Ready to RAAM

Wed 11th June 2.00pm California time, Team Type 1 is setting off to defend there 8-person RAAM title. The team was looking pretty sweet to break the record, until the loss of key rider Nathan. The search to find a suitable replacement was long, but in the end futile, and the team was forced to settle with a young New Zealand rider who little was known about. His age was not even known, with reports that he was as young as 22, or as old as 27. Though he is a New Zealander, people frequently mistake him as an Aussie (retards), and many people don't even know where this exotic place 'Aoteroa' is.

So who is this random fill in? Timothy Hargrave, well that's me.

I'm very excited to be here, can't wait to get going. I've been tapering for the last while, and now I just want to smash it! But there will be plenty of time for that this. I've been pretty laxed out here in Oceanside while waiting for the big race start. Our mechanics have done a wonderful job ensuring that our Orbea bikes are ready to fly, and the crew have ensured that we have had nothing to do except ride, eat, sleep, rest, and think about the 5 days of pain coming up.

The Team is splitting in to two teams of 4, each of which pull for around 6 hours. The teams are: Andy, Monique, Matt and Mark, who are starting off, then Bob, Tim P, Alex and Me.

Below are some team pics. The first is the Team at California, plus Phil, Joe and Fabio.


The team at the airport, being picked up by all the support crew. Well, actually not all the support crew, but a lot of them.


Our fearless team leader, Bob Shrank a.k.a. RAAMbo(b) will lead us to victory.


The team waiting for official photos before by the beach in Oceanside. There's only about 800m between my house from there, yea!

Wish us all luck for RAAM. It will be pretty tough, but should be a lot of fun. I'm all set now thanks to Marcus and Monique hooking me up with Vegemite, oh I love it. If nothing else, that will get me through. I won't be able to get in any updates till we reach the other side, but to see how we are going, check out www.teamtype1.org for regular updates.

C ya in Annapolis.