Bike and Vehicle Inspections

Today, we started off with a big breakfast at a place called Breakfast Club Diner, which is very close to the starting point of RAAM. Over breakfast, we had a chance to meet and talk to the rest of the race officials and we also had a short race briefing.

The briefing could pretty much be summed up in three words: Safety, safety, safety. Even though part of our job as race officials involves giving out warnings as well as penalties, our primary concern, bar none, is the safety of the riders.

For instance, we have to make sure that the riders have lights turned on at all times, we have to make sure the riders are accompanied by a follow vehicle most of the time, and we have to make sure the riders are not too tired to ride, because sleep deprivation, which is a huge factor in this race, can easily lead to bad judgment, which can, in turn, lead to serious accidents.

After breakfast, we made our way to the parking lots down by the beach and got started with the bike and vehicle inspections. The inspections are not very complicated, but they are obviously very important. Because so much value is placed on rider safety, we primarily have to check that the bikes are covered in plenty of reflective tape (on both sides of the wheels and on the pedals or shoes, cranks, forks, and seat stays), and that the follow and support vehicles are properly marked with a variety of stickers (such as an official RAAM sticker, a caution sticker, and the rider/team number) and have visible warning triangles and amber lights.

An inspection for the solo riders takes about 10-15 minutes if the support crew is well organized, but more like 30 minutes if they need to be reminded of something like putting enough reflective tape on their wheels, if they aren't completely prepared for the inspection (in which case they can actually receive a 15-minute time penalty, as was the case once today), or if some of their equipment is possibly not in accordance with the rules.

We work in teams of two when we conduct the inspections, which means I basically always do the inspections with Jody, who is an expert. I'm a fast learner, however, so I would feel pretty comfortable doing an inspection on my own now. Besides, a lot of the crew chiefs have years of experience, and even if they don't, they are mostly quite friendly, cooperative, and really easy to work with.

Riders and teams from all over the world participate in RAAM, which is advertised as "The World's Toughest Bicycle Race." Because the riders need so much help along the way, they all have support crews, which generally consist of about 6-10 members for solo riders and 8-12 members for teams. The solo teams usually have an RV-type vehicle (or extended van) for the rider and crew to sleep in plus one smaller follow vehicle, whereas the teams usually have an RV-type vehicle, two follow vehicles, and an extra vehicle.

One interesting add-on that many follow vehicles have is a loudspeaker and bullhorn set rigged to the front of the vehicle. The bullhorn is there to relay instructions to the rider(s) such as "Turn left at the next corner!" and the loudspeakers are there to play music for the rider(s), which can often keep their spirits up. There are plenty of rules, however, with regard to noise, especially for night-time riding and in certain parts of the country.

As you can imagine, nearly every rider has a really nice, top-of-the line road bike, but one Russian solo rider is riding on what appears to be a custom-designed semi-recumbent bike (I was pretty surprised to see that and I'm really curious how he does), and at least one Hungarian rider has an unusual bike called a "string bike" (which basically has strings instead of a chain).

The work day ended with the 5:00 race briefing for everyone involved in the race, which I'm guessing is about 500-600 people.

After the briefing, Jody and I found a pretty nice restaurant that we could have dinner at called Davina's Cabo Grill. We even got there just in time for the end of Happy Hour, which meant cheaper drinks as well as plenty of food specials, both of which we took full advantage of, and we got to sit up on the roof-top cantina.

I am thoroughly enjoying each and every meal I can get my mouth on, because once we hit the road on Wednesday, Jody and I plan to go on a liquid diet for at least a week.

The purpose of that diet is not to lose weight, but rather to try to stay healthy, give our digestive system a change of pace, and try to keep our brains from getting too amped or too lethargic, since we will be doing a ton of driving for about 9 or 10 days.

Anyway, tomorrow, Jody and I do more inspections and we should be done with work at 5:00.

Talk to you again soon!