gregg
03-17-2006, 08:12 AM
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*2005 Newsletter archive
http://www.raceacrossamerica.org/default.aspx?tabid=130
*RAAM Website Home Page
[/URLTEXT]http://www.raceacrossamerica.org[/LINK]
*Sign up for Newsletter
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ISSUE 1, March 15, 2006
In this issue:
The Experience of a Lifetime
in Just 24 or 48 Hours[/URLTEXT]#story1[/LINK]
<#story2>DeLorme Provides GPS Tracking of 2006 RAAM <#story2>
RAAM Documentary Wins
Best Adventure Film Award[/URLTEXT]#story3[/LINK]
New
'Solo Enduro' Division Points RAAM Toward Faster Future[/URLTEXT]#story4[/LINK]
<#story5> RAAM Legend Jonathan Boyer
Returns[/URLTEXT]#story5[/LINK]
*Happy
25th Anniversary to RAAM -- The World's Toughest Race !*
On June
11, 2006, the Race Across America (RAAM) enters its 25th year,
continuing a tradition that makes this competition the same
to ultra-distance cyclists as the Tour de France is to professional
road racers: the one event each year that they cannot afford
to miss.
*/Team
Clif Bar celebrates a sub-24 hour victory in Flagstaff
at the 2005 24-Hours of RAAM Corporate and Team Challenge./*
*The
Experience of a Lifetime in Just 24 or 48 Hours!*
RAAM is
not only for the professional elite of international cyclists.
In response to strong demand, the event opened up in 2003 to
corporate and amateur teams, and in 2005 a new category, the
*24-Hours of RAAM Corporate and Team Challenge*, was successfully
launched.
This
year, we are introducing the *48-Hours of RAAM Corporate and
Team Challenge* because many of the teams in last year's
competition were not ready to stop in Flagstaff.
The
24 and 48-Hours of RAAM also start in Oceanside, CA. The races
head east through the Imperial Valley, skirt the Chocolate Mountains,
roll through Blythe, and then into Arizona where the courses
pass through Prescott and then on to Flagstaff, Arizona where
the 24-Hour race finishes approximately 490 miles from the start.
The
48-Hours of RAAM Corporate and Team Challenge continues onward
from Flagstaff to finish in Durango, Colorado -- approximately
830 miles from the start.
Yes, Atlantic
City is still nearly 2,200 miles and five days away. But for
many corporations, the 24 & 48-hour versions are a better
fit, offering similar benefits without the huge task of organizing
a six-day road trip. The accomplishment of finishing a round-the-clock
bike race is immeasurable, providing a lifetime's memories and
stories and incredible team building.
Team Clif
Bar holds the 24-Hour record with a time of 23 hours, 23 minutes.
Clif Bar founder and 24-Hour team member Gary Erickson
said of the 24-Hour race: "We are busy, we don't have too
much time to play, and we do try to do things during the week.
To come down south to San Diego and do this event with these
guys and to hang out for 23+ hours is a really special, special
thing."
*CORPORATE
AND TEAM SPOTS ARE STILL AVAILABLE FOR BOTH THE 24-HOUR AND
48-HOUR RACES.* Go to: http://www.raceacrossamerica.org
to sign up your team or company's roadworthy cyclists today!
Top <#top>
<http://www.delorme.com>
*DeLorme provides GPS Tracking
of 2006 RAAM*
A further
innovation of special interest to spectators is the introduction
of GPS tracking of riders, made possible by the generous support
of race sponsor DeLorme <http://www.delorme.com>, a leading provider of mapping software and GPS solutions for the consumer and professional markets. DeLorme
will provide each Solo rider with a GPS device equipped with
Bluetooth connection ability, which will allow download of all
rider movements by Race Officials with minimal disturbance of
the rider. This creates the prospect of greatly enhanced movement
tracking on the event web site as riders cross the
country.
Top <#top>
Pius Achermann leaving Monument Valley
*RAAM
Documentary Named Boulder International Film Festival's "Best Adventure Film"*
/Race
Across America/, a documentary produced about the 2004 RAAM captured
top honors in the adventure film category at the recent Boulder
International Film Festival. /Race Across America/, produced
by Steve Auerbach, captures the trials and tribulations of what
has become known as the world's most grueling bicycle race.
"Winning
this award is a professional highlight," said Auerbach.
