RAAMbling Across America

Like any other ultra cyclist, for me too, Race Across America (RAAM) was the biggest dream. After winning the Deccan Cliffhanger in 2014, I started channelling all my energies towards making my RAAM dream come true. I enlisted the services of Divya Tate, who has had considerable RAAM experience and is well known in the Indian cycling circuit.

RAAM is a 4800 km cycle race which starts in Oceanside, CA on the west coast and goes all the way across the USA to the east coast to end at Annapolis, MD. The toughest cycle race in the world. 50% longer than the Tour de France and done in a maximum period of 12 days which is half the time of TDF with no rest and no drafting. As Austrian adventurer and 3 times RAAM finisher Wolfgang Fasching once said "Everest is more dangerous, but RAAM is much harder". 

The RAAM map

Before I went there to do this crazy race I wanted to get a crewing experience, so that I could get a measure of the race. Therefore with Divya’s encouragement, I drafted a resume of all my cycling and crewing exploits and Divya sent it out to a few riders who were looking for crew to Race across America. Within a couple of days, I was in touch with the amazing Joan Deitchman who gave me the green signal and took me on board as her crew member.

All this happened about 5 months before the gruelling race started and the excitement had already kicked in. That’s when Joan gave me access to her RAAM wiki page with all her plans from nutrition to crew training neatly organized. Joan along with her advisor Sandy sent us a lot of information and other hypothetical scenarios and asked us how we would deal in such situations. It was this pre-race prep that made me realise how big a mountain RAAM is. Even before the rider got to the start, there was a lot of planning that needed to be taken care of.

Joan’s attention to detail was amazing as her plan seemed foolproof, covering every minute detail. She helped me procure an American visa by providing all the necessary documents. I landed in Los Angeles after a seemingly unending flight made more brutal by the horrendous British AIr crew. I had a week to spend in LA before I met Joan and crew in Oceanside. 

I stayed with the amazing Anand Patel and his beautiful Argentinian girlfriend Carolina. Anand was introduced to me by her niece who I met on a cycle tour in India. Even though I was a stranger to these guys, they took me in and gave a warm bed to crash. Anand who's an avid cyclist even lent me his road bike to go touring into the city. I had the most amazing time as I explored LA looking for the best places to eat on the bike. I had a big culture shock in LA, I had not expected the heavy spanish influence. After 5 days in LA on my bike I can now pretty much know my way around like a local. I went to Hollywood, Sunset Boulevard, Bell Air, Santa Monica, Malibu, Venice, little mexico, In-n-Out burgers, IHOP, etc. I even cycled up the local hill and tried my legs for the KOM. As I left LA i had already put on a couple of kilos. I took a train to Oceanside which hugged the coast (literally, coast was less than 10 ft away) and as it sped south I caught a glimpse of Disneyland as well.     

With Anand and Carolina in LA

   

Three days before the start, I finally met Joan and the crew at Oceanside. Joan already seemed to be in the zone, as she constantly thought of all the things to be done before the race, but she was super friendly and took good care of all the crew.

The Deitchman crew were a varied bunch, with four crew from Canada, one each from Hawaii, Alaska and Puerto Rico and two Indians. We soon began our team building exercises. The canadian pair of Carson who is Joan's younger brother and Big Steve were a great company. Then came the loud,cheerful and sprightly trio of Maria, Sonia and Jamaica who had crewed for Joan before. Jamaica who was the assistant crew chief was also the team mechanic. Rob and and Melissa other athletes joined us too. I was also pleased to have the company of a fellow indian Rohitash from Himachal whos pursuing a PhD there and also planning to do RAAM soon. Lastly my favourite crew person was the ever funny, ever coffee drinking, all knowing (about RAAM),  Mike Deithchman, Joans husband. He always had funny stories to tell about each part of RAAM route we went through. He's also favourite coz he paid for all the beer and donuts.   

The Deitchman Crew

 Joan, Veronica (Crew Chief) and Mike, each took us through the orientation of route books, walkie talkies, van set up etc. We had a set up of 3 vans and no RVs. We were to rely on motels along the route for crew sleep breaks.

We also had to attend crew seminars and van inspections. It was here, that I got to interact with other racers and their crew, where I made it a point to talk to the solo riders. I was lucky to talk to CHRISTOPH FRIGGIN STRASSER, Anders Tesgaard, Shusannah Pillinger and other team riders including compatriots, the Mahajan bros before the race. I was surprised to see that RAAM is a small community, where everyone knows everyone.

Mike showing the follow Van set up

The current champ of Ultra Cycling - Christoph Strasser

There was a lot of energy and buzz at the start, as cowbells rang and people cheered on happily at the base. There were flags from the countries of the participating riders including our very own tricolour. The race begins at twelve noon right under the Oceanside pier as riders were flagged off every two minutes just like a time trial. As soon as Joan was off, three people from our crew followed her in a follow van, while three more including me had to take a separate route to meet them at a town called Borrego i.e. 70 miles into the desert.

Cheering Joan out of the Desert

Starting from sea level, the riders experience a 2500 meters climb in the first 60 miles. After which, they go down this climb into the desert below sea level - the glass elevator’s sheer drop in altitude. 

This year, the Arizona desert was super-hot with mercury rising up to 48 degrees that took a toll on almost every rider. It didn’t spare the mighty Christoph Strasser, who later went on to abandon his ride because of lung infection. When I had met him before the race he seemed super confident and strong. This shows how unpredictable RAAM can be. Joan had to conserve herself here, so as not to burn out too soon. We constantly gave her ice packs to keep cool.

