After a very fun and rewarding day of riding through Colorado, my thoughts turned to Kansas. The plan called for pulls of 30 mph or more through the flat sea-level state.  We would be going slightly downhill across the state and with an amazing prevailing tailwind.  It would be through the night, but on a very straight and little travelled road. I had a decent little nap as we rode on the bus across the plains of CO and into Kansas.  Compared to the previous hilly bus-rides, this was luxury. I was also buoyed by having seen Paige and Lara.  Their presence gave me a little more motivation and drive.

I awoke at a Kansas gas station and noted seeing the first solo rider and crew. He looked like shit and it was just Kansas.  I am a little sadistic in that when racing I feed positively off other people’s negative energies.  It just made me feel tougher and stronger. Yeah, I know he was not in my race, but I envisioned myself even as a solo rider, tougher than this soul who was struggling to just stay in the race.

The next thing I noted was the strong wind, but then I noted that the sun was in the wrong place. We were looking at a nasty cross wind out of the SOUTH!  I would later be told by ABConFire that this was a product of stationary highs over the Rockies and a stationary low over the Midwest. The wind was just howling and Alpha team was way behind our previous goals. It was disheartening and then scary, as I knew that I was set-up to ride my TT bike with disc and light-weight front wheel with a cross to quartering wind. Kyle stepped up with veteran expertise and started changing to a lower profile front wheel. My front wheel on my road bike was 40mm (vs 80mm) and slightly heavier than the carbon clincher on the P3 and I made the change, as well. I had my evening coffee, ate some grub, and prepared myself mentally to take the first pull. I was nervous as shit, but excited to get to lead us off into the night.

Let's go again!

I am not sure if the support crew was being nice, but when I took off, they gave me some guidance and then complemented my ability to ride straighter than the previous team’s riders.  They could have been full of shit with their complements, it did not matter, but it helped my confidence in some of the sickest cross winds I have ever encountered.  I had purposefully ridden my disc in Colorado on the windy days to prepare myself for this situation, but I still felt under-prepared. Looking back, I held some great wattage for those pulls and for most of them I never looked at my bike computer because I could not.

In this shift I really learned to rely on our team’s support crew. On my second pull, I re-learned to watch the flow of the grass to prepare for the winds. I leaned into the wind and even more importantly rode my bike like a kite. I allowed my bike to get pushed when the winds came across my right side. I had a great follow crew “closing the door” behind me, preventing any vehicles from coming up behind when the winds carried me across the road. It was night and I had little reference points for how bad the wind was. I just watched the grass and kept my grip light in my hands so not to jerk my handle-bars. Back to the amazing crew- after my second pull not getting to see anything on my computer, I decided Amanda would need to talk with through each pull. She was great telling me my speed and pushing me to get my speeds up. You can see the results, as the third pull became my push to stay above 25 mph then driving to keep up to 26 or 27 and finally 28. The comfort of knowing the driver literally had my back and the constant flow of information through the radio helped as we descended through a dark hole on the Kansas plans lit only by the van. I would be remiss to not acknowledge that Bravo team really came back together in those first couple hours. My teammates bonded over our common enemy of the wind and sucked up the return to sea-level air. ABConfire gave us some great tips for riding our discs through the wind. He truly showed his cycling professionalism in his guidance.

View from the Crew (daylight!)

As the night ended, the hell did begin. As is every night, the mind wants to sleep and I wanted my body to ride. That was the second worst night of the race. Thankfully, I saw it coming as one of my teammates hit that hard point of fighting the biorhythm before me. Smartly, I asked for a shorter pull, knowing the only reason for me to be on the road was because my teammates needed rest time. I felt horrible for getting off early, especially when I had actually been enjoying some longer pulls. Then it happened- the sun came-up. Kyle smartly got the radio cranking, I probably drank an extra coke and I know I downed about four Gus and I began the journey back to greatness. Again, RAAM was the highest of highs and the lowest of lows.  Kansas was physically and mentally tough, navigating the wind. It is probably why that evening’s mental biorhythm was so hard to beat-back. And when I did beat it down, you can just see from the power numbers…I was crushing it. It is just thinking about those highs that get me pumped for this year’s RAAM.

Feeling good and passing it on to JimmyNeutron

At this point, we were losing the first place team, and personally, I was pissed in a couple ways. I know my teammates were doing their jobs and doing the best they could, but they looked a little down- especially a couple guys from Alpha team.  When I got off my bike, I was high as a kite and went and punched the biggest dude on Alpha team in the chest and shouted at him “300 watts, ALL NIGHT!!”  It worked pBro crushed it that next shift, and we started a little banter and verbal battle. It helped me and I think he had fun with our little wattage battle across the teams. It was a race and it was a way to stay competitive when not getting to see the enemy.

Shift 4 Pull Information

1. 7.0 mi/16:29/ 25.6 mph/ 290/292 watts

2. 3.8 mi/10:34/ 21.7 mph/ 310/318 watts

3. 5.0 mi/12:03/ 25.1 mph/ 289/290 watts

4. 5.0 mi/11:36/ 26.2 mph/ 298/299 watts

5. 5.2 mi/10:50/ 28.8 mph/ 300/300 watts

6. 5.6 mi/13:18/ 25.5 mph/ 279/280 watts (low point)

7. 4.1 mi/ 10:53/ 22.5 mph/ 285/286 watts (asked for a shorter pull)

8. 5.0 mi/11:22/ 26.5 mph/ 303/304 watts (coming out of the low!)

9. 5.1 mi/ 11:27/ 26.6 mph/ 316/316 watts

10. 5.1 mi/ 11:11/ 27.4 mph/298/298 watts

11. 5.2 mi/12:03/ 25.8 mph/ 312/312 watts

12. 4.1 mi/8:53/ 27.9 mpn/ 322/324 watts