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.