that no one has commented on the RAAM program broadcast yesterday. I saw it last night off my TIVO and thought it was a wonderful program. Two hours and I enjoyed every minute (even the AFL ads which I thought were pretty funny). Never again will I think that an IM is particularly hard (actually, I have never thought that doing an IM is particularly hard, racing it is, I thought). Doing RAAM is HARD. Racing it is beyond comprehension. Makes one even wonder about the relative hardness of the TDF.
Not much of a thread for what was a pretty great show. I hope you guys on the east coast get a chance to see it again. It was wonderful. Watching these guys have trouble just figuring out how to pedal from sleep deprivation and exhaustion was interesting. I couldn’t figure out why the support crew didn’t grab a couple of them and say, “you need 4 hours sleep” Since they were riding about 2 mph they would have made up the loss in no time.
Frank
I was wondering that very same thing. Wouldn’t a rested person going 20 mph get there at roughly the same time as an exhausted person going 10 mph?
I have to tip my helmet to NBC, they did a great job. And I was ecstatic when I realized it was going to be a 2 hr endurance sport documentary without the moronic mumbings of Al Trautwig.
Speaking of cycling on TV, has anyone seen a list of what races OLN is going to cover this year?
I saw RAAM in wide world of sports for the first time about twenty years ago. The defending champ, Pete Pensears (sorry about the spelling) rode like they did this year; ride til you drop, then ride some more. The contender, Jaque Boyer (again, spelling), an american who had been racing in europe, came with a plan. He rode for a certain time, slept and had accupuncture, then got up and rode again. It was like the tortoise and the hare. Pensears went out to a huge lead but when he started weaken, Boyer passed him and went on to a large win.
I'm surprised that technique hasn't advanced. I think some rest would have gotten some of them to the finish line sooner, and some who didn't make it would have.
I saw RAAM in wide world of sports for the first time about twenty years ago. The defending champ, Pete Pensears (sorry about the spelling) rode like they did this year; ride til you drop, then ride some more. The contender, Jaque Boyer (again, spelling), an american who had been racing in europe, came with a plan. He rode for a certain time, slept and had accupuncture, then got up and rode again. It was like the tortoise and the hare. Pensears went out to a huge lead but when he started weaken, Boyer passed him and went on to a large win.
Wow I rember that one also. To bad I missed yesterdays. Did you see Primal Quest on CBS today?
I’ll let you know after I complete RAAM '06. I’m scheduled to go as a corporate team. Not the same as an individual but RAAM none the less!
Over in the rec.bicycles.racing newsgroup there’s been a discussion thread on yesterday’s RAAM show. It’s not very favorable. The problem wasn’t necessarily with the coverage. It was with the statements the broadcast made about cycling as a sport and about cyclists in general. It was like a profile of freaks, freds and suicidal maniacs. Some of the profiles, in my opinion, were profiles in monumental stupidity. As others here have pointed out, in decades past, the race was won by those who had an intelligent plan for riding to the maximum, but also for resting/recovering to at least a reasonable extent to maintain health. Granted, the first two finishers looked like they could have turned around and ridden back to the start. But the riders that were profiled most extensively were those who were actually rather stupid and rode themselves into enormous physical deficits.
I was completely uninspired by the race coverage and the profiles.
Bob C.
What statements? One of the things that made it extremely good was the running commentary by Perry Stone, an extremely accomplished ultra endurance cyclist who would have been in the race (probably on PowerCranks) if he had not been injured. As far as I am concerned it felt like I was watching about 5 Julie Moss’s all over again. Wonder if this will bring the “I can do that better than that” guys out next year and double the entry list.
"I was completely uninspired by the race coverage and the profiles. "
In a way, I share your sentiment but I did enjoy the coverage and the fact that NBC seemed to put a lot of themselves into this—covering a cross-country race that essentially went on 24 hours a day. But in thinking about some of the competitors—the guy who finished with a fractured pelvis and having to have a contraption hooked up to him to help keep his head up comes to mind—I admired them.
