Double Points at Performance Bike

If you're a member of Team Performance, you should have gotten a postcard about getting double points on purchases this weekend. That means that you get 20% back instead of the normal 10%. If you aren't a member, it only costs $20 a year so it normally pays for itself with $200 purchases but this weekend it'll only take $100. I'm pretty sure you can sign up as part of your order and still get the double points. Even the $20 for membership counts for points. They also have some really good sale prices right now.

Training

Last week I didn't ride much and what I did was pretty easy. I was tired after Hell Week and felt I really needed some recovery. Friday I did a few harder efforts to see what I thought I could do on the weekend. I actually felt really good which was good since I had 2 long rides planned for the weekend.


Saturday I rode with the 10:00 Acacia Park group ride. I think we had about 60 riders. As we got close to the Link Road hill, the pace got hard as normal and gaps started opening. I had been sitting in the middle and had to bridge up a couple times to stay with the front group. I managed to hang on over the top the hill which I hadn't been before going to Texas. I really thought I'd get popped off as people started attacking and setting up for the sprint at PPIR but I stayed in the lead group as it got smaller. I was feeling good when we were a 100 yards out and was going to go for it. I realized that lead out guys were pulling off and saw the guys that were ready to go and decided not to look silly and sat up. Part way back into town I dropped back from the lead group to ride with my friend and save some for the rest of the ride. I then rode out through Black Forest and Palmer Lake and met with the rest of the family at some friends in Monument. Early in the day the wind wasn't bad but by the time I was riding into Palmer Lake, I had a tough headwind. I got in 109 miles with 4619 feet of climbing.


Sunday it was very wind as forecast. I rode out to Elbert and had mainly a cross-wind with a little tailwind. I originally had planned to continue north and make a loop through Castle Rock getting about a 110 miles. I had started late and with the wind slowing me, it would have been after dark when I finished. According to the weather data from Black Forest near the Palmer Divide, the wind was pretty steady around 30 mph when I crossed the Palmer Divide. I also wasn't feeling so great. I'm very allergic to cedar and according to the chart from pollen.com, there's a lot of cedar pollen along with elm that I'm somewhat allergic to. Anyway it wasn't fun to be riding and I nearly turned around early in the ride but managed to get in 92 miles with 3396 feet of climbing.

Article on Mike Trevino

Mike Trevino was the RAAM Rookie of the Year in 2004. Last year he was in 2nd when he crashed and separated his shoulder. There's an article in this month's Men's Vogue Magazine not that I even knew the magazine existed. Clicking on the cover on the right side of the web site shows the beginning of the article although I can't make much of it out. Maybe I'll have to go buy one. I wonder what category that would put me in?

I heard that he had quit his job so he could focus on training for RAAM this year. Recently I heard he had crashed during training and injured his elbow. Hopefully that won't keep him out of RAAM but it would be hard to train. I would think it would be possible to ride on the trainer but I'd think he wouldn't be able to train on the road.

More Hell Week Pictures

Nick Martin, a local photographer in Fredericksburg, took lots of pictures of us riding at Hell Week. He gave the pictures to Nick and Nick put them on his Zoto site. I looked through them and found some good pictures of me. It's amazing with all the pictures there are only a handful of riders that I recognize. I guess that's because I was doing the A ride or brevets every day.

Here are a couple of other links to pictures.
- My pictures (nothing new since I first posted them)
- Nate's pictures
- Scott's pictures


I'm late putting up this list but here's a list of other blogger's that were at Hell Week.
- Annie
- Eclectchick
- Sascha
- The S.S Blog
- Recreational Reading


Somewhere on the LBJ Ramble.


Waiting to start the 200k brevet.


Rolling out at the start of the 200k brevet.


Time trialing up to catch Nick and Paul on the 200k brevet after hanging back and debating whether to go that hard.


Riding with Nick and Paul on the 200k brevet. My mountain biking is showing in how I have my knee out to make an upcoming turn.

Jonathan Boyer to Race RAAM this Year

I had seen somewhere that the new Enduro category had Jonathan Boyer thinking about doing RAAM again this year. Last week he was added to the roster so now it's more than a rumor.

He is the only rider to race in both the Tour de France and RAAM. He won RAAM in 1985 which was the only time he did the race. He is now 51 but I expect he will still be very fast. When he's been asked to compare the Tour de France and RAAM, he has said there is no way to compare them.

