RACE ACROSS AMERICA 2016: TEAM SRINI

 RACE ACROSS AMERICA (RAAM 2016)

 SRINIVAS G,

CONTENTS

1. BRIEF ABOUT SELF

2. ABOUT RACE ACROSS AMERICA

3. PRE-RACE PREPARATION

4. RACE ACROSS AMERICA 2016 (14 JUL- 25 JUL 2016)

5. LEARNING POINTS

6. ROAD AHEAD- RAAM 2017

7. SUPPORT FOR RAAM 2017

BRIEF ABOUT SELF

1.         Srinivas G is an endurance cyclist since 2009 and has participated in numerous cycling events. He has participated in Race Across America 2016 and has cycled 2450 miles in 11 days. He is currently a record holder for cycling 4000 km (Leh to Kanyakumari) in 15 days and 22 hrs in ‘LIMCA BOOK OF RECORDS’. This was an improvement of nearly 2 days and 05 hours from the last known attempt. He has undertaken several cycling expeditions in the recent past. He has qualified twice in RAAM qualification races in India. He finished third in the Deccan cliffhanger cycling event which was held in Pune on 29 Nov 2014 and has qualified for Race Across America (RAAM), which is the largest ultra-cycling event covering a distance of 5000 KM from west to  east coast of America.

ABOUT THE RACE ACROSS AMERICA (RAAM)

The Race Across America, known as the “world’s toughest bicycle race”, will set over 250 competitors on a 3,000-mile route stretching from Oceanside, California to Annapolis, Maryland.  Solo racers need to finish in 12 days or 288 hours for official completion of the race. Athletes race continuously day and night, on their own power and a crew of 8 -15 people following in support vehicles with food and supplies for the race.  These courageous adventurers brave heat, wind, thunderstorms, altitude, the dark of night, fatigue and sleep deprivation, cross several major mountain ranges and raise hundreds of thousands of dollars for charity.

The toughest endurance event in the world, RAAM offers long-distance cyclists the opportunity to challenge themselves to the height of their abilities.  Just over 300 solo cyclists have completed RAAM since its first edition in 1982.  Solo winners complete the course in approximately 12 days and winning teams complete the journey in 9 days. These modern day heroes brave the desert, plains and mountain weather, lead a crew in a mini-organization of support, and raise thousands of dollars for charities around the world.  

“RAAM unites people of all backgrounds, nationalities and cycling histories in an adventure that challenges them to the core of everything they are,” says Fred Boethling, Race Director, the oldest man to successfully race RAAM Solo across the country.  “It’s man against the elements, the road, and ultimately, him or herself.” For more information and race updates, see http://www.raceacrossamerica.org

PRE-RACE PREPARATION

What next? That is what I was thinking after a national record for cycling Leh  to kanyakumari in Sep 2014 in 15 days. It all started in Oct 2014, when I was in Pune doing my MOJCC 179 and I had decided to participate in “The Deccan Cliffhanger” 2^nd edition, one of the qualification race for Race Across America. I finished third and qualified for Race across America and this qualification is valid for 2015 and 2016. I went back to my unit in valley and did share my dream to participate in RAAM. I was sent to the Directorates Office in the early Feb 2015, he was happy to know about the achievements and was eager to help me in my RAAM dream. As always said “Circumstances are stronger than men”, I was moved out from valley in July 2015 and reported to the busiest place, the Arty centre, Nasik. I managed to utilize my time right from day one at the centre with one intention to be the first Indian to finish RAAM successfully.

It was very demanding to manage many commitments at the centre but my focus on my objective was very clear.  I was almost riding 300 km a week in Dec and then 500 km a week till March and then around 600 km a week in April and taper in May

I trained almost 10,000 km for the race and was mentally preparing to meet the race challenges.

The race needs a dedicated support crew and the crew needs to be equally motivated and experienced. The crew composed of my wife Prafulla and four cyclist friends from India and an ambulance assistant Sep Dhanasekaran who was the physiotherapist on board. Getting them all together was a tough task in its own.

Financial ordeal: The race is very expensive, and it is way too expensive for a foreigner like me. Luckily my crew members, my savings, my friends and a bit of crowd funding helped me sail through the storm. But it is not as easy as said than done. The major expenditures are registration for the race, hotels, support vehicles and Air tickets.