"It's very satisfying to know that audiences are learning
about this incredible race. I'm very pleased with the award
because it validates my effort to illuminate the efforts of
the incredible men and women who dare the impossible by competing
in RAAM."
Auerbach
intended for the film to inspire people to with the simple message
that is at the core of RAAM -- one can do the extraordinary
through a combination of hard work, committment and the deepest
forms of courage and fearlessness.
"RAAM
is the most incredible event because, for the most part, the
entrants are average Joes...not pampered athletes. They are
truly you and I. They are not genetic freaks or the one in a
million athletes who populate the ranks of the professional
sports ranks," said Auerbach.
Covering
RAAM is no easy task, as the producer can attest. The challenge
of filming RAAM compared to other sporting events presents unparalleled
coordination and is a logistical nightmare.
"It's
the ultimate challenge for a filmmaker," he said. "You
cannot fake it in RAAM. Without true passion on the part of
the film crew, nothing valuable would result. You must put your
whole heart and soul into it in order to capture its essence."
From a filmmaker's
perspective, Auerbach finds the ultimate in human drama and
emotion as he watches RAAM unfold year after year. "Courage
and heroism are not easy to come upon in today's world, but
RAAM supplies both in abundance."
Hot off
the film festival circuit -- People lined up around the block
in San Luis Obispo at the San Luis Obispo Film Festival over
the weekend, NOT for a special festival screening of "Field
of Dreams", but for /Race Across America/! The film
subsequently took home second place in the Documentary category
along with highpraise from a number of attendees. The category winner was "Inside Iraq: The Untold Storie." Next up: the Mendocino
Film Festival May 18-21.
Top <#top>
*New
Solo Enduro Division Proving Popular With RAAM Solo Riders *
/World's Toughest
Cycling Event Increases its Focus on Cycling Ability/
Described by many as the boldest step the race
has taken since the introduction of team competition in 1991(some
say even bolder) RAAM introduces
a new division of racing for 2006: the Solo Enduro division.
The Solo category, on which RAAM became world famous
as the toughest sporting event on the planet, will now be split into two divisions with the Solo Traditional division being offered to riders who wish to carry on as before, and Solo Enduro for everybody else.
AFormer RAAM Solo winner Jonathan Boyer (1985), and the reigning Furnace Creek 508 champion Kenny Souza top the list of contenders in the new Enduro field. Souza states in his athlete biography <http://www.raceacrossamerica.org/files/raam2006/riders/souza_kenny_2006.htm>
that the introduction of the Enduro division inspired him to enter Solo RAAM. Two-time soloist, Marko Baloh, recently announced that he too has been inspired by the Enduro category to enter Solo RAAM in 2006, even though he has yet to hit full stride in his training. Baloh, who will travel from Slovenia, is looking for Time Station sponsors <http://www.markobaloh.com/eng/?page=raam2005donac2> to fund his RAAM expenses.
Six male riders who had signed up prior to the announcement of the Enduro category have yet to make a decision on which division they will enter. This half-dozen includes the distinguished names of reigning RAAM champion Jure Robic and two-time US Olympic team mountain biker Tinker Juarez.
As at March 14,2006, in the male field 13 riders have entered the Enduro division, with six signed up for the Traditional division. Both female Solo entrants have elected for the Traditional division.
The
Solo Enduro division is intended to make the 2006 Race Across
America faster and increase the margin of safety for participants, as well as being more friendly
to spectators and creating stronger sponsorship platforms for the event. As entrants in this new division get to grips with the strategic implications, new opportunities and challenges are becoming evident.
Race director
Jim Pitre explains: "Our changes are intended, in part,
to place a greater emphasis on cycling ability and increase
speed while the riders are on the bike." He adds, "By
imposing an equal off-the-bike time for all riders, some different
race strategies will be introduced that will challenge all concerned."