Now if Lance Armstrong would do RAAM. He has said he's interested but doesn't want to spend that much time training now that he's retired. He's competitive enough that I think there's a good chance he'll show up in the next couple of years.

New Headband

After raving about the Halo headbands that E-Caps/Hammer Nutrition carries in a post a couple weeks ago, you may have noticed I was wearing something different at Hell Week. There was a guy at the check-in for Hell Week selling the Sweat Gutr headbands. Over the eyes they have a lip just like a rain gutter to cause the sweat to flow to the side of the head. They looked like they might really work but I needed to test one out to be convinced. With the temperatures in 80s and more humidity than I'm used to, Hell Week seemed the perfect place to test it.

The first day I put it on and started riding. It was noticeable that it was cooler since only a very small strip of skin is covered instead the much wider strip of a normal sweatband. My helmet sits pretty low on my forehead so I did have a little problem getting my sunglasses, headband, and helmet spaced correctly. Once I got everything positioned, it worked very well. On Thursday it was around 80 and very humid at least compared to what I'm used to. My aero bars were wet and slimy as were my bottles. My gloves were soaked from sweating and I still never needed to take off my sunglasses. Even in better conditions, I end up taking my sunglasses off with the Halo headbands.

Ok, so I have a couple minor issues with the Sweat Gutr headbands. The band is attached to the cardboard packaging with large zip ties that are hard to cut off. It would be much easier if it was attached with twist ties or at least smaller zip ties. The second thing is that it had a freshly minted chemical smell that I kept getting pretty good whiffs of the first couple days. The smell pretty much went away after a couple days and wasn't noticeable anymore.

Not only did it work great, but it was more comfortable because you can easily adjust how tight it is. It's a great product and I expect you'll see me wearing one during RAAM.

5/17/06 Update: Sweat Gutr sent me a new Sweat Gutr. They changed the packaging and made a slight change over the ears to make it fit better.

Texas AM Jersey Regular Price: $79.95 $69.99 on sale

Texas Longhorn Jersey Regular Price: $79.95 $69.99 on sale

Texas AM Aggies Cycling Jersey Price: $79.99

Technorati Tags: cycling | mountain biking | reviews

Hell Week Picture Page

The weather today is a bit of a shock after being in warm Texas at Hell Week. It's been snowing off and on with the windchill in the single digits. I now have pictures of Hell Week posted on my website. There's an article in the Austin paper today about Hell Week.

Hell Week Day 8 - Rain

After the 300k it was fairly late when I got to bed by the time I rode to the campground, showered, and went to town to get something to eat. I set my alarm for 7 Saturday morning so I could get up and ride in for the A ride. Soon after 6 I woke up to hear rain on the tent. It shouldn't have been any big deal but the tent is old. I know my brother and I used it on an expedition in Alaska in 1989 but don't remember how long we'd had it. Soon after the rain started, I felt water dripping on me. The fly needs to be recoated but it has a few patches. The zipper on the door keeps giving me problems and it was replaced several years ago. There's a rip in the door that is patched with duct tape and the floor is ripped from my pack getting thrown around in a violent wind storm in the Grand Canyon. It may be time to retire the poor thing.

I got up and really couldn't get motivated to ride in the rain. I checked the weather radar and it showed rain scattered around the area. I drove in to town and was at the hotel when the A ride should have started. By then it was just a light drizzle. A few riders trickled out in ones and twos. If I had ridden, I would probably been by myself. I already had in 872 miles for the week so I didn't feel any big need to ride. It takes a lot of training for RAAM but over doing it can set up back. I decided getting cold and wet could push me over the edge. It turned out that it dried out and drizzled off and on a bit like during the 300k so it wouldn't have been a bad day to ride.

I was able to change my flight home from Sunday to Saturday evening. After doing nothing much all day, I realized just how tied I really was. There were 2 very happy little girls to see me when I got in at the airport in Colorado Springs. Julie was also very happy for me to be home. This week is the longest we've been apart since we got married. This morning the girls spent most of the morning climbing all over me and showing me things.

Hell Week Day 7 - 300k Brevet

I like to say that a ride isn't long if it can be started and finished in daylight. Today's ride started before daylight and finished after it got dark so it qualifies as a long ride. Sixteen people showed up for the 300k brevet. I actually thought there might not be that many. Starting so early in the morning we saw lots of deer. For a while there was a rider ahead of me and I couldn't see anyone behind me. Finally I saw a rider catching up when I got off and walked through a water crossing. On Monday when I did the 200k brevet, some of the riders on the A ride broke bones so I wasn't taking any chances. All I need to put an end to my RAAM effort is to break a bone. I saw the rider behind me start falling but he didn't totally go down.

