Seana Hogan was riding her 6th RAAM in six years. The first four times Seana was the first-place woman, bettering her finish time each year, so that she is now the women's record holder with a time of 9d04h02m, set in 1995. Last year, Seana was not able to finish, having to withdraw due to medical problems. Seana's goal is not only to beat the women, but also to beat the men. There is a $25,000 prize for the first woman that can do this.
Twenty solo riders started the race, including 17 men and 3 women. Only ten of them were going to be able to finish.
This year, Seana led the entire field for most of the first 1200 miles, then stayed within an hour of the leaders for the next 600 miles. Could this be her year? Then Wolfgang started what was to be a 1200 mile charge to the finish. Second and third place finishers, Danny Chew and Rob Kish, tried to keep close, but it was not to be. At the end of the race Wolfgang said that he had only 11 hours of sleep for the entire race.
Seana finished in 4th place overall, 12 hours behind Kish and 10 hours ahead of Muffy Ritz, who finished 5th. Seana's time was 10d01h35m. Both Seana's and Muffy's average speeds for this year's RAAM were fast enough to place inside the top-10 for all RAAMs. Seana now holds 4 of the top 10 spots, while Muffy holds 3.
Total Total Ave Ave Official
Rider TS# Day Time hrs. Mi Mi/Day MPH Place Time
Wolfgang Fasching63 8/02/97 5:07 PM 220.83 3042. 331 13.8 1 9d04h50m
Danny Chew 63 8/02/97 11:47 PM 227.50 3042. 321 13.4 2 9d11h30m
Rob Kish 63 8/03/97 1:40 AM 229.38 3042. 318 13.3 3 9d13h13m
Seana Hogan 63 8/03/97 1:52 PM 241.58 3042. 302 12.6 4 10d01h35m
Muffy Ritz 63 8/03/97 11:53 PM 251.60 3042. 290 12.1 5 10d11h36m
Peter Pop 63 8/04/97 1:43 AM 253.43 3042. 288 12.0 6 10d13h26m
Kaname Sakurai 63 8/04/97 5:21 AM 257.07 3042. 284 11.8 7 10d17h04m
Michael Wilson 63 8/04/97 9:54 AM 261.62 3042. 279 11.6 8 10d21h37m
Beat Gfeller 63 8/04/97 1:45 PM 265.47 3042. 275 11.5 9 11d01h45m
William Brown 63 8/05/97 8:11 AM 308.18 3042. 237 9.9 10 12d20h11m
Ed Kross 57 8/04/97 3:13 PM 266.93 2895. 260 10.8 DNF
Mikael Henriksson44 8/03/97 1:40 AM 229.38 2343. 245 10.2 DNF
Fabio Biasiolo 41 8/02/97 12:20 AM 204.05 2214. 261 10.9 DNF
Tom Davies Jr. 36 7/31/97 3:15 PM 171.25 1992. 279 11.6 DNF
Rob Morlock 35 7/31/97 11:26 PM 179.43 1939. 259 10.8 DNF
Giovanni Zilioli 26 7/31/97 6:32 AM 162.53 1432. 212 8.8 DNF
Lambiase Emilio 23 7/30/97 1:35 PM 145.58 1304. 215 9.0 DNF
Hans-Juergen 22 7/29/97 2:38 PM 122.63 1260. 247 10.3 DNF
Kathy Simko 11 7/27/97 2:42 AM 62.70 618. 237 9.9 DNF
Roy Sturm 9 7/26/97 1:25 PM 49.42 471. 229 9.5 DNF
Solo riders started on Thursday 7/24 12:00 noon (EST)
Return
Total Total Ave Ave Official
Rider TS# Day Time hrs. Mi Mi/Day MPH Time
Team Kern Wheelmen 63 8/2/97 10:34 AM 142.17 3042. 514 21.4 1 5d22h10m
Team PacificCare 63 8/2/97 1:40 PM 145.27 3042. 503 20.9 2 6d01h16m
Team Brazil/CocaCola 63 8/2/97 7:03 PM 151.05 3042. 483 20.1 3 6d06h39m
Team Canada 63 8/2/97 9:09 PM 152.75 3042. 478 19.9 4 6d08h29m
Team Lightning Velo 63 8/3/97 12:56 AM 156.53 3042. 466 19.4 5 6d12h32m
Team GSVSt/AMS 63 8/3/97 4:27 AM 160.05 3042. 456 19.0 6 6d14h03m
Team 2 Mixed Up 63 8/3/97 9:37 AM 165.22 3042. 442 18.4 7 6d21h13m
Team Irish Heritage 63 8/4/97 1:03 AM 180.65 3042. 404 16.8 8 7d12h39m
Team Judy Flannery 63 8/4/97 10:21 AM 189.95 3042. 384 16.0 9 7d21h57m
Team Dagger-Primal 63 8/3/97 6:04 AM 233.78 3042. 312 13.0 10 9d17h47m
Teams started on Sunday 7/27 12:00 noon (EST)
Return
The mountains are now past us and it was exciting as always. The climb up Wolf Creek Pass is for the crew like having 50 yard line seats in the Super Bowl. Worth the price of 9 days of almost no sleep.
