Racing to make up time

After the crash, we met and regrouped and after deciding to continue we had lost approximately 15 hours off-bike in Taos. It was time to go after the comeback. We were down around 9th place and with three people, rode the next 16 hours with one person down. I started out solo for 40 miles riding over 3000 feet, then handed off to Mike who did another 30 or so miles before we began shorter rotations again. We had several of the fastest splits coming out of the mountains and into the windy flats (not all tail winds).

The Crash

On day 3, going into Taos NM, just 50 yards from passing 2nd place team, Christian came out from behind a hill into a huge wind gust at 35 mph and was blown into a double flip with a half twist landing on his head. He suffered a mild concussion and mean headache as well as full body road rash. We all considered ending then and there but quickly rallied to agree to get on the road again. Christian took a 24 hour break and was back out there, mean headache and all.

Early Desert Mountains

The first thousand miles had a wide range of temperatures with a significant amount of climbing. This is me climbing in the AZ mountains where the temperatures ranged from the 40's up to the 90's. This day (day 2) was a tough day as we got lost once losing a couple positions from a close 3rd to 5th place, then getting impacted with heat. At this point the race was still fairly close.

The Finish

Our Team Utah Neurosciences Research, after several challenges and missed turns, finished RAAM in fifth place in 6 days 21 hours. We successfully passed over ten teams including 4 in our division to move from 9th place to 5th, averaging over 18 mph (excluding the 15 hour layover in Taos, on-bike speed was close to 20 mph). Much of the time was made up in head winds and the West Virginia mountains.