It turned out that the rider coming up was Fred Boethling from Boulder who is also doing RAAM solo this year. He will be oldest solo finisher ever if he makes it. He did it last year on a two man team. We rode pretty easy and chatted about RAAM and whatever else we felt like.

It was a cool, overcast day and I never took my arm and knee warmers off. We had periods of light drizzle but it never got too bad. After the first checkpoint, we were in the lead and it was that way all the way to the finish except when we got caught briefly by 4 other riders. We had just started rolling down the road after a bathroom break when they caught us. We jumped on the back and rode with them for a little ways. They were hard core randonneurs and apparently we weren't good enough for them. We didn't have big butt bags, carry our maps in holders on our bars, and didn't have hub generators. They weren't friendly and after a couple miles they stopped for a bathroom break. The rest of the ride they would show up at stops just as we were leaving.

Fred and I ended up with an official time of 13:54 which isn't fast but we enjoyed the ride and weren't out to set any speed records. I actually felt good the whole ride. I was worried that I'd start feeling all the miles of the week. I got 194.8 miles with 6722 feet of climbing and the on bike average was 15.6 mph.

Hell Week Day 6 - Fred's Ride

Apparently most people were hammered from yesterday's Death ride since less than 20 showed up for the A ride. Today's ride was a typical hill country ride with a bunch of rollers. It was warmer today than the last couple days and it was humid. We had seen the first part of the ride when we drove to Bandera. I got in a nice group that included Annie. I stumbled on to her blog a couple months ago and a few days ago she left a comment saying she was here at Hell Week. We stopped a while in Medina for lunch and I had a big burger since all I could think about today was food. The way back was on nice quiet roads through pretty country side. Just for fun there was a 22% hill thrown in.

I tried not taking too many pulls so I could recover from yesterday since I'm doing a 300k tomorrow. I felt like I rode pretty easy and my heart rate average was only 130 but I still averaged 18.2 mph on the bike. I got in 100.6 miles and 3835 feet of climbing.

Hell Week Day 5 - Leakey Death Ride

After my bonking episode yesterday, I decided I needed to make sure I ate more at night. I ate two plates of food at the banquet last night but afterward I got hungry again. I went to McDonald's and had a nice greasy burger and fries. It must have worked because today I felt the best I have at Hell Week. The Leakey Death Ride is considered the toughest A ride and the only route that has been used all 16 years. Because it's a popular ride, the A ride was small yesterday as people do the shorter routes to be rested today. At mile 25 and about 12 miles later there are a couple really steep hills.


The scenery was great and all day I was in good groups. Since we had to drive about 50 miles to the start, there wasn't a set start time although Nick suggested we leave Fredericksburg around 7:00. The slower riders left earlier so it was interesting to see so many people as we caught up to them. Since I've riding near the front I haven't seen that many riders.

By spinning around the block at the end I was able to get to 109 miles with 5210 feet of climbing. My average speed of 18.1 mph is the fastest I've had here.

Hell Week Day 4 - Bound for Boerne

Last night it was cold and it was when I got up. It started warming up about the time I left for the ride but it was still cold enough for knee and arm warmers and a vest. For a little while, I rode at the front with Allen Larsen and talked to him about RAAM. About mile 15 some guys attacked and Allen went with them and I stayed with another group. We were still riding a good pace. Just before we got to Boerne which was just over half way, I started feeling a bonk coming on. I had fallen a little behind on fuel and normally it wouldn't have been a problem but after all the riding I've doing I don't have much in reserve. I ate more than normal at the store in Boerne but still felt hungry. I couldn't stay with Nick, the Hell Week organizer, and another guy. Nick's advice was that I'd feel that way in RAAM so it was good training. After spinning easy for 10-15 minutes, I felt strong again but ended up riding the last 40 miles by myself.


Today I saw a couple other Texas sized gates but none as big as yesterday. For the most part the ride was a lot like the last few days, not that it's a bad thing. It turned out being a absolutely beautiful day with a high around 70 degrees. I got in 113.2 miles with 4731 feet of climbing. My average speed of 16.6 mph was a little slower than it's been but still not bad.

