Are they worthy?

Well, Rupp and Gerbig have finally fielded their 4 man team, the Hoosiers. But, the other two are from California and Colorado. Dave Tanner seems to have retired from ultra-distance events. Would love to see a true Hoosier team. I've got a few names to suggest for 2011!

Time Station Tidbit

Jure' Robic has the most experience with the roads between TS 38, Sullivan, IN and TS 39, Bloomington, IN. Why?

2010 is the 3rd year that Bloomington has been part of RAAM. Robic won RAAM rather handily in 2008. However, in 2009 the route was changed due to possible road construction, but Robic's crew had Jure' ride the 2008 route. Hence, he was penalized 30 minutes for riding off course and it was his third penalty, and the time penalties accummulate. Thomas Wyss was actually now ahead of Robic in Bloomington, IN!

2010 route is back to the 2008 that goes through Solsberry on rather hilly terrain.

Time Station 38 2009 Highlights

2009 is our second year, so we're no longer rookies and have no excuses. From the comments from last year, I don't think we have anything to worry about. There wasn't that much interest this year as there was in 2008. Dave Tanner, our local RAAM hero, was not riding in 2009, but was on a solo woman crew. However, there were a couple of Indiana connections. Team Vera Bradley was an 8 person team from Ft Wayne riding for Breast Cancer Awareness. I knew a few of the riders, actually doctors from a hospital I used to work at. The Great Grand PAC Masters had an average age of 75+ years, and Chris Staufer from Ft Wayne was one of the members.

The missing tent finally showed up the last minute from my assistant manager's boys. Support from a local computer repair company in the neighborhood fizzled out, so we weren't quite sure about wifi. But, low and behold we had good reception from College Mall's wifi. Coke surprised me but in the opposite direction from last year. In 2008, we received a huge cooler plus at least 1000 units of Coca-Cola product. Well, we initially received about 200 units at the time I was setting up. I looked at the new salesman and asked, "That it?" Well, I got a lot more product and a banner to fly.

I started studying the RAAM web-site and gave Dave Tanner a call. He was on the crew of a solo woman who wasn't doing so well. He told me that the organizers changed the route from Sullivan,IN TS 37 to our TS 38. This was a surprise to me as no one told me. Why the change? Apparently, some RAAM organizer surfed the web and saw that IN-43 was "under construction". Actually, there was minor construction that wouldn't have been a deterrent day or night. More travelled IN-45 was used as the last minute alternate. I kind of felt like the kid on "Home Alone".
Well, now to wait for all the excitement to arrive. Some famous surfer dude was riding with a team called Team Surfing, or was it some politician. I don't remember, they must not have been famous enough for me. Something happenned to them along the way east and they DNF'd. Again, I forget why, but I guess it wasn't important enough for me to remember. Meanwhile, there was a lot of excitement in California. There were 4 women riding solo and 24 men riding solo. And even more , a sixteen person, eight tandem Team JRDF.

The big talk was "is Jure' Robic beatable?" There were a number of riders that thought so. Gerhard Gulewicz was neck and neck with Robic in 2008 until a jacket got caught in his wheel. Dani Wyss won in 2006 when Robic DNF'd. Marko Baloh, a fellow Slovenian, Julian Sanz Garcia, and Franz Preihs also were contenders. See a trend: no Americans. Two of them are longshots: Kevin Kaiser, one of the Fondo Fixies of 2008, and Christopher Gottwald, an American pro racer.

By the time Robic crossed the Mississippi, Dani Wyss was close behind. We also found out that Robic had 30 minutes of penalties. One was 15 minutes for relieving himself in public at the start line ceremonies! By the time they got to Bloomington at about 6pm, they were within an hour of each other. The officials at the time station were getting a flurry of calls. Something was up, but they couldn't tell me anything. The Slovenian Army (Robic's crew) arrived and the shouting started. Robic then went by the time station, while the RV stayed at the time station with the officials. Apparently Robic rode the 2008 old route, and their spy vehicle followed Wyss. So, it wasn't by accident, but it really didn't matter, he broke the rules. Another 30 minute penalty. Meanwhile, Wyss rode by TS 38 55 minutes later. So, actually he was ahead!

The film crews came on the scene. They interviewed me. I told them how RAAM changed the route without giving me a heads up. I told them how the new course could be very confusing. Well, I ended up on the cutting floor as this was all now under investigation! Now, I felt like Kevin Costner (the "Big Chill")

By the time the two leaders got to Athens, OH (TS 42), they were actually within minutes of each other.

