Race News, Updates and Press Releases

Race Day 6 - Father's Day

Sunday, June 18, 2006

Time is now running together and all events blur.  Only the camera causes me to remember what a possible sequence of events might have occurred.  The past two days Team two has raced in the early morning and into the early afternoon in good weather, only to hand things off to Team One at about the time the rain was due.  Sure enough, Sunday was not exception.  Team One did get Ron back after a heroic effort on his part to return to the race.

Ron sends special thanks to the staff at Stanton County Hospital for their wonderful care and getting him "race ready".  Those special thanks go to nurses Diane, Sara, Jan, Virginia, Lisa, and Kenna (why did Ron need so many nurses?) as well as Jody in X Ray, and of course, Dr. Bill.

Ron's story is way to long to write here, and will have to wait for his return.  Suffice it to say that in an effort to get back, Archie, in physical therapy drove Ron 70 miles to a truck stop so he could try and hitch a ride.  That did not work, so he found a pilot, (Mitchell) to fly him in a small plane to Wichita, and rented a car to drive to the race route and join up with the team around 3am.

We spent the night in Pratt, Kansas.  Across the street the next morning the owner of the McDonalds treated all racers and their support staff to free breakfast.  I must say, the people in the Midwest have been most supportive.  They come out to the curb as you ride by and cheer the riders on.  The truckers honk and give wide birth to the riders.  At the end of a ride through a nasty rain on Friday, a man ran up to me and started asking all kinds of question about the race.  He had driven up from Texas so he could watch it go by.  He took photos, wanted autographs, etc.  This race finds all kinds of fans and heroes.

Pratt, Kansas hospitality



Our own special midwest welcome



My first autograph



Close up, Mary Earl, notice the special happy anniversary note.

The route book display of the topography of the ride as we entered Kansas and Missouri (see bottom window in the book).  While it looks like a great flat run, the headwinds make it much more difficult.

Compare the topography of Kansas and Missouri with the topography of the last pass out of the Rockies near La Veta, Colorado.  Team Two did this part of the route with some quick climbing.

Team Two departed Pratt, Kansas in the 4am time range on Sunday morning and raced over 200 miles across the rest of Kansas, across the Missouri River and the Mississippi River into Missouri.  Team One finally caught up with them near the Illinois border and took the race across Illinois and into Indiana.  Pete is explaining part of the ride to the race officials in Greenville, IL.

The terrain in Illinois was a little more accommodating than the Rockies.  Notice the great weather that Team Two got to ride in during the morning and early afternoon on Sunday.  This photo was taken just before the switch off to Team One.

Here is what Pete and any other rider wants, a good tail wind.



Gary Byrne racing across the time station in Greenville, IL.

Entering the arrival of Team Chaffey at the Time station.  Actually the time results are phoned in by each team as they cross the time trial location.  It is required that each team phone in their result at each station within 30 minutes of arrival.  That makes it interesting if you have no cell phone service.  We carry two Globalstar satellite phones in case we are in a place without cell service.

The results of the teams who have crossed over the Greenville, Illinois time trial station.  Chaffey is 21st with respect to all racers on the course, including solo riders who started 2 days earlier.  Due to fatigue in the solo riders, the team riders are starting to catch up with them.

Ron is back and confers with Pete on the next leg of the ride as Team One takes over from Team Two outside of Greenville, IL.

Carl and Pete confer, well, maybe Pete instructs and Carl listens, or, maybe Carl is too tired to listen.

Carl explains how he approached a significant upgrade and pooped out before the top.  Apparently a total misjudgment of the gearing necessary to move the bike uphill.

Beautiful weather for Team One to start riding on Sunday, June 18.  Happy Fathers Day.  Do not let appearances deceive you.

Ron, cooling off before his ride in wonderful weather, although a bit humid.  Notice the clouds in the background with a grey tinge.

The rolling hand off at a rider exchange from Ron to Pete.  Pete is riding his time trial bike and flew down the course at over 25 mph

Where are the Rockies when you need them.  Illinois is a lot like Kansas, only more green.

Chuck fixes a flat in a rare moment of inactivity between arriving and departing racers.

In another example of great Midwest hospitality, Judy, who is in the catering business in the Greenville, IL area, pulled over and wanted a full rundown on the race and what it was all about.  Ron, of course, gave her the full rundown.  In exchange, we got a bag of fresh baked Almond cookies.

Pete racing

Remember that grey cloud?  As Gary went out in the sun, it moved over the race course and dumped buckets of rain in a matter minutes.  Gary was racing with a tail wind at 35mph when it started.  It finally got so bad he could not see the road and the chase vehicle could not see to find him.  He had outrun the chase vehicle, they looked in every ditch along the way, and thought maybe he had somehow turned back and they failed to see him.  When they did find him, he was of course drenched because he had no rain gear on.  The general put Ron out to keep the race moving with rain gear.  Ron was thinking this was a little like storming the beaches at Normandy.  He might not return.  But he did, and in the process found this covered bridge.  Unfortunately he hit something in the floor of the bridge and got a flat.

Even the General agreed to ride in the rain

Actually the visibility is very good at this point in time.  There were times during the storm that limited visibility down to 30 or 40 feet and the windshield wipers could not keep up with the water flow.

As I write, Team Two is racing on into Ohio.  We expect to be into the mountains of West Virginia tonight and arrive in Atlantic City, NJ in the early hours of Wednesday, June 21.  Both fatigue and traffic start to bear on the efficiency of the riding.  It will be interesting to see how our average speed between time stations holds up.  We spent quite a bit of time working our way around Indianapolis, IN last night at 1am.

The great adventure continues;  see you tomorrow, same time, same station.