The leaders are now on the flats in Texas. They are all still very close together and it is difficult as always trying to find out who is the leader. Person A may be physically ahead. But how many penalties does he have? More importantly - how much has he slept? 1 1/2 hours sleep to gain position now may cost the race later - or it may win the race now. All of the top men riders have had to cut their sleep cycles to a minimum to close the gap to Seana (Sorry can't comment on what Seana's been doing.) Danny Chew was well ahead, but looked sluggish on the flats and was sitting up on the bars. Rob Kish is moving to the front steadily as one would normally expect. This is, as I said, classic Kish riding style that we're seeing. Wolfgang Fasching continues to be in good spirits and rides with a smooth cadence. But when will the sleep deficit catch up with him?
Who is the fastest distance rider has already been proven. Seana's performance through the mountians will now be a part of RAAM history. Now we have to see how lack of sleep plays on the riders abilities over the next few days.
Weather has been mixed. Very cool for the most part. Rains were very heavy and dangerous in the mountian passes. Looks like we'll be moving into hotter weather in the midwest.
Next days will be very tactical as the first days were about speed and strength.
-Aaron Rumple
The riders are the center of attention in RAAM, but crewing RAAM is its own unique experience and competition. Which team can get their rider to Savannah first? It's well known that the crew can't win the race for you, but they can certainly lose it for you. If you think you can crew RAAM and get a shower and 7 hours sleep a day - forget it. You might have to do double shifts. Stand in the rain for hours, waiting. Sleep in a van with 4 other people. Dinner might be Cup-o-noodles, day-in and day-out. In fact, yesterday, I had to forgo the water during a quick unplanned crew change.
Crewing RAAM requires a unique personality. You have to be the ulitmate altruistic personality. All that matters is the rider and their bike. Everything else is expendable and can be sacrificed in the blink of an eye.
There are various positions on the crew. Each requires special skills. Myself - I'm an RV Wrangler. Quatermaster. If you will, a support crew for the crew. I don't like sitting in the driver's seat for endless hours behind the rider, doing 15 to 20 mph. I like to move up and down the course, leapfrogging riders. Collecting splits. Calling in information and finding equipment and material. It's great because I get to see a good cross section of the race. Hang out at a few time stations. Talk to the other crews and officials.
We have a few hours off duty. It took up several hours to drive up the course ater staying up all night (I like the night crewing). Two of the crew are asleep. I'm gathering info and stats. Two are out to the stores shopping for the next days supplies. We'll all "wake up" at around 5pm to track down our day-team and do the crew switch and start all over again.
There really should be a crew award for some of the sacrifices that the crew makes for their riders, but those front row seats on Wolf Creek Pass are enough.
Whether you're a crew member or a rider - one thing is common - we all love this race.
(Yes all typos are clearly due to lack of sleep....)
(and there were many ... but I tried to remove the
ones that I could find - Don)
Name Year Time Miles Speed 1. Seana Hogan 1995 09:04:02 2911 13.21 2. Muffy Ritz 1995 09:06:32 2911 13.08 3. Susan Notorangelo 1989 09:09:09 2911 12.93 4. Seana Hogan 1994 09:08:54 2905 12.91 5. Elaine Mariolle 1986 10:02:04 3107 12.84 6. Seana Hogan 1997 10:01:35 3042 12.60 7. Seana Hogan 1993 09:15:30 2915 12.59 8. Muffy Ritz 1993 09:16:19 2915 12.54 9. Susan Notorangelo 1985 10:14:25 3120 12.26 10.Muffy Ritz 1997 10:11:36 3042 12.08