wish I had, though.

About 10 minutes later, one of Strasser’s crew members came up to me, Jody, and Fred and told us that Reto had turned left at that intersection, rather than going straight through it. They even offered us photographic proof, but none was needed.

Jody and I took off in his car, up the road to find Reto. As soon as we caught him, roughly 9 minutes later, we pulled him and his support vehicle over and told them that they had missed the Time Station.

When the crew realized their mistake, one of them said, “But there was construction there.”

They didn’t argue with us, however, and instead listened to us as we explained to them exactly what they had to do. (While we drove down the road to find them, we contacted headquarters to confirm how to handle the situation.)

They were going to have to drive Reto back to the point where he left the course (that crazy intersection), put him back on a bike to ride the loop to the Time Station and back to the intersection that he had missed, drive him back to the exact spot where we pulled him off the road, and then put him back on a bike so he could continue the race.

Reto remained incredibly calm when he realized what had happened and what this meant to the race standings. He just shook his head in disbelief and said, “That’s going to take at least 20 minutes.”

Jody quickly showed the crew a map on his phone so they would know how to ride that loop, and when they said they understood, they took off with us behind them.

When we got back down to the intersection, one of the two crew members helped Reto with his bike and then directed him along while the other crew member remained with the vehicle.

We told her we were sorry for what happened, and she shrugged her shoulders and said, “These kind of things happen with such a long race. We’re all tired and mistakes happen.”

She also wondered why race headquarters hadn’t called them to tell them to stop, rather than have Jody and me chase after them, since that surely would have saved them time. All I could tell her then was, “I’m wondering the exact same thing.”

By the time we all got back to the point where Reto could continue on his way, he had lost exactly 30 minutes, which meant he went from being tied with Strasser to being 30 minutes down.

What’s more, Strasser was less than one mile back down the road.

Are You Kidding Me?

Get this:

If the official stats are correct, Reto Schoch and Christoph Strasser are tied, yes tied(!), as of Time Station 38 (Sullivan, Indiana).

Reto checked in 30 minutes before Strasser, but because the Swiss cyclist started 30 minutes ahead of the Austrian at Oceanside (the riders departed in one-minute intervals), they are actually now dead even.

Is that amazing or what?

They have both covered 2197 miles in 5 days, 19 hours, and 38 minutes.

What are the odds?

Stay tuned for more, as they should arrive at Time Station 39 (Bloomington, Indiana) within the next hour.

Detour de Plans

Shortly after we finished our stakeout, we arrived at the Missouri State Capitol Building. Since I was born in Missouri (or "misery" as I often say, in jest), I asked Jody to pull over so I could take some pictures.

Jody told me that he had stopped there before, in 2009, while crewing for a solo racer, Michael Cook (Team Cookie Monster). It was about 100 degrees out and the RV's air conditioning had gone out, so instead of resting in the RV, Michael decided to take a dip in one of the fountains. We even took a picture for Michael of that exact fountain.

Hats off to ya, mate!

From the Capitol Building grounds, we also got our first look at the Missouri River, which we would be crossing over almsot as soon as we got going again.

While on the bridge, we caught up once again with Beau&Babe, that mixed 60-69 team. Besides the two leading solo males, Beau&Babe are the only riders we will be following for the rest of the race, assuming they keep up, which seems pretty likely, at least for the next several time stations.

John (or "Beau") is one of the more talkative riders we've met. When we came across him one time, for instance, about two days ago, he seemed totally pumped up and happily exclaimed something like, "Dude, I don't know about you, but I'm riding all the way to Annapolis!"


I told Jody how awesome that was, but also mentioned that with so many miles to go to the finish, I'd save the excitement for later.

This time when we chatted, Beau mentioned that he and his wife had started the race with 11 tubular tires but were down to two. I'm not sure if he meant two total or two for each bike, but whatever the case, the lesson is that you can never be over-prepared.

One of the biggest "events" of the day came another 20 miles down the road (after we had again passed Strasser, too, who was about 12 minutes by car ahead of B&B) when we saw a giant "Road Closed" sign ahead of us, followed by a big, orange "Detour" sign pointing left.

Because the route was supposed to go straight, we knew we had a problem on our hands. Problem #2 was that Reto was ahead of us and we didn't know if he had taken the posted detour or figured out another way to proceed.

Just then, the owner of RAAM, Fred Boethling, appeared out of nowhere behind us, driving a yellow Rider truck, likely filled with RAAM gear.

After all of us discussed the situation and made some phone calls to headquarters (which wasn't easy, because we could barely pick up a signal), Fred told us to drive ahead along the detour until we found Reto.

According to our GPS, the detour was going to take us way, way, way off course, however, so we didn't think Reto would have gone that way. According to what HQ told us, though, Reto's crew had reported that the detour was "clearly marked," so off we went, in hot pursuit.