The challenges till the time race started were many and belief in oneself was the biggest strength

RAAM 2016 (ACTION PACK) 14 July 2016 to 25 July 2016

For RAAM 2016 arrived in USA on 29 May 2016 with two crew members stayed at friend’s house (kishore) in Mountain View till 07 Jun2106 then moved to Anaheim, stayed at Air bnb for 24 hours and then to Temecula and the entire team reached Temecula stayed at Air bnb house till the start of the race.

12 Jun 16: Attended pre-race inspections and crew chief meeting. There are 52 time stations in the race route. Each time station needs to be reported when a rider crosses time station. There is a GPS tracker with each rider and that tracks the rider all throughout. We rented two support vehicles for the race.

13 Jun: Rider meeting,

My crew: Niranjan Upasani, Venkatesha Shivarama, Prafulla Srinivas, Kishore Gopalakrishna, Dhanasekaran S, Shreyash Gowda and Gyanendra Sharma.

14 Jun: 1310 h I was flagged off, the unsupported race route was easy to navigate no issue then till 23 miles later could get in touch with support crew. From there onwards I see so many solo riders blazing past me till Lake Henshaw, was feeling that I am slower than them, did not push because I felt I need to conserve it for the later days to come. Reached the summit of the glass elevator and started to descent, I was very careful about the descent and was under control but the cross winds was making life really diffiuclt, would come down to a standstill at some places on the descent, found Ricardo Arap and by passed him there. At Christmas circle met the other crew members and was moving on, did not stop at that stage. Reached Brawley at 2300 h local time, kept cycling

15 Jun: Reached Blythe early morning 0600h local time, Blythe to Parker in 06 hours, don’t remember what else happened, Parker to Salome was a tough ask, the heat was catching up and was getting weaker on the bike reached congress in the night

16 Jun: Reached Prescott in the morning and from there onwards reaching camp verde was a challenge, reached in the afternoon and from there that long stretch took a very long time, was feeling very sleepy in the night

17 Jun: Dragged myself after fighting for sleep to Flagstaff, by then I was done I was a broke, I said to myself that I have not trained well for RAAM and succumbed to the mental calculations in my mind which was telling me you can’t make it to Durango by 81 hours, I told my crew about it, they put me to sleep for 1 ½ hour and when I woke up I had given up. Prafulla and Kishore told me to get on the bike and ride to the next time station that is Tuba city. I was riding very weakly to Tuba city. At Tuba city my whole crew was kind of given up on me except Prafulla and Venky. We went to Mc Donalds and lazed out there and at around 1530 local time decided let’s go to next time station but after a lot of hesitation. At this stage I gave up on RAAM dream. Lost focus completely on the race. Now I feel the crew had totally given up on the race. But Venky pushed me to reach kayenta by 1010 local time, so I literally was riding strong with unnecessary stops uncalled for, till this stage no one knew that Durango is a Soft Cut off. All were riding only to make it to Kayenta.     I reached Kayenta and was feeling so strong that I told my crew, ask for permission to ride further. At this point the team realized that it is a soft cut off and we were all happy to know that we are still alive in the race. With a Shower break, left Kayenta with lot of energy

18 Jun: Mexican hat and Montezumma creek was good but from there the motivation was succumbing to sleep deprivation and exhaustion, the ride to cortez was one hell of a ride as I started feeling breathless and was struggling to breath, that was a shocker to me, I felt that there is an hypersensitive reaction in my airways to the pollens around, did not tell my crew but as I was nearing cortez I started to wheeze and then my whole respiratory tract was choked, I manually tried to cough heavily and bring out the massive mucus plugs, it was yellow green and stained with blood, I was bringing out lot of sputum from then onwards. I happened to meet Alberto there at Cortez and was amazed at the concern he had for me. At cortez, stopped for a loo break and was ready for Durango. After 5 miles I told my crew that I want to relax for some time along the road, at that moment I could not sleep but did get massage from my crew. I started antibiotic in that stretch and was back on the bike. It was very hard to be on the bike reached Durango in the evening. Stopped at Durango for one hour. Ricardo Arap overtook me there and I was trying to keep him in sight

19 Jun: Reached Pagosa Springs and then was all charged up for Wolf creek pass, my chain broke at this juncture, had to change my bike to one I have never ever used but I was fortunate to scale wolf creek with decent timing, the descent from there onwards was a struggle. Don’t know why I was so slower and reached south fork in the morning, took a hour break there and was given deadline to ride faster. After which I was speeding like hell to Alamosa and then to La veta and finally to Trinidad

