Race Across America is broken in to 54 check points along the way (55 if you include the finish line). These are referred to as Time Stations and help race officials follow the progress each team is making along the route. Once our riders pass by a time station the active crew chief phones the RAAM headquarters to report the time at which we passed the station. Official race times along the way are reported and recorded in Eastern Daylight Time (EDT). Therefore, most vehicles traveling along the RAAM route are equipped with two clocks. One for the local time zone of whatever part of the country the racers are currently in and a second that is set to EDT at all times.
Most of these time stations are just locations in a parking lot at an intersection. But some are manned by wonderful volunteers from different organizations. Two such amazing time stations are TS #6 and TS #32. I stopped at TS #6 and spoke with Jim Pettett about all the great things they were doing in support of the riders. They had a large pool, multiple pop up tents for shade, fresh produce, beverages and the 4 room hotel behind this time station left it's doors open to racers to get a quick shower and clean up if they wanted. TS #6 is supported by the Bull Shifters Bicycling Club, which is a local cycling club in Arizona. Check out their Facebook page here!!!
Most of these time stations are just locations in a parking lot at an intersection. But some are manned by wonderful volunteers from different organizations. Two such amazing time stations are TS #6 and TS #32. I stopped at TS #6 and spoke with Jim Pettett about all the great things they were doing in support of the riders. They had a large pool, multiple pop up tents for shade, fresh produce, beverages and the 4 room hotel behind this time station left it's doors open to racers to get a quick shower and clean up if they wanted. TS #6 is supported by the Bull Shifters Bicycling Club, which is a local cycling club in Arizona. Check out their Facebook page here!!!
Time Station 6
Time Station #32 was another volunteer manned location. I spoke with Trish Creach about their setup which is sponsored by the Camdenton Chamber of Commerce in Camdenton, MO. This was located in a gas station parking lot, but they also had tents, a small pool for the riders to jump in a cool down, a board to marked the time racers passed by and friendly volunteers. There was a sign under the tent that one of the local hotels was offering a discount to cyclists and even the use of their showers at a $20 cost per team! With a team our size it would have come down to less than a $1 per person. Trish was kind enough to actually run and grab some ice cream while we waited for our rider to come by. All we did was ask if there was a good place to get ice cream and 10 minutes later we had a pint!!!
Time Station 32
There were several other wonderful time stations with volunteers supporting our the RAAM teams, but these were the two that I had the chance to stop and chat with. Thank you to all the RAAM Time Stations for your support!!!