About 10 minutes later, we got a phone call from Fred telling us that the (ahem) "French" guys, who were actually the Austrian guys, i.e., Strasser and crew, had found a gravel road that they could take that got them right back on course with only the tiniest of deviations.


Since Strasser's crew found that other detour so easily (we also saw it on our GPS), we figured that Reto's crew must have found it, too, but we couldn't figure out why they would have said the detour was "clearly marked" (since only the "official" detour was). Unsure of the best thing to do, we decided we should just follow orders, stay on the detour, and hope to spot Reto.

No such luck.

By the time we had looped all the way up to Fulton and then back down to the original route, which was about a 33-mile detour, we were basically back where we had started from. By then we knew that we had been on a wild goose chase, but there was no sense in getting frustrated about it. Jody told me that detours are just another part of RAAM and that they happen every year, so we just carried on as if nothing had happened.

In the meantime, headquarters had notified all of the riders of the alternate detour so that they wouldn't have any problem continuing on their way.

An hour after we had last passed Strasser, there he was again, just ahead of us, riding with his jersey unzipped, in an effort to beat the heat. (I've never seen Reto riding with his jersey unzipped, but again, maybe that is just coincidence or comfort or whatever. To each his own, right?)

There was still no sign of Reto, however, but he was obviously ahead of us.

Somewhere along the road (roughly 20 miles to go to the Time Station), we eventually came upon one of Reto's support vehicles. When we asked the crew where he was, they told us he was inside the van, taking a quick break from riding. The last thing we wanted to do was disturb Reto, so off we went, to Time Station 34 (Washington, Missouri).

I Spy

Good morning (for anyone in the same time zone as us who is reading this right now, that is) from Greenville, Illinois.

Jody and I had a decent sleep last night, considering the tiny "room" the hotel staff gave us. Even though I forgot to move my seat forward before tucking in for the night, which meant I robbed myself of about 6 inches of extra space, cramped is cramped no matter how you add it up.


I'm a bit behind on the blog, and as you can well imagine, all the days and places are blending together, but, as they say, pictures can tell a thousand words, so whenever I write blogs, I first look at my pictures and then tell about what happened.

Yeah, so here we go with yesterday's events.

The first stop for us was Time Station 32, a "Signal" gas station in Camdenton, Missouri. As you can see in the picture, gas prices out here are much cheaper than they are back in California, probably because of the fuel taxes. Jody remembers that Missouri was the cheapest place to get gas along last year's RAAM route, and it seems like the "Show-Me" state might be the cheapest for gas this year, as well.

The majority of Time Stations are kind of like holes in the wall, in that there is no obvious indication that RAAM is coming, but this Time Station at least had the "Welcome RAAM" sign. What else was nice about the place was that the gas station attendant knew about RAAM and was nice enough to offer us ice for our cooler without us even asking for any.

Can you guess where we stopped next?

If you said, "Walmart," you're right, since it was time for breakfast.

This morning, Jody and I took pictures of two "foods" each. Hopefully, if you've been following the blog, you can tell which of the two we actually "ate."

Yes, the liquid diet is alive and well. I'm actually surprised how easy it is, to tell you the truth. I'm even thinking about continuing the experiment after RAAM ends, but I can't imagine being able to do a liquid diet in Japan (where I live), because there are so few great options like you have here in the States.

The diet has certainly made me think about all the junk I put into my mouth. I have quite a sweet tooth and probably eat far too many cookies and chocolate, for instance.

I've also learned, in a sense, to eat more with my eyes and nose than with my teeth. I think a lot of eating is directly tied to the sensations you get when you see, smell, and chew your food, so I try to imagine eating foods I'm used to eating without really doing so.

Like I said, though, I don't find myself craving a thing, because as soon as I get some calories via liquid, I generally feel satisfied. Strange but true. You should try the liquid diet sometime to see what I mean!

OK, enough about food. On to the bike race!

As you probably know, Trix Zgraggen is "comfortably" (as if riding your bike as fast as possible over 3000 miles can be comfortable!) in the lead of the solo women's field, and the solo men's race has come down to two riders, at least as of now: Reto Schoch (Switzerland) and defending champion Christoph Strasser (Austria).

When we first check the rider stats this morning, we saw that Reto was leading, but not by much.

At about 11:20 local time, we caught up to Strasser. For some reason (or maybe it's just my imagination), I always get the feeling that Strasser is in no mood to talk to us, unlike most of the other riders. I don't want to knock on the guy, though, because he's under no obligation to communicate with us if he doesn't want to. Nevertheless, my impression is that he's having more ups and downs than Reto, for instance. I could be completely wrong, though, because we only see the riders for a fraction of the time they are riding.

