More pics from the Chain Gang!

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Updated Blog

Finally managed to get some sleep, had around 9 hours since 19/06/2009….Oceanside seems a long long time ago and everyone is longing for a decent shower and a prolonged period of sleep.
The routine we have got into is split into 4 support and 6 riders, a team of 3 riders goes out with 2 support crew and participates in the race and completes 2 Time stations. The time station distances vary from between 40 and 70 miles.
We’re generally on the road for 8 hours at a time and then back to the RV where we need to get the vehicle to the 2nd time station that the new crew are heading towards….typically it takes the RV between 2 and 3 hours to get to that point so that leaves you with approx 5 or 6 hours to sleep, eat, do laundry, go shopping etc. From a support perspective this is very difficult as you have just been driving for 8 hours and you then need to drive the RV, after a night shift this is very difficult

the early stages at the moment are fairly mountainous, Arizona section saw us elevated at around 7000 feet with some stunning views and some hairy moments on the saddle.
From Arizona we crossed into Utah at ‘ The Mexican Hat ‘ ….I was lucky enough to be on the graveyard shift and saw the sunrise over Monument Valley with some truly stunning scenery…..apart from one of the riders having to stop the car and throwing up at the side of the road not mentioning any names Mr Forrester.

Other highlights in Monument Valley was a running battle with ‘ Ze Germans ‘ culminating in Phil ‘ The Power ‘ Hedley roaring past the rider much to our delight !!
From Utah we headed to Colorado, a marked change in scenery from the barren Arizona and Utah to lush greenery and beautiful mountain views unfortunately only just getting to see as I pulled the graveyard shift AGAIN in the support car for 8 hours, that’s the thing about driving at night…..the nights are extremely black and visibility is poor so you have to drive behind the rider around 5 ft behind…..managing to stay awake and watching the rear end of a rider at speeds of between 5mph and 15 mph is hard work despite Mr Hedley insisting that his rear end is a better view than some of the stunning scenery we have seen.
We stopped in Colorado exhausted and had around 3 hours sleep, we are currently in the RV and in fairly good spirits after seeing some of The Rockies at 10,000 feet which is the highest elevation point of the RAAM, the good thing about doing all the climbing from a riding point of view is that the only way now is down !!

We’ve just passed into New Mexico at 07:15 am and we will then be in the saddle / Pace Car for the next 95 miles ending in Springer New Mexico and start the whole painful process again

Update!

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More updates!

15 hours into the RAAM and we’re not doing too bad !! Around 2 and a half hours ahead of schedule and are settling into the routine fairly well…..
I haven’t had any sleep yet and the adrenaline is keeping me going, currently in the pace car navigating after driving the RV from Berrago Springs CA to rendezvous point somewhere on the 78 highway. Straight into the graveyard shift in the pace car driving from midnight until 5am….it’s now 06:11am and I have been promised a couple of hours sleep when I finally get out of the pace car which should be in 3 hours or so making it a 9 hour stint looking at what a cyclist with his head down and his ass up, not really how I like to spend my time, Maximum speed I have driven in the pace car is around 30mph and min speed around 5mph, the cyclists are generally averaging around 18mph which is a superb effort given the conditions they have been riding in.

Currently on route from Blythe CA to Salome Arizona for time station 4 then heading to Utah then up to the rockies at around 10,000 ft you gotta love the rockies !!!!

Will update further hopefully if and when I get some sleep…..the most sleep the riders has got is about an hour and they still manage to get on the saddle and put the hours in horrendous conditions so have the upmost respect for the Caledonian Chain Gang.

Tom.

Go Team Caledonian Chain Gang

Today we registered for the RAAM and much to my horror we passed with flying colours J

Today was mainly getting the RV in order and preparing for the race ahead

Bit of a wake up call at registering as most teams appear to have a hell of a lot more support crew than us...most have between 6 and 10 and most teams have numerous RV’s and support cars but where’s the fun in that ?

First meal has been made, Spaghetti Bolognese A La Tombo and its gooooood !! food a plenty in the RV and very little room for 9 people to eat sleep and shower....probably not too much of the latter

Mildy excited and obviously extremely nervous of the enormity of the race.

Tom

Quick update from the West Coast Massive on the RAAM....

For those of you who are not up to speed with our activity we are driving / riding across America on bicycles from Oceanside California to Maryland Annapolis in hopefully 7 days solid...thats over 3000 miles at an average speed of 17mph....easy eh ?

So today we drove the first 80 miles of the RAAM course in the RV to familiarise ourselves with

A) Driving an RV equivalent to the side of a small yacht and

B) driving on the wrong side of the road

C) Opportunity for the cyclists to get acclimatised with riding at 110 degrees +

I can only say that my experience was terrifying......driving an RV on the long beautiful straight roads of America is a piece of cake.....driving up a mountain range of 3000 feet + with more twists and turns than a spy novel is something else !!

The cyclist rode for 45 minutes in 120 degrees which I describe only as desert land and where exhausted....they initially planned to ride for around 50 miles and managed only 15 after experiencing the stifling heat. The plan is for the riders for the race to ride in shifts of 6 hours between 2 riders before changing over....the experience of today caused a dramatic re-think over dinner at Dennys restaurant.

On a more positive note we tagged the cyclists with an GPS powered RFID tag and tracked them from the RV which proved vital as the cyclist got lost after the first turn and we were fortunately able to track them down before they became prey for the vulchers and other creepy crawlies of the desert....and when I say desert this is coming from a ‘ Brit ‘ who is used to our small country with stable climate and lush greenery.....this was boiling hot and in the middle of nowhere ! Simon and I were delighted to find that not only did our technology work but will be a vital tool throughout the small task of driving 3000 miles across the US of A.

I will endeavour to update you throughout on our trials and tribulations throughout the race for those who are interested and hope to be able to tell tales of success when Mr Quinn meets the weary team at the end of the race for some well earned beers !!

Here’s to a safe and successful race

Regards

Tom Hare

Operations Manager

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Team RAAM and the Caledonian Chain Gang!

Hi there,

Welcome to our new blog!. We thought we'd let you have a little insight in to the delights of our latest sponsorship, the Caledonian Chain gang, as our inaugural post. So get ready for a tale of 6 former Scottish & Newcastle colleagues who, after spending too much sampling their product, thought it would be a great idea to enter one of the worlds toughest cycling event....raising money for charities on the way. This is all backed up by our very own Tom 'Mad (and as fast) as a March' Hare who is currently enduring RV duties as we speak, and also Simon Horrox, who is part of our support crew.

You can read their updates here as well as team info. And our BLOG also gives you real time updates of location (through our very own GPS & RF technology), and also a personal blog from Tom as to how many pints they manage (not) to sink on the way.

Enjoy the ride!.

Jon Quinn,

InteliTap UK HQ (soon to join the boys in Annapolis)