22nd July:
Pre-Race Festivities

RAAM Weather Forecast
by Dave Speelman, Meteorologist
KAMR NBC Channel 4, Amarillo TX
It will be sunny and warm Thursday through the deserts in southern California, with highs between 101 and 105. Light breezes should blow from the south.


The license plate says it all. An entire fleet of vans rigged much like this one will be taking to the highway tomorrow at 12 noon EDT as the Ensure Race Across AMerica gets underway. Twenty-two solo riders, one two-man team, and a pair of 70-plus-aged 4-person relay teams will leave sunny Southern California, headed for Savannah, GA. A "mere" 2900 miles separate them from the Finish Line, along with several days of desert, the wind, heat, and humidity of Texas, and the charm of the Deep South. Eleven more relay teams will leave on Sunday.

RAAM is pleased to have Ensure on board as title sponsor. Ensure has provided a $50,000 purse to be split among the top three riders in each division. The Ensure folks have thrown their support behind RAAM in a big way.

Wednesday was hectic for riders, crew, and RAAM staff as last-minute jobs were finished, meetings were attended, and dinners were eaten. Veteran riders showed an uncanny calmness about them, while rookies looked a little apprehensive at what lay ahead. Everyone agreed on one thing: the human drama that unfolds in every RAAM is unlike anything else. The pageantry of the Start Line pales in comparison to the personal stories each rider has of how they struggled to just make it to Irvine to start the race. And that's only the beginning, for everyone will have dozens of stories to tell after 8 or 9 more days...stories of victory, of defeat, of pain, of ecstasy.


One of the biggest rookie fields in recent years is ready to tackle the 17th annual RAAM. Pictured above are (clockwise from top left) Mark Patten, Andrew Bohannon, Rick Anderson and Charlie Liskey, and Bernie Comeau.

Necessity is the Mother of invention, and RAAM is no different. All manner of creative ways to hang bikes, speakers, and lights are visible on the Personal Support Vehicles (PSVs). One of the Team Secure Horizon/SCOR vans has exotic Trek road bikes mounted on the rear, while Tom Buckley's van has a rack mounted ingeniously on the hood. With space at a premium, and enough equipment to open a small bike shop, riders and crews have to be creative and engineer unique ways to haul everything.

Mike and Cindy Roark were honored at the pre-race meeting for their 10 years of service to RAAM as Race Officials. Mike was busy preparing his SUV for the race with the appropriate signage.

Race Officials labored throughout the day to get everything ready for the 2pm pre-race meeting. Above, Tracy and Dave Holmes, Jennifer Wise, Jim Owens, and Margaret Nelson screw caps on Ensure RAAM water bottles.

RAAM's Executive Director is Dr. Michael Shermer, who will be overseeing the Relay Team division. Shermer is one of the four individuals who started RAAM in 1982, and has been involved with the race ever since either as rider, Race Official, or as Executive Director. Running the solo division is Nick Gerlich (not pictured), also a RAAM veteran.

Be sure to check back each day for RAAM updates! Late each night we will be uploading photos and text from the day's action. From the rough edges of America's highways, we'll be there to capture the very essence of what Outside Magazine calls "The World's Toughest Race."

 

Use the menu below to check the updates posted each night during the race!