A mere 20 minutes up the road (by car) we caught up to Reto. Unlike Strasser, who seems to be all business, Reto looked calm, was smiling as usual, and talked to us very briefly: "It's hot again!"

Since we were only a couple of miles from Time Station 33, we decided to follow Reto and his crew for about 5 minutes so we could confirm his check-in time. Indeed, it was accurate to the minute, which was good to know.

Just for fun, I suggested to Jody that we go hide somewhere so we could also confirm Strasser's check-in time. We found a nice spot overlooking the gas station (Time Station) and camped out. About an hour later, we were then able to confirm that Strasser's crew also called in to headquarters with accurate times.

Good job, crews!

Fun Times At McDonald's

Late last night, Jody and I arrived at Time Station 29 in Yates Center, Kansas.

Rather than stopping there, however, we decided to continue on down the road toward Time Station 30, to gain some ground on the riders. After about 15 miles, we pulled over at a McDonald's so we could rest and I could blog.

The first order of business, however, was dinner. This time around, that equaled a mango-pineapple smoothie for me and a berry smoothie for Jody.



I've now tried all three of the fruit smoothies (the third flavor is banana-strawberry), but I don't really have a favorite.

Heck, they all taste good to me.

When the manager on duty told us they were closing at 11:00, we knew we only had a little more than an hour to chill. However, when she heard that we were working for RAAM and that a few of the riders were due to ride past in the next few hours, she said we could stay in the restaurant even after closing time, since they would need at least an extra hour and a half to clean the place.

That was welcome news, since Jody and I would certainly be more comfortable waiting inside McD's than we would be waiting outside or in Jody's car.

Since McDonald's was nearly deserted, the manager had plenty of time to ask us all sorts of questions about the race, including when the next rider would be passing by. I gave her a ballpark figure but told her there was really no way to know.

She was so excited about the prospect of getting to see some of these incredible athletes that she also told a bunch of her friends/acquaintances, who had gathered outside the fast-food joint to chat and chill, what was going on. They too, seemed really interested in seeing the riders, so I reassured them that as long as they were patient they would definitely get to see some action.

Over the course of the next 2 1/2 hours or so, three riders, the team of Beau&Babe (which Jody and I refer to as "Ben & Jerry's," "Bonnie & Clyde," and "Bed & Breakfast"), Christoph Strasser, and Trix Zgraggen, all passed by.

Trix seemed to be especially happy to see the small crowd of fans gathered on the street corner. While all of us clapped and waved at her, she enthusiastically waved back at us, gave us the thumbs up, and yelled "Yeah!" and "Woo-hoo!"

Sadly, that will probably be the last time Jody and I see Trix along the course, since we will be following Strasser and Schoch the rest of the way.

Even after the riders passed by, the McDonald's manager kept asking us questions about the race.


At one point she even offered us lots of leftovers. We had to decline because of our "diet," but we told the manager we would take some cookies and give them away to riders and/or crew members. (We actually gave them away to the volunteers manning Time Station 34 today.)

With cookies in tow, Jody and I headed out to go look for a hotel. We finally settled on one about an hour away that was located in a McDonald's parking lot in El Dorado Springs, 34 miles into Missouri.

Luckily, the Nissan Super-Deluxe Motel Inn still had room for two.

Surprise, Surprise

As I mentioned in an earlier post, Jody and I are constantly calculating and re-calculating roughly where the riders are located, based on things like Time Station check-in times, the riders' average speeds, other riders' locations, and what the winds are like.


Believe it or not, we usually end up guessing correctly within 10-20 miles, but sometimes even within a mile or two, and sometimes even to the exact minute. (Thank you very much.)

As a matter of fact, even right now as I type this while we are heading toward Time Station 33 (Jefferson City, Missiouri), I'm telling Jody that we should see Strasser pretty soon. (We did!)

Because our calculations are usually pretty accurate, we were really surprised when, about 12 miles past Time Station 28 (El Dorado, KS), or roughly 66 miles down the road from where we last saw Strasser and Schoch riding just a few minutes apart, there was Strasser and his crew, off on the side of the road.

As we drove past, we noticed that Strasser was about to climb back on his bike, so it immediately occurred to us that he must have just woken up from a two-hour nap. Although we figured Strasser would be sleeping at night, for all we know taking sleep breaks during the day is part of the Strasser strategy. Who knows?

The bottom line is, no matter who is in the lead at any one Time Station, by the time the riders get to the next one, anything can happen.

10 minutes later, we caught up and passed Trix once again. Just as we passed, she pulled off the road, but because she looked as strong as ever, we're sure she was simply taking a quick bathroom break.

I guess these super-athletes are human after all!