20 Jun: Reached Trinidad, slept for an hour here, was riding ok till walsh, walsh to Ulysses was a challenge with cross winds, life was tough for me,

From here I will put whatever I remember because I am not able to recall events , did an awesome el dorado, took a shower and after yates and ft scott, suffered hallucinations to the highest level for 6 hours and then slept after reaching ft scott. I  was hit with the strong roller coasters  to weaubleau really rode very strong here, at this stage we were out of the time that we were given for Mississippi and did ask for another soft cut off here and we were granted then. Again excited to be back on the bike made it to Jefferson city, slept for a while there and then to Washington and then was fighting my way out to Mississippi, really boring landscapes which remain monotonous

25 Jun: At Mississippi I felt like a hero, rested for one hour again, and back on bike, reached Bloomington took a shower and started calculating the remaining distances, and I started to lose hope and I felt that I am fighting a lost battle. Dragged to Greensburg, where Kishore quit the ride and I dragged myself to Ohio. At Oxford Ohio, my desire to race was subdued and had no hope left and gave up there. I cycled 2460 miles in 11 days.

                                       ABOUT MY CREW

Niranjan upasani: Knew him since Oct 2015, awesome driver and navigator, managed the auxillary vehicle very well. He was the crew chief too. https://www.facebook.com/niranjan.upasani

Kishore Gopalakrishna: My school friend, very meticulate in planning and strategy, he was full of commitment, managed to crew even after a busy schedule. He was a major platform for the team logistics. He was mentally very agile. He performed the role of a driver, caretaker, race strategist and so on...., he was all crew members put in ONE, AN ALL ROUNDER. https://www.facebook.com/kishoreg?fref=ts

Prafulla Srinivas: WOW!, was surprised when she voulnteered to crew. She did a major sacrifice of letting our toddler son back in India. She did surprise me the way she handled the crew fatigue and kept the riders morale very high. She was the cook and the medic. https://www.facebook.com/prafulla.srinivas.7?fref=ts

Shreyash Gowda:  He did perform driving, navigation and care taking very smartly. He was geeky and smart.https://www.facebook.com/shreyas.chaiyya?fref=ts

Gyanendra Sharma: Young and Positive, Absolutely phenomenal Navigation skills, he performed all roles except driving. https://www.facebook.com/gyanendra.sharma.5?fref=ts

Dhanasekaran S: Amazing physiotherapist, he managed all logistics, hard worker, and very positive individual. Performed all roles efficiently. https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100012708348835

Venky: Super cook, Race strategist, Driver and he made sure that bikes are in good condition all through out the race. https://www.facebook.com/venkatesh.shivarama?fref=ts

LEARNING POINTS

Race across America is a brutal and merciless race

Every second counts

Focus on training, rider should get rid of administrative hassles 6 months before the race starts

Support crew should be carefully chosen and trained

“Off the saddle” time to be utilized only for wash room and sleep during racing, a small stop for 2 min equates to a loss of 40 min.

Sleep is the ultimate tool to finish RAAM successfully

Be strong on the bike, think positive, and don’t let doubts creep about your own self

Hydrate and feed for keeping the energy levels at an Optimum level and it should never be a reason to get off the bike.

Be prepared anything can happen during RAAM, Expect the Unexpected!

Adapt, Innovate and Keep moving!