Tonight was the banquet. I hardly recognized anyone there even though I've been riding with them the last few days. I did recognize some of the people from the campground since I've seen them without helmets and glasses. Tomorrow is a road trip for the only route that has been used for every Texas Hell Week. It's about a 50 mile drive to the start but is supposed to be a very pretty area that is quite different than here. It's supposed to be a lot like along the Guadalupe River where we were for a bit yesterday. I also hear that it is a very tough route with a couple very steep hills. There are local ride options but it sounds like the road trip one is "the ride".

Hell Week Day 3 - 200k Brevet

Last night the forecast was for 15-20 mph north winds today. I was hoping we'd get lucky but I woke at 2AM with the tent flapping and things blowing off the neighbors picnic table. It was also blowing a little rain in through the vent so I had to close it. The wind didn't calm down much until late in the afternoon.


30 people showed up to do the 200k brevet. We headed south for the first part of the ride so we flew with the wind. A tandem and a couple other guys went off the front. I debated whether or not to chase. I sat for a bit and then decided to chase. I got the lead guys and soon after the tandem dropped off. That left Nick, the Hell Week organizer, and Paul, and me. Both Nick and Paul have done the Furnace Creek 508 faster than me. In the case of Nick, a lot faster. Nick and his wife also finished RAAM on a tandem in 1993. They were really good to ride with and I talked to Nick a little about doing RAAM. We ended up riding together all day.


Today was the prettiest route so far. We were along the Guadalupe River for a while.
There were some big trees and cliffs along the river. There was also a replica of Stonehenge. It seemed like there were less short rollers and longer climbs. At both checkpoints, as we were leaving a group of other riders was arriving. We also saw a few really big and ornate gates to ranches. Unfortunately I would have had to stop to safely get pictures so I didn't get any.

There are a couple things I've noticed the last couple days. The first one is that road kill gets a lot riper here than in Colorado. The 2nd is that they must think that every inch of pavement must be chip sealed. Today we had several miles with particularly big rocks that didn't feel so good. We did find a 4 mile section that somehow they missed. I had almost forgotten how smooth pavement can be.

The hight today was only 71 degrees which made me feel better. The official distance for today was 126.3 miles. We did a couple mile side trip plus my ride back and forth from camp gave me 135.2. The climbing was 4393 feet. We averaged 17 mph which was slightly faster than yesterday's average.

Hell Week Day 2 - LBJ Ramble

Today was a lot like yesterday with lots of rolling Texas country side on quiet roads. Also like yesterday there were countless cattle guards. Most of them are actually a lot smoother than the ones I'm used to. It stayed a little cloudy until middle of the afternoon so it took longer to heat up than it did yesterday. The high temperature for the day was 82 degrees. It was more humid today than yesterday and fairly breezy. It definitely was a good day to be in a group which I was the majority of the time.

The official mileage for today was 99.4 miles but with riding from my camp site I got 105 miles. That means I actually measured a few tenths less than the official route. It felt like there were more rollers today and I would have guessed more total climbing than yesterday but the climbing came in at 3819. My average speed was only slightly slower than yesterday although I can feel some fatigue in the legs.

I plan to ride the 200k brevet tomorrow. I haven't seen the route sheet yet but it should be right around 124 miles. Since it's a little longer, we start at 8:00 instead of at 8:30 when the A rides start.

Hell Week Day 1 - Windows to Doss

When I showed up today for the A ride, I was surprised at how many people where doing the long ride. Several people I talked to though plan to do something shorter tomorrow and some guys took short cuts back. The lead group put the hammer down pretty much as soon as we got out of town. I wanted to chase but figured I needed to hold back some so I can do long miles everyday. One guy brought his dog along for the ride. I love my dog but he isn't getting a free ride. I met several nice people along during the day and never ended up riding alone.


For a while I was riding with a strong rider Randy from Indiana. Unfortunately one of his spoke nipples broke. I tried truing it up enough to not hit the brakes but the nipple on the spoke next to it on the same side also broke. Then his wheel was hitting the fork. I ended up pulling a spoke from the other side and on the opposite side of the wheel out so there wouldn't be too spokes out together. I then trued it just enough to keep it from hitting the fork because I was afraid of another one breaking. He took a short cut back into town in hopes of being able to get it fixed. Hopefully he'll be back out riding tomorrow.


We went to Luckenbach. I'm not sure what the draws people there as there's only a couple buildings but there where a lot of bikers of another kind. Someone said there's a song about it. Maybe I ride my bike too much to have enough culture to know about it. The group I was with hung out for a little while and had something cold to drink and some food.