For more
about the new Solo Enduro category, see:
Explanation of Time Stations, Control Points, Mandatory Control Points <http://www.raceacrossamerica.org/files/media/time-stations-explained.pdf>
Message
from Jim Pitre, Race Director[/URLTEXT]http://www.raceacrossamerica.org/files/raam2006/newsarchive/To%20all%20RAAM%202006%20Solo%20competitors.htm[/LINK]
Enduro
Category Strategy Notes by Lon Haldeman[/URLTEXT]http://www.raceacrossamerica.org/files/raam2006/newsarchive/Lon%20Enduro.htm[/LINK]
Why
RAAM Chose to Adopt the Enduro Category by Paul Skilbeck,
Media Communications Director [/URLTEXT]http://www.raceacrossamerica.org/files/raam2006/newsarchive/Why%20Enduro.htm[/LINK]
In-depth Discussion of the Enduro Division by Former RAAM Champion Danny Chew <http://www.raceacrossamerica.org/files/media/enduroraam.pdf>
Top <#top>
*RAAM Legend Jonathan Boyer Returns*
Jonathan Boyer, winner of
the 1985 RAAM, crewed for the Team Donate Lifer corporate category team in 2005 and was bitten by the RAAM bug. This year, aged 50 years old and remarkably fit, he returns to the race at the right time to capitalize
on the introduction of sleep breaks. Riding in 2006 as the Solo branch of Team Donate Life, Boyer first became famous as the
first U.S. rider to compete in the Tour de France (1981, for
the Renault-Gitane team).
Looking back to the '85 edition
of RAAM, when Boyer became the only rider in the history of
the race to win at his first attempt, "he was going pretty
well in the first half, and sleeping a good 6-8 hours a night,"
reports ultra-cycling historian and Ultra Marathon Cycling Association <http://www.ultracycling.com> president, John Hughes, "But in the second half, Michael
Secrest, who was going on only a couple of hours a night sleep,
was starting to catch up, so Boyer had to have a couple of very
short nights to hold his lead."
In a recent interview with RAAM reporter (and former solo champion) Danny Chew, Boyer stated: "I think it will be interesting to see what happens in this first Enduro RAAM. Riders and their crews will actually have to make a strategy for the race instead of just winging it, sleeping when one can where one likes. I wonder where the Traditional riders will be as the race progresses. Riders will probably be closer together for a longer period of time, which will make it more competitive and animated.
"I am not going to worry about if I will miss the old format or if I could go faster in the Traditional RAAM. The Enduro is what it is, and I am adjusting my riding to it looking forward to the additional sleep," concluded the 1985 champion.
Top <#top>
All images by Chris Milliman www.chrismilliman.com
Got something you think should be featured
in the Insight RAAM Newsletter? Tell us about it by emailing
media@raceacrossamerica.org <mailto:media@raceacrossamerica.org>
Top <#top>
*2005 Newsletter archive
http://www.raceacrossamerica.org/default.aspx?tabid=130
*RAAM Website Home Page
[/URLTEXT]http://www.raceacrossamerica.org[/LINK]
*Sign up for Newsletter
http://o2sm.com/php-list/?p=subscribe&id=1
ISSUE 1, March 15, 2006
In this issue:
The Experience of a Lifetime
in Just 24 or 48 Hours[/URLTEXT]#story1[/LINK]
<#story2>DeLorme Provides GPS Tracking of 2006 RAAM <#story2>
RAAM Documentary Wins
Best Adventure Film Award[/URLTEXT]#story3[/LINK]
New
'Solo Enduro' Division Points RAAM Toward Faster Future[/URLTEXT]#story4[/LINK]
<#story5> RAAM Legend Jonathan Boyer
Returns[/URLTEXT]#story5[/LINK]
*Happy
25th Anniversary to RAAM -- The World's Toughest Race !*
On June
11, 2006, the Race Across America (RAAM) enters its 25th year,
continuing a tradition that makes this competition the same
to ultra-distance cyclists as the Tour de France is to professional
road racers: the one event each year that they cannot afford
to miss.
*/Team
Clif Bar celebrates a sub-24 hour victory in Flagstaff
at the 2005 24-Hours of RAAM Corporate and Team Challenge./*
*The
Experience of a Lifetime in Just 24 or 48 Hours!*
RAAM is
not only for the professional elite of international cyclists.
In response to strong demand, the event opened up in 2003 to
corporate and amateur teams, and in 2005 a new category, the
*24-Hours of RAAM Corporate and Team Challenge*, was successfully
launched.
This
year, we are introducing the *48-Hours of RAAM Corporate and
Team Challenge* because many of the teams in last year's
competition were not ready to stop in Flagstaff.
The
24 and 48-Hours of RAAM also start in Oceanside, CA. The races
head east through the Imperial Valley, skirt the Chocolate Mountains,
roll through Blythe, and then into Arizona where the courses
pass through Prescott and then on to Flagstaff, Arizona where
the 24-Hour race finishes approximately 490 miles from the start.
