RAAM 2016 is officially under way and these guys are crushing it!!! There was tons of support at Oceanside Pier for all riders and crew at the stop sign as locals gathered to cheer on the teams. We have already met tons of people that have shared their stories about living with MS with us and how thankful they are for our mission.
Here's a small overview of Day #1:
All 8 riders crossed the starting line at about 12:30 pm (3:30 Race Time or Eastern). Team Vampire peeled off a couple miles down the road to leap frog up to Blythe. Jeff Zaniker and Rob Fontes also broke off and hopped in vehicles to move up to the first exchange point. Keegan Greene and Steve Johns continued on the route together without support because of riding on that bike trail. We had two riders on the road where there wasn't any support so that if one bike had issue the other could continue on.
Rob took the infamous glass elevator which is a long winding decent down to Borrego Springs. It is basically a 4200 foot decent over an 11.08 mile area. This is a must for riding RAAM and is very fulfilling to those that experience this decent and thankfully the are going downhill instead of up.
All 8 riders crossed the starting line at about 12:30 pm (3:30 Race Time or Eastern). Team Vampire peeled off a couple miles down the road to leap frog up to Blythe. Jeff Zaniker and Rob Fontes also broke off and hopped in vehicles to move up to the first exchange point. Keegan Greene and Steve Johns continued on the route together without support because of riding on that bike trail. We had two riders on the road where there wasn't any support so that if one bike had issue the other could continue on.
Rob took the infamous glass elevator which is a long winding decent down to Borrego Springs. It is basically a 4200 foot decent over an 11.08 mile area. This is a must for riding RAAM and is very fulfilling to those that experience this decent and thankfully the are going downhill instead of up.
There were a couple hiccups when Rob lost a break pad off his rear wheel, some bike lights lost charge and a couple wrong turns were made. Thankfully none of them by our cyclists! We blew some fuses in the vehicles which is affecting our ability to keep things charged for live streaming. All capable charging ports were attached to more essential things like our flashing lights and CB radios for rider safety and communication.
At around 7 pm our cars begin what is called "direct contant." This means we have to have our support vehicle behind the rider at all times. Those hours begin at 7 pm local time and end at 9 pm.
Over 13.75 hours of cycling Team Daywalker traveled 235.8 miles from the start of RAAM to the hotel in Blythe where we made our first exchange. They dealt with a temperature swing of 75 degrees to a blistering 113 degrees all while maintaining a nice speed of 17.10 mph. Now we turn over the reigns to Team Vampire for their first stint on the bikes.