We are finally near the end of our journey across the great waste of space people call America. We were rather excited to be this far through, and couldn't wait to reach the ocean. The only problem was there was still a lot of riding, and not much of that was flat!
We were now in the Appalachians, which turned out to be a lot harder than the Rockies. Apart from the altitude, the climbs were a lot steeper, the weather was worse, a we were pretty tired. I mean very tired, sorry. Although the climbs weren't as long as in the Rockies, given the fact that we were only pulling for about 3 mins, the length of the climb really didn't matter. And since the roads through West Virgina had little to no shoulder, it was hard to find a place to pull over at times. This meant that some of our pulls had to last a lot longer than the 3 minutes we had planned on, damn it.
The good thing about this area, apart from the knowledge that we were almost home, was the fact that it was our last chance to catch the Norwegians. We were getting mixed time updates as to how far behind we were, but we were sure that we were catching them. This made us push just that little bit harder. We would smash it up the hills, then leave the descents up to Timpy, who was flying round those corners like they were straight lines. I did get to ride a good downhill, which I finished off by crossing the state line into Maryland. Our final state, we had finally made it! Or so we thought. We ended up crossing in and out of Maryland into West Virginia and Pennsylvania on multiple occasions, some of which weren't planned.
After crossing into Maryland for the first time, it wasn't long before we were back in West Virginia. And back in West Virginia means back with the WV locals. Below is a photo of Bob making friends with the locals.
But it wasn't all just a meet and greet, we did still have a race to complete. Well, for us it was only one pull plus the parade lap into the finish, but we still had to ride. We were at the end of our journey, and at this point we were in our most crazy, confused, sleep deprived, tired, hallucinogenic, furthest from having a grip on reality state we had been in. I think the photo below sums up just how demented my state of mind really was.
This photo was taken in Maryland as I waited for the A team to come in. This was the final shift for us. The rain was about to set in and we now had no realistic chance of catching the Norwegians, but we were still well within striking distance of beating the old record set by tt1 last year. My first pull was an interesting one. I was due to cross into PA and back into MD, so two state lines, sweet. Only problem was that my directions from the car behind weren't so good. I rode past a turn, but only went 20m of course, so not too much damage done. The second navigational error took a bit more time. It sent me across the state boarder. So by the time I got back on course that was another 2 crossings to my name: 4 in one pull, that has to be a record. The other hard part of the pull was the 20 something % gradient I had to climb. Don't know the exact grade, as I couldn't quite Rick on the loudspeaker, but it was 20 something. I struggled up it, and I would be very surprised if any of the solo riders didn't have to get off and walk up it.
At this point the rain was starting to come down, and there was plenty of lightning too. The lightning was good, as it lit up the way nicely. The rain wasn't so good, as it brought all the oil and s*#t to the surface, causing Alex to deck himself on a corner. Though to be honest, I'm sure the fatigue, dark and excessive caffeine that him wired up probably contributed as well. But given the treacherous roads, and the fact that we were never going to catch the Norwegians, and that we couldn't think straight, yet still somehow had to ride straight, we decided not to push the corners and descents that fast.
One cool thing about this leg was that we rode through Gettysburg. It was dark at this time, and we couldn't see the whole field, but what we could see was pretty spooky. The massive cannons, the huge fences and the ghosts of the men who died made the drive through rather intense.
We finished the pull with Me, Tim and bob all rolling in together. This was more symbolic than practical, as riding with 3 and trying to stay in the headlights, though traffic, wasn't the easiest. But by this stage we were still riding together as a team, and we were going to finish that way.
The next time we got on our bike was for the final 15 mile pull to the line. This was after the other team had to sit out TT1's time penalties. The plan was that all 8 of us would ride the last 15 miles to the finish. The 1st 11 of those were counted for time, but the last 4 were neutralised. We had a bit of snag though when some retard of an official told us that we weren't allowed to have all 8 of us on the road till after 7.30am. The guy was a retard, but it was no time to argue. So it ended up that the other team 'raced' to the start of the neutral section, while the B team just rolled along in front of the van's headlights. To be honest, it actually felt kinda weird to be just tapping on the pedals, after a week of nothing but smashing it.
We reached the neutral section, rather relieved and proud of our efforts. We had ridden 3,011 miles, or 4,817km in 5 days 13 hours and 40 minutes. It was obviously a disappointment to have been beaten, but for the Norwegians to beat us they sure had to ride extremely fast. Not just fast enough to break the record, but fast enough to have to smash it.
We now just our victory lap to the wharf left. This nice little cruise was the first time that A and B teams got to ride together. We rolled in united as one, to the applause of the supporters who came to cheer us in. I was actually surprised as to how many people were there, since was round 7am. Of course i wasn't actually surprised till the next day when I got a grip on time again. When I arrived I just thought, "It's daylight". We had bubbly on the podium, and I was kind enough to offer some to the supporters, friends, family and sponsors who came to see us in. I certainly wasn't expecting them to decline since it was so early on a Tuesday morning. Below is a photo of me and Alex as we cross the line with the team.
It was an emotional time at the finish, and we all got together to have a quite moment as a team to celebrate.
Right before we got to show off on the podium.
Which happened just before we got to let loose with the bubbly on the podium. I remember hearing form the other end of the podium someone say, "The race is over." But for us competitive types, there is always a race on. The race across America may have finished, but a new race was on: The race to get the bubbly open. Of course I won this, and if you look at the photo below, you'll see the only one with the cork still int he bottle is the underage boy. Poor little kid.
The end of RAAM signalled the start of a well earned celebration, intermingled with a well earned sleep. The two don't typically mix all that well, as celebration often leads to less sleep, but we some how manage to mix them.
During our two days in Annapolis, MD, we were able to catch up on a lot of sleep, have some good lunches and dinners with sponsors, check out Annapolis and go out to town in the evening, kick back and have some fun. It was good to see the Norwegian team out at one of the bars, and we had a could chat with them. Below is a photo of Me and Matt on a tourist cruise ship which took us on a trip round the harbour showing us the sights and sounds.
So this ends my my write up of all things RAAM. I'm sorry it took so long coming, but I didn't want to miss anything, and there was a lot to write about. I've also been busy with athlete days and racing. Now i'll be back to writing about things as they happen. Thanks for your patience while I wrote this, I hope you enjoyed reading it.
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