The
48-Hours of RAAM Corporate and Team Challenge continues onward
from Flagstaff to finish in Durango, Colorado -- approximately
830 miles from the start.
Yes, Atlantic
City is still nearly 2,200 miles and five days away. But for
many corporations, the 24 & 48-hour versions are a better
fit, offering similar benefits without the huge task of organizing
a six-day road trip. The accomplishment of finishing a round-the-clock
bike race is immeasurable, providing a lifetime's memories and
stories and incredible team building.
Team Clif
Bar holds the 24-Hour record with a time of 23 hours, 23 minutes.
Clif Bar founder and 24-Hour team member Gary Erickson
said of the 24-Hour race: "We are busy, we don't have too
much time to play, and we do try to do things during the week.
To come down south to San Diego and do this event with these
guys and to hang out for 23+ hours is a really special, special
thing."
*CORPORATE
AND TEAM SPOTS ARE STILL AVAILABLE FOR BOTH THE 24-HOUR AND
48-HOUR RACES.* Go to: http://www.raceacrossamerica.org
to sign up your team or company's roadworthy cyclists today!
Top <#top>
<http://www.delorme.com>
*DeLorme provides GPS Tracking
of 2006 RAAM*
A further
innovation of special interest to spectators is the introduction
of GPS tracking of riders, made possible by the generous support
of race sponsor DeLorme <http://www.delorme.com>, a leading provider of mapping software and GPS solutions for the consumer and professional markets. DeLorme
will provide each Solo rider with a GPS device equipped with
Bluetooth connection ability, which will allow download of all
rider movements by Race Officials with minimal disturbance of
the rider. This creates the prospect of greatly enhanced movement
tracking on the event web site as riders cross the
country.
Top <#top>
Pius Achermann leaving Monument Valley
*RAAM
Documentary Named Boulder International Film Festival's "Best Adventure Film"*
/Race
Across America/, a documentary produced about the 2004 RAAM captured
top honors in the adventure film category at the recent Boulder
International Film Festival. /Race Across America/, produced
by Steve Auerbach, captures the trials and tribulations of what
has become known as the world's most grueling bicycle race.
"Winning
this award is a professional highlight," said Auerbach.
"It's very satisfying to know that audiences are learning
about this incredible race. I'm very pleased with the award
because it validates my effort to illuminate the efforts of
the incredible men and women who dare the impossible by competing
in RAAM."
Auerbach
intended for the film to inspire people to with the simple message
that is at the core of RAAM -- one can do the extraordinary
through a combination of hard work, committment and the deepest
forms of courage and fearlessness.
"RAAM
is the most incredible event because, for the most part, the
entrants are average Joes...not pampered athletes. They are
truly you and I. They are not genetic freaks or the one in a
million athletes who populate the ranks of the professional
sports ranks," said Auerbach.
Covering
RAAM is no easy task, as the producer can attest. The challenge
of filming RAAM compared to other sporting events presents unparalleled
coordination and is a logistical nightmare.
"It's
the ultimate challenge for a filmmaker," he said. "You
cannot fake it in RAAM. Without true passion on the part of
the film crew, nothing valuable would result. You must put your
whole heart and soul into it in order to capture its essence."
From a filmmaker's
perspective, Auerbach finds the ultimate in human drama and
emotion as he watches RAAM unfold year after year. "Courage
and heroism are not easy to come upon in today's world, but
RAAM supplies both in abundance."
Hot off
the film festival circuit -- People lined up around the block
in San Luis Obispo at the San Luis Obispo Film Festival over
the weekend, NOT for a special festival screening of "Field
of Dreams", but for /Race Across America/! The film
subsequently took home second place in the Documentary category
along with highpraise from a number of attendees. The category winner was "Inside Iraq: The Untold Storie." Next up: the Mendocino
Film Festival May 18-21.
Top <#top>
*New
Solo Enduro Division Proving Popular With RAAM Solo Riders *
/World's Toughest
Cycling Event Increases its Focus on Cycling Ability/
Described by many as the boldest step the race
has taken since the introduction of team competition in 1991(some
say even bolder) RAAM introduces
a new division of racing for 2006: the Solo Enduro division.
The Solo category, on which RAAM became world famous
as the toughest sporting event on the planet, will now be split into two divisions with the Solo Traditional division being offered to riders who wish to carry on as before, and Solo Enduro for everybody else.
