"My purpose of posting this is not to put down the efforts of any riders. Every year riders come back from RAAM saying how tough the race was. Aside from 1982 when all 4 riders finished RAAM, 1998 has the lowest amount of DNF's. This in part could be because of the medal system. In the past a lot have dropped when they knew they were 48 hours off the back."
Also, the weather through the majority of California was good enough to ensure that most of the riders would make it out safely. It started getting worse and worse the further you got into the race. The pace was very fast at the beginning and we all tried to maintain it through such horrible conditions and most of us simply could not. For the most part, if you tried, you got hurt. Exceptions are guys like Rob Kish (of course). I rode ahead or with Rob for most of the first 1/3 of the race. However, when it was time for him to go, there was simply nothing I could do. I kept hoping that there would be more climbs that would perhaps allow me to take advantage of my strengths as a climber but after the climb to Cloudcroft, NM we had very little, with the exception of the millions of tough rollers that followed, until Tennessee. That's one reason why guys like him (and Gerry and Wolfgang, etc) are so good in RAAM. They are just so damn fast and can hold that pace longer than anyone. I did so much more speedwork this year, I knew I had developed my speed more completely than ever before, but I could not stay with those guys. It's kind of like trying to hit a baseball like Ken Griffey Jr (or your favorite major league ball player). You can practice hitting a baseball your whole life and you will still never be able to hit one like them. That's the reality that hit home to me this year. I trained more thoroughly and completely this year and came into RAAM in the best shape of my life. I rode the smartest and most efficient race of my life; I rarely got off the bike. Yet I could not stay with these top guys. Every RAAM I get closer and closer to bridging that gap but I don't want to spend the rest of my life seeing if it's ever going to happen; more than likely it won't.
Anyway, the general consensus among riders and race officials was that this was not the record course that was expected and, with the extreme temps that occured on a daily and nightly basis, this was perhaps the most difficult RAAM to date. I can say that it was the hardest for me, and I've done both the northern route (1988) and an even more southerly route (1991). This year was easily much harder than both of those combined.
My two cents!
Steve