About The Race Across America
The Race Across America takes off from Oceanside, CA next June 2007. The Solo race starts on Sunday June 10, 2007 at 9:00 AM; the Teams start their race on Tuesday June 12, 2007 at 1:00 PM. The main categories include Solo racers and Teams racing from coast to coast while the 24HR Corporate Challenge category ends in Flagstaff AZ.
You can follow all the action right here on this website. We'll be posting the latest news from the road complete with crew reports and pictures. The links on the left side will help you track the progress of all the riders at any time, 24/7.
RAAM: The World's Toughest Bicycle Race
Created in 1982, the Race Across America (RAAM) is now the longest running ultra-distance bicycle endurance competition in the world. This is not a stage race like the Tour de France, where each day a set distance is covered. In RAAM the gun fires in Oceanside, CA and the finishing line is over 3000 miles away, on the other side of the continent.
The Race Across America is about generating maximum wattage paced over day and night riding, delicately balanced with managing pain, sleep and nutrition. Overcoming fatigue and correct nutritional intake can be the defining features of the competition in RAAM, and these are what makes the event so unusually difficult. Athletes push body and sinew to points far beyond anything they thought themselves capable of--and emerge from the race with a newfound sense of their own capability.
Some RAAM Trivia
- Riders consume 6,000-8,000 calories of food per day
- They take in 400-520 ounces of fluid daily (3.1 - 4 gallons)
- Riders descend to 170 feet below sea level in Mecca, CA and climb to 10,550 feet above sea level at Wolf Creek Pass in central CO. This elevation range exceeds two vertical miles.
- Total climbing distance is 108,600 feet, which is roughly the distance from the ground to the edge of space, three times the altitude flown by commercial jetliners and almost four times the altitude of Mt Everest.
- Speaking of Mt. Everest, Austrian adventurer Wolfgang Fasching has won solo RAAM and climbed Mt. Everest, "Everest is more dangerous, but RAAM is much harder," said Fasching.
Find out more about RAAM at their website.
