Let me preface this next entry with an acknowledgement that
orchestrating an event that involves monitoring hundreds of racers/crew spread
across 3000 miles and 12 states is certainly a huge logistics challenge. The fact that RAAM management is able to pull
off a race of this magnitude each year with so few issues is remarkable. BUT… (here it comes…) There are a few things that RAAM does that
are L-A-M-E! At the top of my “Lame
Things About RAAM” is the start. The
start procedure has changed several times over the years but the current
cluster goes something like this (sorry this will be a bit long and slow but we
need context to understand what went down and what was going through our heads
as we left Oceanside)…
1)
First we have a mandatory racer meeting where
all racers must show up the night before the race and sit around in an
auditorium while RAAM flips a handful of PowerPoint slides that were created
in, oh, 1987. Snappy graphics. There is absolutely ZERO useful information that
wasn’t already communicated at the crew chief meeting earlier in the week. I can tell you that I can’t find anything
else I’d rather be doing before a huge effort bike race than sit around with a
few hundred of my closest friends. Boy
howdy…
![]() |
Tynee and Animal on the edge of their seats |
2)
Next let’s have all the teams drag themselves
down to the Oceanside Pier before the start to stand around for an hour or two
while we interview current and former racers over a garbled PA system that no
one can hear. Guys this is RAAM, not the
Super Bowl.
![]() |
Oh, the humanity... |
3)
Racers start off on one minute spacing in
reverse order with 2-man first, next 4-man, then 8-man teams. Now, as you can imagine, racing RAAM as a
2-man squad is a completely different race than going off as a 4-man unit which
likewise is a totally different race than that of an 8-man team. Racers on the 2-man teams are each settling
in for a 1500 mile grind on little rest and lousy food. Let’s drop into a nice rhythm and start to
bang out some miles. Most 8-man teams race with a rotation scheme that has
their racers complete a series of almost full gas sprints while they leapfrog
across the country. So let’s put the long and slow(er) guys out in front of the
teams so we can make our first few hours of racing unnecessarily chaotic as the
trailing 8-man racers/crew vehicles overtake the 4-man racers/crew vehicles who
are overtaking the 2-man racers/vehicles.
4)
Here’s the best part… The official clock starts
as the teams roll out from the pier.
Each team’s start time is adjusted based on their start position so
every team is measured based on the time they start rolling. Makes perfect
sense, right? But wait… there’s more.
The first 8 miles (most of which follow the San Luis Rey bike path) of
the “race” are called the “parade zone.” Teams are not allowed to pass and are
supposed to ride at no more than 18 MPH (OK, sure…) The only thing this does is
ensure teams bunch up on the bike path thereby skewing the spacing time
adjustments. Or worse, some teams get
stuck behind teams doing the “Ride Across America” and spinning the bike path
at 12-15 MPH while those ahead are banging out tempo and potentially opening up
big gaps.
![]() |
Wildebeest and Slayer "parading" It's going to get ugly soon- |
5)
After the first 8 mile parade zone, things get
interesting as “racing” begins. (This
implies that there hasn’t been any racing on the bike path... OK sure…) The
fact that RAAM doesn’t queue up teams at the end of the parade zone and start the
clock/spacing at that point is a true mystery.
The next 12.5 miles comprise a stretch known as the unsupported
zone. What this means is that racers are
on their own and mechanicals, flats, missed turns, etc… are completely the
responsibility of each racer. This
drives a key start strategy that we have employed for the past few years. In
order to keep Truck 1 (traditionally the flagship of the Team ViaSat fleet) clear
of the start shenanigans, Truck 4 generally gets the honor of taking the first
20 mile “shift.” As our first official
shift isn’t slated to start for 15 hours after the start, we have the best
chance of rolling the start, hand off to a locked and loaded Truck 1 at the end
of the unsupported zone, and then get out to AZ to get some rest and ready to
roll Sun AM. The Wildebeest and I were
given the honor of taking that first 20 and firing the first shot… More on this
next post.
So in summary (finally), what we
have is the possibility of gaining or losing many minutes in the first 8 miles
of parade with the next 12.5 miles of high risk unsupported racing. What’s the big deal? Well… RAAM is as much mental as it is
physical. We knew we were fast… really
fast… but (as evidenced by comments we picked up from competitors during and
after the race) no one outside of our team knew what we were bringing to the
party. And we had been training for the
better part of a year working our asses off and were primed to send a message.
Next up, unleash the Beest…
When I first spectated at RAAM (2005 or 2006 - when Stanley was 'interviewed' for the Weather Channel), spectators rode with the racers on the parade stretch to the official start at the end of the San Luis Rey bridge. Teams then rode from there according to assigned starting times (Stanley was a hit with the officials handling the start). That start made more sense.
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