Race across America

[samwilliams]

This forum seems to have some fairly serious cyclists, so I figured it was a good place to ask...

I'm considering trying to do RAAM solo, possibly next year or maybe the year after. I've done a couple of long-distance things before, but nothing quite like this — they were more endurance-based — and I'm not exactly a cyclist. At the moment, I'm trying to work out whether it is a feasible thing to aim for.

Obviously I'm not thinking about beating other people (the winners do it in something ridiculous like 8 days), but I quite fancy having a go at merely completing it. It's obviously fairly difficult, but is it the kind of thing where you have to be mildy superhuman to simply finish or could it be done by a normal person with a lot of training?

[HundredthIdiot]

Which "couple of long-distance things" have you done?

From my understanding of the audax scene, you need to build up over a couple of years, even to something like PBP let alone RAAM.

[VEA]

Sounds like a really long way!

[JuniorD]

A couple of hours sleep per day, broken up into 20 mins slots, for 8 days is the stuff of nightmares. Throw into that some desperately hard cycling in between sleeps and you have RAAM. Doing it Solo is insane, and you'd have to be really ready for it. Why not just take a couple of months and do the ride at tourist pace, that would be great! Plus you get to chose a nice scenic route!

[samwilliams]

HundredthIdiot said:

Which "couple of long-distance things" have you done?

Cycling-wise, I did London to Kenya last year, but admittedly took it at a pretty leisurely pace (just over 50 miles/day average if you include days off). I also did an ocean row a couple of years ago, but again wasn't breaking any speed records (although I'll blame the weather for that one!).

I quite fancy doing something that has a bit more of a sprint (relative to the previous two) mentality and it seems to fit the bill pretty well.

[HundredthIdiot]

There's some interesting information scattered around the web, e.g. this:

http://www.ultracycling.com/training/raam_riders_t...

"In terms of miles ridden, one rider noted that his base-phase monthly mileage was a steady progression of 780, 1250, 1600, and 1850 miles. The overall base phase for typical RAAM riders consisted of about 5,500 miles over the four month period."

Obviously you'd need to be fit enough to start with so that 780 miles a month was no trouble.

1850 miles a month sounds tough, that's about 60 miles/day on average.

[mxspyder]

The RAAM seems pretty nuts. There was a documentary about it recently following the fortunes of a solo Brit. No joke, for the final 3 days they made a scaffold arrangement out of plastic drain pipes and strapped it to his head and back - Just so he could keep his head upright and see where he was going!

He also had a decent backup team, he spent somewhere in the region of 10k to do the event!

Good Luck

[neilski]

I saw that. The chap's name was Jim Rees and he did have a few people use up their holiday allowance to go with him as support plus camper van and MPV hire, fuel etc. so the whole trip would have cost quite a bit. All stuff to consider if you want to do it. Good luck though.

[samwilliams]

Thanks for the replies (particularly the article on the training - hadn't seen that). I think I'll get hold of a road bike (I reckon that's probably a good place to start) and see where I am after 3-4 months of semi-proper training.

[CVP]

I think you have to qualify for RAAM by doing a number of smaller endurance type races.

If you want to do it in a slightly more comfortable less racey way then you could always go with Trek Bike Tours. Fully supported and around 40 days (inc 4 rest days) so not mega mileage. The downside is it's quite pricey at about USD 20k (USD16k basic plus sales taxes and then I allowed for flights and incedentals as well)

Trek Travel

Hvaing said it's expensive, it could be one hell of a trip

[Rich_W]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northame...