More excitement was when the Great Grand PAC Masters came through just after midnight. What a jovial group of riders and crew. So many of them were ex-RAAMers paying back to the vets. I talked some with Stauffer.

Gulewicz came through at 8am and Baloh at 1pm. It was going to be a horse race among the top four.

The 8 man teams then roared though later that evening. Another day later, more excitement when Daniela Figueiredo Genovasi of Brazil passed Janet Christiansen, USA, somewhere between TS 37 and Bloomington.

So, at the last time station, RAAM officials pulled over Jure' Robic and put him in "the penalty box" to sit out his minutes. Dani Wyss proceeded to win RAAM, and Jure pulled out and didn't finish.

Will we see him again in RAAM. I guess we'll have to wait till June 2010!

More Highlights from RAAM 2008

Before I get on to 2009, I thought I'd write a little more on 2008 from my annual journal.
"We started setting up on Saturday June 14 at 2pm with Kristen and Dan, two of the SDSU interns. Jim Lang came out a little later and helped. At 5pm Joe and Barb Anderson came with another tailgate tent from the BBC storage shed. So, everything was ready and where's the riders?

At 6:45pm the Gran Fondo Fixies came through. The resting rider of the 2 man team jumped out of the car and offered us cookies! Shouldn't it have been the other way around? This was the first fixie category of RAAM, and the organizers weren't quite sure just how "fast" they'd be going across the country, so they had them start 1 or 2 days before anyone else. We were quite surprised that they were the first ones here. We chatted with them at length about his fixed gear biking. Wow! The Fixie came through and missed the turn on 2nd St. Time to mark the wrap around.



Jan Christiansen, solo woman, coming through.
Paul Stern and his wife stopped by. He's the time station director, and we met after all the e-mailing we've been doing the past six months. We talked for quite some time, and Jim Lang recommended Truffles for a fancy supper. Hope they liked it, while I had a cold Wendy's double, however Jen did deliver some cookies and banana bread.




Jim Lang, Klaus R, Jen M, and a couple of RAAM officials waited for the Slovenian Army to arrive. Johnny Boswell and friend have been following the Robic contingent since California. We found out they're from Fredricksburg, Texas and invited us down to Hell Week. They decided to bed down awhile in the tent and lounging chair.









The Bloomington police came by to check us out. Naturally, they knew nothing about RAAM, but after some educating, they were cool. Some Cutters came by to be there for Jure, but still no Jure. Finally, at 4:47am, Robic went by and we exchanged some souvenirs to the Slovenian Army."





more photos

2008 was the first year that Race Across America (RAAM) came through Bloomington, IN. In the past, whenever RAAM passed through Indiana it followed our club's, BBC, RAIN route on US 40. The current owners of RAAM, Fred and Rick Boethling, were looking for new venues for the RAAM route, to market RAAM. Jeff "Bubba Shrimp" Stephens, a RAAM finisher, and marketing director of RAAM, suggested Bloomington due to its cycling history of Hilly Hundred, Breaking Away, and Little 500.The Bloomington Bicycle Club was quite experienced in ultra-marathon cycling. Ty Waltermire, sponsored by BBC, completed solo RAAM a couple of times in the 80's, and Dave Tanner rode solo RAAM once, and has ridden two 4 person RAAM's in 2007, the Hoosiers, and 2008, Team Theraplay. BBC also has put on RAIN, Ride Across Indiana, since 1987. Jeff also knew that I now lived in Bloomington and a reliable time station could be manned in Bloomington. It was a challenge that I enthusiastically accepted. Jeff and Dave spoke at our annual end of winter banquet to stir up the fire.

The first solo rider through was Jure Robic, the 2 time RAAM winner from Slovenia. According to his time breaks, he was to come through at 1 am, as a few of the BBC members were patiently waiting.Unfortunately, Robic decided to bed down on the other side of Bloomington, and finally came through our time station at 4am. He still had a couple of us BBC'rs along with the Slovenien Army cheering him on.
Dave Haas came along about 13 hours later.
Currently in 2nd he was the American hope to unseed Robic. He was quite a sore man and quite grumpy. His major complaints were his feet and heels. He was overtaken by Marc Patinson, a Brit, later in West Virginia.

Teams started coming through regularly The excitement peaked when Team Theraplay came through with our own Dave Tanner riding his leg past his alma mater,
his house, and ended at our time station 38 in front of about 75 fans at midnight on a weekday.
The time station continued its services to the riders, the crews, and the officials till the last rider came through almost a week after Jure came through.

We learned a lot in our first year, but we were appreciated by all. The Boethlings came through and enjoyed our town and Hoosier hospitality and promised that RAAM would be back in 2009.