RAAM, a way of Life

TS #	TS NAME	Miles Raced	Miles To Finish	Arrival DT	TS TM D:H:M	Avg Spd	Avg This TS
41	Oxford, OH	2447.8	621.45	06/25/2016 13:10	10:21:0	9.38	3.8
40	Greensburg, IN	2398.02	671.23	06/25/2016 0:05	10:7:55	9.67	8.57
39	Bloomington, IN	2335.16	734.09	06/24/2016 16:45	10:0:35	9.71	8.89
38	Sullivan, IN	2267.77	801.48	06/24/2016 9:10	9:17:0	9.73	8.48
37	Effingham, IL	2194.99	874.26	06/24/2016 0:35	9:8:25	9.78	10.95
36	Greenville, IL	2145.73	923.52	06/23/2016 20:05	9:3:55	9.76	9.37
35	Mississippi River,	2099.68	969.57	06/23/2016 15:10	8:23:0	9.77	11.91
34	Washington, MO	2027.23	1042.02	06/23/2016 9:05	8:16:55	9.7	8.9
33	Jefferson City, MO	1950.06	1119.19	06/23/2016 0:25	8:8:15	9.74	12.85
32	Camdenton, MO	1893.32	1175.93	06/22/2016 20:00	8:3:50	9.67	9.82
31	Weaubleau, MO	1844.21	1225.04	06/22/2016 15:00	7:22:50	9.66	12.63
30	Ft Scott, KS	1778.76	1290.49	06/22/2016 9:49	7:17:39	9.58	12.46
29	Yates Center, KS	1718.75	1350.5	06/22/2016 5:00	7:12:50	9.5	8.48
28	El Dorado, KS	1654.13	1415.12	06/21/2016 21:23	7:5:13	9.55	13.78
27	Maize, KS	1620.14	1449.11	06/21/2016 18:55	7:2:45	9.49	9.82
26	Pratt, KS	1543.21	1526.04	06/21/2016 11:05	6:18:55	9.47	7.14
25	Greensburg, KS	1511.1	1558.15	06/21/2016 6:35	6:14:25	9.54	10.72
24	Montezuma, KS	1444.98	1624.27	06/21/2016 0:25	6:8:15	9.49	12.81
23	Ulysses, KS	1394.82	1674.43	06/20/2016 20:30	6:4:20	9.4	10.35
22	Walsh, CO	1340.66	1728.59	06/20/2016 15:16	5:23:6	9.37	11.92
21	Kim, CO	1272.31	1796.94	06/20/2016 9:32	5:17:22	9.26	11.82
20	Trinidad, CO	1201	1868.25	06/20/2016 3:30	5:11:20	9.14	8.82
19	La Veta, CO	1135.59	1933.66	06/19/2016 20:05	5:3:55	9.16	12.06
18	Alamosa, CO	1077.28	1991.97	06/19/2016 15:15	4:23:5	9.05	9.02
17	South Fork, CO	1030.69	2038.56	06/19/2016 10:05	4:17:55	9.05	6.94
16	Pagosa Springs, CO	982.72	2086.53	06/19/2016 3:10	4:11:0	9.18	8.07
15	Durango, CO	928.41	2140.84	06/18/2016 20:26	4:4:16	9.26	7.55
14	Cortez, CO	884.23	2185.02	06/18/2016 14:35	3:22:25	9.37	9.13
13	Montezuma Creek, UT	834.01	2235.24	06/18/2016 9:05	3:16:55	9.38	10.8
12	Mexican Hat, UT	794.42	2274.83	06/18/2016 5:25	3:13:15	9.32	10.16
11	Kayenta, AZ	749.71	2319.54	06/18/2016 1:01	3:8:51	9.27	9.25
10	Tuba City, AZ	677.88	2391.37	06/17/2016 17:15	3:1:5	9.28	7.9
9	Flagstaff, AZ	602.87	2466.38	06/17/2016 7:45	2:15:35	9.48	6.74
8	Camp Verde, AZ	500.01	2569.24	06/16/2016 16:29	2:0:19	10.35	6.55
7	Prescott, AZ	445.54	2623.71	06/16/2016 8:10	1:16:0	11.14	8.05
6	Congress, AZ	395.09	2674.16	06/16/2016 1:54	1:9:44	11.71	10.46
5	Salome, AZ	342.46	2726.79	06/15/2016 20:52	1:4:42	11.93	8.87
4	Parker, AZ	286.42	2782.83	06/15/2016 14:33	0:22:23	12.8	11.05
3	Blythe, CA	235.06	2834.19	06/15/2016 9:54	0:17:44	13.26	11.57
2	Brawley, CA	145.39	2923.86	06/15/2016 2:09	0:9:59	14.56	15.46
1	Lake Henshaw, CA	57	3012.25	06/14/2016 20:26	0:4:16	13.36	13.36
0	Oceanside, CA	0	3069.25	06/14/2016 16:10	0:0:0	0	0

MY RAAM RESULT PAGE

THANKS GIVING
Prafulla Srinivas
Nunnu
My In laws
other family members
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Dhansekaran S
Centre MI room, Arty centre, Nasik
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