It was slightly cooler today with a high of 86 degrees. The official ride length 105.4 but everybody seemed to have a couple more than that. It's a little over a 3 mile ride into town for me so I got some extra miles. I ended up with 114.4 with 4754 feet of climbing. There really wasn't much in the way of actual climbs but a lot of little ups and downs.

Travel to Texas

This morning I got up at 4 AM because I had a 6:10 flight to San Antonio. It's the only direct flight from Colorado Springs. It was a small regional jet and I was sitting in row 2. Once everyone got on the plane, they asked me and the guy in front of me to go sit in one of the back 4 rows to balance the plane. I know I'm a little heavy but I didn't think that bad. My diet is going well and I've moved into first in the B5 Challenge but I guess that's not enough.

Once I got to San Antonio, it wasn't much over an hour drive to Fredericksburg. I easily found the city park with camping and set up my tent. They have wireless internet access here at the park for $12 a week. I pay nearly that for my high speed access at home. I'm sitting at the picnic table under a beautiful moonlight sky writing this post.

I didn't know what to expect for places to get food or anything else I forgot. There's a large combined drug and grocery store and a Super Wal-Mart so supplies shouldn't be a problem. Today's high was 89 degrees which was a bit of a shock. I waited until nearly dark to go spin out the legs so it would be a little cooler. Now it's a bit chilly. Tomorrow is supposed to be 82 degrees which will feel plenty hot. The long ride for tomorrow is called Windows on Doss and is 105.4 miles. There's a town called Doss on the route but I haven't figured out what the windows are.

Getting Ready for Texas Hell Week

I've spent part of yesterday running errands getting ready for Texas Hell Week. I went by USA Cycling to pick up bike vouchers so I don't have to pay to take my bike on United. I use the
Tricosports Travel Iron-case when I fly. I also picked up some tubes, CO2 cartridges, and most importantly some Assos Chamois Creme. Assos Chamois Creme is by far the best chamois cream I've used. REI.com is one of the places you can get it online. The others are good for short rides but not the longer rides. The Fat Cyclist at the end of his blog entry where he makes fun of an Assos ad, tells about his experience with Assos Chamois Creme. All I have to say is you don't need chamois cream that far forward on your chamois. I also like to add a little A&D ointment right on the sit bones.

I use Dermoplast when things get a little too sore. Last year at the ADK 540 I had forgot to get more before and couldn't find when I got there. Julie's uncle found some Solarcaine spray that sounded like it would work. On my 4th lap, I needed some and my wife sprayed a little to test it. It felt Ok so she started spraying generous amounts on. That's when it hit. I have never felt such a terrible stinging and burning sensation before. I was jumping up and down screaming at the top of my lungs. Fortunately it does numb the area after a minute or two. We were at the edge of a small town where there was some brush for privacy. Some guy walked by and he asked if I was Ok and kept asking what was wrong. I kept trying to not go there but he insisted. I finally told him and he took off walking down the street.

I thought I had my lodging taken care of for Hell Week. A guy had posted to the ultracyling e-mail list wanting to share a room. I contacted him and said I wanted to. He said he had a reservation but was going to see if he could get something better. I told him whatever place he decided on was fine with me. That was a month ago. This weekend I e-mailed him to find out where we were staying and what time he'd be in. Oh, he had gotten busy and hadn't gotten the reservations taken care of until he couldn't find anything with 2 beds close to where the rides start each day. So he had made reservations just for himself. I guess it never occurred to him he should let me know. He's offered to buy me dinner some night but I'd rather have dinner with more considerate people. I was able to find a room with 2 beds 1.7 miles away which didn't seem too far. It was more than the rooms that were available a month ago but it would still be cheaper to share a room than what a room for one would have cost a month ago. Anyway I need to save my money for RAAM and am not going to spend a little over a $1,000 for lodging. I'll be staying in my tent at the city park. It'll save a lot of money plus staying in a tent isn't so bad. There was one summer in high school I spent me time in a tent than at home. When I'd get home, I couldn't sleep in my bed because it felt so weird.

I'm assuming I'll be able to find some coffee shop or something with internet access so I'll try posting some while I'm at Hell Week.

Still Looking for RAAM Crew

I'm slowly getting my RAAM crew together but I could still use a few more people. I'll pay for food, lodging, and getting you to the start line and back home from the finish line. I know it's a big commitment and hard for a lot of people to take 2 weeks off work to do it. Maybe you know some starving college student that could use 2 weeks of free food although it could be the toughest thing they ever do. Good RAAM crews often make the difference between the rider finishing or not.

