... and assuming it WAS Strong Heart's follow vehicle that knocked out the Surfer rider, Strong Heart has not even been assessed a time penalty of any kind...  One would THINK...

Well, they won't set a new speed record, the WVa hills took too much out of their average speed.  However, they're definitely the first recumbent team to finish first among all 4-person teams competing!  They should roll in to the finish about 9PM tonight (CST).  It's been raining in the Balt/DC area, so I'm sure they're being careful, especially in Friday evening rush hour traffic!!!
 
Congrats to Team RANS!!!  (And our TTTT pal Sandy Earl, as Crew Chief!!!)
 
Greg, I guess we done good with our prototype testing, eh?     Thanks for initiating the conversation with Randy in the first place!

A funny note about RAAM...
 
I was talking with Brenda Barnell tonight on our group ride, who rode as part of the JDRF 8-tandem team...  She said that she was able to get a shower on the second day, in Arizona...  but by the time they got to Ohio, she would have given almost anything to just be able to shave under her arms...
 
   

Got this from BROL, about the Team Surfin' accident that knocked them out of RAAM -- sounds like mostly the rider's fault:
 
 
First hand report on accident
 
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 
Hello all,
I received this report from fellow ultra racer Brett Walker. A truly nice guy and great racer. He asked if I would post his report, so here it is:
 
 
There as been a lot of speculation regarding the accident during RAAM
that involved a rider from Team Surfing USA and a Team Strong Heart
support vehicle.
 
Many people with NO information have formed many opinions about what
happened (for example the Bent Rider’s Forum.) So I thought I would
take a moment to give you my perspective of what happened. This is
NOT an official statement from TSH, just one rider’s perspective.
 
First thing, we did not hit the rider, the rider hit us. Although no
fault was found or citations issued to either side, by the police or
RAAM officials, in my opinion, the Team Surfing USA rider bares at
least half of the responsibility.
 
The accident occurred at the bottom of a hill, in a small town, just
before a stop sign. Our support vehicle had NOT just passed the rider,
we passed him a long ways up the road but due to the road conditions
(many corners, traffic, stops, and down hill) the cyclist had
apparently caught back up to our van.
 
The accident occurred just before a stop sign, the cyclist was passing
a line of cars approaching the stop sign (ours included) on the right
(I believe illegally) and at a high rate of speed. It is questionable
if he would have been able to stop for the sign. In order to conduct
a rider exchange, our driver decided to pull into a parking space,
just before the stop sign. He signaled, looked and pulled into the
parking spot. Unfortunately, at this time the cyclist collided with
the van.
 
To imply that we hit the rider on purpose is disgusting. We are
cyclists that take our lives into our hands every day competing with
cars for a few inches of pavement. The idea that we would hit a fellow
cyclist is not even thinkable. Why we would we intentionally hit a
rider of a team we had just spent 1800 mile chasing and caught. I
would much rather beat the great Laird Hamilton, man-to-man.
 
I know this won’t stop the ignorant and malicious attacks. but I
couldn’t stand by and be silent any more.
 
I am very disappointed that the RAAM organization has not stepped up
and done more clear the air.
 
Brett Walker  

More fun RAAM stories from Brenda.
 
She said they were stuck with no transportation for their tandem, so they employed the recommended redneck tandem transportation method:    She held the front of the tandem out the front passenger window while her captain held the back out of the rear window.
 
YIKES!!!!!

Quote from FlyingLaZBoy on Jul 3^rd, 2009, 5:03pm:

 
Seeing Tim Woudenberg at RAO all balded up was pretty funny too.