Now, would I emulate them? Not very likely. Everyone kept talking about the training involved, and I would have been curious to get more of a glimpse into what that training comprised of. How do you train yourself to ride 48 or more hours straight? Running sleep-deprived is one thing, riding a bike with no traffic controls around you sleep-deprived is wholly another thing.
Were some of them stupid in how they rode? Sure seemed like it—as they got into the desert it seemed like a number of them were woefully unprepared for what greeted them. But as for the overall coverage, hard to quibble once you get the idea of the audience NBC is going for…mostly the casual fan, not really the hard-core, just as with the Ironman coverage. It is the story of the average joe attempting something seemingly superhuman and going into it severely undertrained so that the inevitable crash-and-burn can be captured in living color that is the motivation for the TV exec.
And for the most part it works as compelling viewing.
I watched it & all I could think of was that if any novice cyclist (or anyone thinking of getting into cycling) was watching this, they will probably never get on a bike ever again. There was nothing about that show that made riding a bike look remotely like anything anyone would ever want to do. The whole show was guys staggering around their bikes, using cords to keep their head up, going to the hospital because their kidneys were shutting down, puking, etc.
Fine, go ahead & do RAAM if your body can handle it. But if you can’t even stand up straight what exactly are you trying to prove?? Ooh I’m so tough, I can ride my bike with an erector set strapped to my back because I can’t even hold my head up anymore.
I have all the respect in the world for the RAAM ridders, but I would have even more if they started with a 65 mi swim, did the 3,000 mi bike, and finished with a 7 min/mile 700 mile run. THAT would be cool.
I’d be the first to DNF…
I have all the respect in the world for the RAAM ridders, but I would have even more if they started with a 65 mi swim, did the 3,000 mi bike, and finished with a 7 min/mile 700 mile run. THAT would be cool.
I’d be the first to DNF…
I’d be the first to DNS
I thought the coverage was fine, but after watching the coverage (from my trainer) I was less interested in doing the race should I ever qualify for it. Challenge? You bet. Fun? Didn’t look like it. I’m doing the NJ brevet series this year and probably Boston-Montreal-Boston. 2-3 days straight is more than enough (I think). I’ll let you know if I PC any/all of the rides.
Steve
The thing that surprised me the most is my wife said she could imagine that I might want to do that some day.
I guess she has no idea that I might be sane. Plus, my neck/back wouldn’t last the first 24 hours…
The thing that surprised me the most is my wife said she could imagine that I might want to do that some day.
I guess she has no idea that I might be sane. Plus, my neck/back wouldn’t last the first 24 hours…
I was a RAAM sponsor last year and we had a little incentive for the first person to do the race on PC’s ($5,000, $25,000 if they won it). Perry Stone (the commentator in the car) has been on PC’s for about 4 years and was going to try until he got hurt. Anyhow, one of the Italians heard about it and decided he was going to do it about 3 months before the race. You might be crazy to attempt the race but you don’t have to be really crazy because he did come to his senses about a week before the race. Maybe next year though. 
Frank
I’ve been wanting to do this race since I heard of it. Enlightenment via bik, I’m sure of it. How could you not access the heavens? First up would be to check out the 508 I’ve heard, which sounds like a bitch at only a fraction of the distance of RAAM.
Yeah, I got an e-mail from a former ladyfriend who told me she’d be game to be support crew… but somehow I doubt I’ll even try to test that particular scenario.
Still, mighty cool race - and Danny Chew is a badass.
Boyer talked a lot of trash about how he was gonna ride way faster and sleep more. He did win ( not by a lot), so you have to give him that, but in the end whe was riding more and sleeping less, just like everyone else. He did bring a certain professionalism though, when he stopped he had a fresh bike waiting, fresh clothes, food water, massage etc. At the time most of the participants had friends as crews and typically did a lot of the on the road planning/decision making themselves.
Styrrell