Increasing the Intensity

This weekend I didn't ride as much as last but I felt like I rode harder. On Sunday I joined up with the 10:00 Acacia Park group ride. I really thought I'd feel sluggish from Saturday's ride but my legs felt good. I actually nearly stayed with the group to where they regroup. I was very happy with how I rode. When I broke off from them as they were headed back into town, I had to ride easy for a little while to recover.

I did a loop through the Black Forest and dropped out onto Hwy 24 a little east of Falcon. The forecast was for a lot less wind than Saturday. Coming back on Hwy 24 I was heading into the wind, I'd say there was less wind than Saturday but I wouldn't go as far as saying a lot less. There was a nice herd of about 30 pronghorns right by the highway. I also saw a smaller herd but it wasn't as close to the road. I would have ridden a little longer but I needed to get back to met someone to help figure out an electrical issue from my remodel last winter. It turned out he had to put it off until Monday night. I got in 79 miles and 3465 feet of climbing.

Saturday's Ride

The plan for Saturday was to meet up with the 10:00 Acacia Park group ride and then my friend Larry and I were going to get some extra miles in. Saturday morning was really windy and Larry and a couple other guys were worried it would be unsafe on the group ride. Instead 4 of us rode down Hwy 115.

There was a brutal headwind and times we were really getting sand blasted. In one particularly bad gust, a piece of gravel hit my lip and it stung for 15 minutes. I used to always ride without sunglasses because I sweat so much. It wouldn't take long until I couldn't see through my glasses. I've finally found that the Briko Sprinter 3 glasses that you can get at Bike Nashbar have a bit of a gap between the lens and the frame. This seems to help keep sweet from building up. Also the sweat bands that E-Caps/Hammer Nutrition carry have a little rubber strip on the back to get the sweat to run to the sides of the head. It works better than I ever guessed it would. Between the glasses and the sweat bands I'm now able to ride with glasses and Saturday I was really glad.

I'm to the point where I can hold a good, hard pace but if anybody accelerates hard I often get dropped. It's easy to start thinking I'm not very fit but I have to remind myself that these guys think 3-4 hours is a long ride. They spend a lot more time going hard and attacking. Part way down 115, we saw a group headed back toward town. The guys I was with wanted to ride back with them. By the time traffic cleared they were out of sight. We chased hard and finally I got dropped about the time we caught the group. Once they caught the group, they slowed and I got back on.

Once back in town, Larry and I went and rode several hills. Coming down 26th Street I had dropped Larry in the switchbacks. When I got to Hwy 24, the light was green but I didn't think Larry could make it so I decided to stop. He thought I was going and sprinted and went through as the light turned red. I tried sprinting from a stop and got into the intersection as cars started going. I was almost across the east bound lanes when my chain snapped and I coasted across the west bound lanes. Once traffic cleared I went back out into the middle of the intersection and retrieved my chain.

After Larry stopped at his house, I went by myself and did a loop through the Black Forest. That of course meant that I got a little more climbing in. I got in 100 miles with 5489 feet of climbing.

24 Hours of EROCK

This year along with the Elephant Rock Century there is also going to be the 24 Hours of EROCK. Finally, there's a 24 hour mountain bike race that is less than 30 minutes from my house! The only problem is it's the weekend before RAAM. I don't think doing it can be called tapering.

Top RAAM Riders

Today I finally got around to reading an article from the New York Times from a month ago about Jure Robic. It's called "That Which Does Not Kill Me Makes Me Stranger". I think that title comes from a quote by John Stamsted. It's an interesting article and worth reading. You have to be a registered user but it's free to register. It talks a lot about the mental aspect of ultra racing. It says he is planning to race RAAM this year but he isn't on the roster yet. I knew his post on 11/11/2005 said he was but I didn't know if that had changed. Most of his posts aren't in English so I can't read them.

Robic will be tough to beat but I'd really like to see Tinker win. I've really admired him for a lot of years on the mountain bike circuit. I also have a lot of respect for Allen Larsen. When I ordered one of his videos a couple years ago, his wife took the order and I told her I was planning to do RAAM in a couple years. Allen started asking questions in the background so she just put him on the phone and he let me pick his brain for a while. Kenny Souza should be another top rider. I'm not sure whether these riders are doing the Enduro or Traditional categories. From what I've seen my guess would be that Robic and Larsen will be in the Traditional and Souza will be in the Enduro. I haven't seen any hint as to which category Tinker will be in.