RAAM 2008, what can say, a fantastic experience, we achieved so much, not only Stacey and Myself in riding, but the crew, who where totally undermanned, performed as well as you could ask. On the positives even before we arrived at the airport with a mountain of luggage, including 3 bikes, H5 product, spares, lights, bottles and cages, massage table, bike stand 7 peoples clothes (Ian was already in Vancouver watching his wife compete in the sprint distnce world championships), Andy Black a very able crewman from 2006 stepped up and showed his worth. Between all the boys, they packed the trailer and themselves. When it was decanted at the infamous ‘Terminal 5′ then I really thought we would be leaving half of it behind. However by the time Andy and I arrived back from dropping the cars, most of it was through.
Arriving in LA, everything could not have gone smoother, picked up the car, then picked the RV up the next day. Bit of a beast to drive, but we had 4 days to practice. Arriving in Oceanside, the hotel was OK and close to the start.
Again Andy leading from the front sorted the cars & RV, stickered beautifully, packman Paul packed the RV beautifully and labelled everything. On the Sunday Ian arrived from Vancouver. Teams where put together, Sally Brown & Andy Black, Rick & Paul and Ian & Adrian, later named the ‘dream team’, sacastically by the rest of the crew. This is when strong leadership needed to be shown by the crew chief Sally Brown to put a stop to divisions early on. The ‘boys’ doing secret handshakes and excluding Ian, silly things, but the start of a not all for one crew.
The start came all to quickly and what an event that was, around 100 cyclists, plus supporters cycling 13 miles in the neutral zone, I had the honour of doing it. Then they started the teams, 202 our number was first off and I went hard, but tried not to go to hard. With each pair, then four then eight, start a minute behind. By our first changeover I’d only been caught by a few. We then climbed for around 40 miles, until Stacey did was was called the ‘Glasses Elevator’ which drops into the desert. Tempratures go from around 85F to 110F as you go down, but even in the car we couldn’t catch ‘Speedy Gone Stacey’. After that I took over for my first 4 hour shift of the race.
Tail winds in the desert meant I was doing 28 mph and still being passed by a few riders. Near the end of the first 4 hour stretch I was sick and should have realised there that 4 hours was to long to sit out there at the heart rates we where trying to maintain. However I let it go, until halfway through the race when on one quite easy section, I fell apart in the fourth hour. Couldn’t cycle to save my life.
I then started changing Stacey & My shifts around to 3 hours on 3hours off x 2. Somewhere in the explanation, Paul believed we had agreed 3 hours on/off then 2 hours on/off, which would have meant we where doing a 3 hour shift in the middle of the days heat (around 90F). When I woke up that night to Sally telling me I was about a two hour shift. I said ‘No it is a 3 hour shift’, she said that will upset the crew rota. Then I made a statement, which was taken to mean one thing, but actually mean something else. I said, ‘I don’t care what the crew do’, meaning they can work their rotas how they want, they don’t need to match the riders, which I had also said to Paul the day before.
Sally as crew chief who was supposed to be the liason between the riders and the crew, to keep the crew motivated for the riders, then sent a text, which I hope she regrets in hindsight, to her boyfriend in the pace car, ‘Brian says he doesn’t care about the crew!! Yes he said it just like that.’ In my next shift Paul and Rik, not only didn’t offer me a drink, but allowed me to go off course, up a motorway before sounding the horn. From then on relations between the crew and riders where strained.
I woke up only Sally’s RV shift to find no food, no drink and no tablets. When I dared to question this, I was told she was doing her best. And probably she was!
Anyway even with these little traumas, Stacey and I cracked on, reached the 1000 mile mark, 9 hours up, the 2000 mile mark 12 hours up. Then we hit the Appelations, from there our time stats just dropped. Mile after mile of climbing, there must have been some great descents, you where just to tired to attack them after the 3, 4 and 5 mile climbs.
Getting to Oceanside as only the 2nd mixed pair to break the 9 day barrier in 27 years was very special, hand in hand with Stacey, although with my bike skills I was sort of waiting to fall off. Being interviewed after just finishing by Danny Chew, three times winner of solo RAAM was amazing.
What would I change, probably not much. Appointing Sally as crew chief and her young boyfriend also being on the crew was probably a problem, as it split her loyalties, or maybe I just misjudged her strength as a leader. So really it is my fault. The team worked really, really hard, even when they got it wrong, they did it for the right reasons, 99% of the time they got it right. I would make sure that everyone knew how to use the route book properly and to trust it (mostly). Phone coverage, we where sold a ‘pup’ with AT&T, whose coverage claims where a lie.
Little things become big problems when you are working 24/9 and we lost sight of the rule that if you had a problem with someone, you spoke to them, not to the other 7 people in the team, easy to say when your rested. Main bonus was Adrian’s massage, which kept Stacey and I able to function through the whole 8 days 17 hours. I was never really one for in race massage, however come 2009 a massage therapist will be first on my list, well after the crew chief, who I already have.
More about that in the next post
Brian