AFormer RAAM Solo winner Jonathan Boyer (1985), and the reigning Furnace Creek 508 champion Kenny Souza top the list of contenders in the new Enduro field. Souza states in his athlete biography <http://www.raceacrossamerica.org/files/raam2006/riders/souza_kenny_2006.htm>
that the introduction of the Enduro division inspired him to enter Solo RAAM. Two-time soloist, Marko Baloh, recently announced that he too has been inspired by the Enduro category to enter Solo RAAM in 2006, even though he has yet to hit full stride in his training. Baloh, who will travel from Slovenia, is looking for Time Station sponsors <http://www.markobaloh.com/eng/?page=raam2005donac2> to fund his RAAM expenses.
Six male riders who had signed up prior to the announcement of the Enduro category have yet to make a decision on which division they will enter. This half-dozen includes the distinguished names of reigning RAAM champion Jure Robic and two-time US Olympic team mountain biker Tinker Juarez.
As at March 14,2006, in the male field 13 riders have entered the Enduro division, with six signed up for the Traditional division. Both female Solo entrants have elected for the Traditional division.
The
Solo Enduro division is intended to make the 2006 Race Across
America faster and increase the margin of safety for participants, as well as being more friendly
to spectators and creating stronger sponsorship platforms for the event. As entrants in this new division get to grips with the strategic implications, new opportunities and challenges are becoming evident.
Race director
Jim Pitre explains: "Our changes are intended, in part,
to place a greater emphasis on cycling ability and increase
speed while the riders are on the bike." He adds, "By
imposing an equal off-the-bike time for all riders, some different
race strategies will be introduced that will challenge all concerned."
For more
about the new Solo Enduro category, see:
Explanation of Time Stations, Control Points, Mandatory Control Points <http://www.raceacrossamerica.org/files/media/time-stations-explained.pdf>
Message
from Jim Pitre, Race Director[/URLTEXT]http://www.raceacrossamerica.org/files/raam2006/newsarchive/To%20all%20RAAM%202006%20Solo%20competitors.htm[/LINK]
Enduro
Category Strategy Notes by Lon Haldeman[/URLTEXT]http://www.raceacrossamerica.org/files/raam2006/newsarchive/Lon%20Enduro.htm[/LINK]
Why
RAAM Chose to Adopt the Enduro Category by Paul Skilbeck,
Media Communications Director [/URLTEXT]http://www.raceacrossamerica.org/files/raam2006/newsarchive/Why%20Enduro.htm[/LINK]
In-depth Discussion of the Enduro Division by Former RAAM Champion Danny Chew <http://www.raceacrossamerica.org/files/media/enduroraam.pdf>
Top <#top>
*RAAM Legend Jonathan Boyer Returns*
Jonathan Boyer, winner of
the 1985 RAAM, crewed for the Team Donate Lifer corporate category team in 2005 and was bitten by the RAAM bug. This year, aged 50 years old and remarkably fit, he returns to the race at the right time to capitalize
on the introduction of sleep breaks. Riding in 2006 as the Solo branch of Team Donate Life, Boyer first became famous as the
first U.S. rider to compete in the Tour de France (1981, for
the Renault-Gitane team).
Looking back to the '85 edition
of RAAM, when Boyer became the only rider in the history of
the race to win at his first attempt, "he was going pretty
well in the first half, and sleeping a good 6-8 hours a night,"
reports ultra-cycling historian and Ultra Marathon Cycling Association <http://www.ultracycling.com> president, John Hughes, "But in the second half, Michael
Secrest, who was going on only a couple of hours a night sleep,
was starting to catch up, so Boyer had to have a couple of very
short nights to hold his lead."
In a recent interview with RAAM reporter (and former solo champion) Danny Chew, Boyer stated: "I think it will be interesting to see what happens in this first Enduro RAAM. Riders and their crews will actually have to make a strategy for the race instead of just winging it, sleeping when one can where one likes. I wonder where the Traditional riders will be as the race progresses. Riders will probably be closer together for a longer period of time, which will make it more competitive and animated.
"I am not going to worry about if I will miss the old format or if I could go faster in the Traditional RAAM. The Enduro is what it is, and I am adjusting my riding to it looking forward to the additional sleep," concluded the 1985 champion.
Top <#top>
All images by Chris Milliman www.chrismilliman.com
Got something you think should be featured
in the Insight RAAM Newsletter? Tell us about it by emailing
media@raceacrossamerica.org <mailto:media@raceacrossamerica.org>
Top <#top>