Halfway To Annapolis

After Jody and I woke up this morning from a nice, long sleep, we took advantage of our hotel's continental breakfast.

The choices we had were coffee or juice. Jody had a little of both, but I stuck with the juice, since I'm not much of a coffee drinker.


During breakfast, we got a stark reminder that we were no longer in the West: The biscuits and gravy that were available for the non-liquid-dieters among us.

The gravy even came out of a dispenser, something that neither we nor the couple from Texas that we ran into over breakfast had ever seen.

Yet another reminder that we must be in or near the South was the "Where'r y'all from?" that the Texans offered up. I cannot for the life of me remember (nor do I want to remember!) the last time I heard someone say "Y'all." Wow.

Yesterday, we also got a good taste of the Midwest/South when, at McDonald's, we overheard a group of people talking and the word "God" came up over and over. You don't get that nearly as much in California as you do out in these here parts.

45 minutes out of town, we came across tons of corn fields, so we pulled over to take a bunch of pictures.

We do so much driving and usually have so much free time that we like to stop if we see something we feel like taking pictures of.

We actually don't stop all that much, and I'm usually the one who wants to stop, but as you must know, Jody assigned me to media duty, so I am simply doing my job whenever I tell him I need to do some "work."

Just before we stopped to take the snaps of the corn fields, we caught up to Gerhard Gulewicz (Austria), the third place men's solo rider.


As per usual, we slowed down and I rolled down my window to check on the rider.

For the first time since I saw Cassie struggling to get to the top of a brutal climb (at least two days ago), I saw extreme fatigue on the face of a rider.

Although Gerhard looked completely exhausted, he was more than coherent, from what I could tell.

At first, Jody and I figured that maybe we had just caught up to Gerhard at a bad time, but after a few minutes we decided to go back to check on him again, to be sure he was OK. The second time around, "GG" (as I call him) looked a little better, so Jody and I drove the 6 miles to Time Station 24, pulled over, and gassed up.

A few minutes later, GG showed up. Although he still looked pretty tired, all he did was make a 45-second pit-stop to shed his leg warmers and long-sleeve jersey (that he was wearing over his short-sleeve jersey) before taking off again to conquer the rest of the country.

Since we were still in Kansas, the road wasn't about to get hilly any time soon. I guess riding through such landscape, with farmland stretching for millions of miles, must be awfully boring for some of the riders, but they do have ways of staying "entertained."

As I mentioned early in the blog, many of the follow vehicles are equipped with loudspeakers, so that the rider(s) in front of them can be serenaded with music.

Another entertainment option is to provide the rider with a headset, so the follow vehicle can communicate in a quieter (and more direct/personal) mode.

One major disadvantage of only using the loudspeaker system is that some areas along the route have noise ordinances. At times, the loudspeakers can be loud enough for Jody and me to hear even if we are a few hundred feet in front of or behind the rider/follow vehicle, which means that we can often listen in to (outtakes of) messages that the crew is relaying to the rider.

The fact that we can hear the traffic flow comes in handy, because we sometimes pick up on minor bits of information regarding the rider's condition, even when that info is in German, for instance.

Anyway, an hour after I took that picture of myself in front of that golden field, we caught up with the lead (and only) 2-person mixed 60-69 team called "Beau&Babe" (John and Nancy Guth, USA). Since we noticed that their follow vehicle was driving without its headlights on, which is against the rules, we drove ahead, found a safe place to pull off the road that included room for the follow vehicle, and pulled the van over (without stopping the rider) to quickly issue a warning.

45 minutes later, we were once again at one of our favorite hangouts, Walmart, where the food talk was back in full swing.

For instance, Jody walked over to me carrying two giant containers of Cheese Balls and said, "This is why so many Americans are obese."

We then guessed how many calories were in one container.

Jody's guess: 5000.

My guess: 3500.

Survey says: 4160.

Jeremy wins!



One of today's highlights was reaching the halfway point of RAAM.

As luck would have it, we even got to see (and participate in) a mini-celebration that Trix's team threw for her.

After the 5-minute celebration (yes, even the parties on RAAM have to be short!), Trix got back on her saddle and rode out.

45 minutes later, we caught up with Christoph Strasser.

We were actually under the impression that we'd see Reto Schoch first, since Strasser had a 15-minute lead over him at the previous Time Station, but there are all sorts of reasons why the lead could have changed hands. In any case, as long as both riders are still in the race, the race is far from over. It turns out that Reto was just ahead, by about 3 (car) minutes.

We talked to Reto for a bit (in English) and he was obviously well aware, yet not the least bit concerned, that Strasser was just behind him.

During our brief conversation, Reto smiled and, in his ever calm voice, said something like, "It's a really nice race. I'm really enjoying the challenge."