Besides, the desert was a mixed bag for me as it appeared to be charmingly rustic but unbearably hot and unforgiving at the same time. also gave us some beautiful moments too. 

For me the most beautiful part was the moonlit monument valley which came after we crossed into Utah from Arizona. I was in the errand van with Mike and Ro, we took a little detour to go on top of a little hillock. From there all we could see was the  silhouette of the great monuments as the moon rose behind them and the glow of Joan and the follow car in the distance. This along with a dark sky lit with millions of stars gave a very surreal experience. One night I'd never forget. 

The monument Valley at night

I also got to see the Saguaro cactus which I had only been seeing in wild west movies. Speaking of the wild west, on the second day of RAAM I was in the errand van with Steve and Mike with nothing much to do; and we were passing through Navajo Nation, the land of Navajo Indians. It was remarkably different from the "other" America. This land is reserved only for Indians (American Indians) and only they can own real estate here. We also stopped at a couple of "trading posts" which were selling Indian artefacts. 

Once we were through the desert we soon came across the big Rocky Mountains, the continental divide where we'd be going taking the  'wolf creek pass’ the highest point in RAAM. Ahhh Colorado!! My favourite state, full of mountains and legal weed.The mountains were filled with roaring pines ,flowing creeks and teeming with wildlife. It was nice and cool up there, but the noticeably thin air made it difficult for riders to breathe. The same day we had to go through the second highest point; the La Veta pass.

Life as a Crew Member

The whole crew was divided into two, one for the Day and the other for the night. I was in the day shift. While on duty I was either in the follow van whos job was to tail Joan, do her nutrition, clothes change, bathroom breaks, etc. Lot of action in this one, if you arent driving you had to keep nutrition logs, mix drinks, make ice packs and get to listen to Joans songs which we played on speakers above the van. 

 I also ended up in the errand van, who's job was to run errands needed to keep the follow van stocked, get food for crew and Joan, doing the laundry which I ended up doing countless times all the way across america. The errand van was pretty laid back, most of the time there was nothing to do but wait for Joan and cheer her which we did in style as they had stocked it up with costumes!! And yours truly was the first one to get em out and cheer Joan on!

Joans own Cheering totem pole!! 

We surely did have some hawaiian influence

Each working shift were designed to be for 12 hours but it often got late while doing the crew exchange. We were lucky to get 5-6 hours’ sleep each day, when Joan was only sleeping 90 minutes per day. The food most of the time was from grab n go gas station hot dogs, donuts, pizza and the like. But every once in a while we got some local delights like the out of the world pulled pork sandwich from Durango, sonic shakes, BBQed ribs to name a few. There was a lot of high calorie junk food going into the system and I made it worse by going for the cheesiest, greasiest and the largest portions there was. No wonder I got fat by the time we reached Annapolis. I enjoyed it at the beginning but it soon got over it after week in. 

With the beautiful hilly parts of Colorado behind her, Joan reached the dreaded Kansas plains. These vast fields of corn and wheat on either side, with a plain road stretching as far as the eye could see, disappeared into the unknown. This makes for a very dreary ride and can prove gruelling in case of head winds. Fortunately, we had to face cross winds which weren’t as bad as head winds, but not very easy either with Joan being blown to the left of the road !.

After 2 days of slogging through these boring plains, Joan finally crossed into Missouri, remarkably different than Kansas, with its lush green rolling terrain filled with farms and mountains.  Day 6 and Joan was still going strong mentally as well as physically and did not stop unnecessarily. Then came the wide Mississippi river which had flooded and drowned out the bridge that we were supposed to take. So we had to put Joan into the Van and ferry her across another bridge into Illinois. She resumed riding as soon as we were back on course. As we crossed into the states of Indiana and Ohio, the terrain was pretty with a carpet of green all over. I distinctly remember this one night somewhere in the deep woods of Indiana, Joan was cruising away leaving behind a trail of her red blinker, I was in the follow Van tired and sleepy. Then I noticed the trees around me were lit up like Christmas trees; thousands of fireflies in the woods and the plains around a very very surreal moment. 

Another place worth mentioning was the fields of Gettysburg!! Big fields with lot of statues, you can soak in the history here.

Here she goes on the log flats of Kansas

In the last 250 miles, we came upon the mighty Appalachians, which aren’t as big as the Rocky Mountains, but the climbs here are short and steep. In spite of being sleep deprived and tired, Joan was often tackling 9 % gradients after complete 4500 km of biking across the terrain.

Into the Mountains

At one point, she was racing with a 4 man team who couldn't believe their eyes as she kept overtaking them for 5 of their exchanges. Joan’s progress slowed down only after we were showered by the rain gods that made it tougher to ride through. She had a meltdown here and it took a lot of encouraging by the crew to get her back on the bike. Finally, after 11 days and 5 hours, we finished RAAM on the dock of Annapolis, where a sizeable crowd had gathered to welcome Joan. The whole crew along with Joan crossed the finish line together. It was indeed a team effort. 

She Did It!!

After seeing the monster that RAAM is, I had a new found respect for this race. The whole experience did not scare me, but strengthened my resolve to get out there. I got to see the whole behind the screen preparations that these athletes do before attempting RAAM. The nutrition, the training, the ever-changing terrain and climate of the race.   However, I am going to wait until 2017 for my RAAM attempt as I want to be 100% sure that I can do it.  Thorough training, along with a plan that can not only help finish, but cross the line with the elite RAAM solos is what will help me achieve my dream.