Scorpio
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Race Across Oregon starts tomorrow morning (July 24th) at 5 am for solo racers. Our own Dennis Johnson (DDJ) will be taking off on his bid to complete this 535 mile, 40K feet of climbing race. We are racing as a fund raiser for the International Sarcoma Week (if you want more info go to my website www.TeamRavenLunatics.com). Thank you Dennis for supporting this cause.
Below is a write up Dennis did regarding this race. We hope to post text and pictures during the race to @bradleydr or you can go to the above website to see the twitter post. Here is Dennis' post:
RAO 2010 I will be racing solo at this year’s Race Across Oregon, July 24th and 25th. I wanted to post a little about my fantastic crew and, for those who might not be familiar with RAO, some background concerning the race as well. The Crew I couldn’t ask for a better crew. All are highly accomplished ultra racers and experienced crew members. David Bradley is one of the most experienced crew chiefs out there and he personally produces the route book for the race. David is joined by Bill Spaeth, the other half of Team Raven Lunatics. Their two-man team racing resume includes both the Furnace Creek 508 and RAO. The third member of the crew is Sharon Stevens. Sharon has extensive ultra racing experience, including placing first among all women at the 2009 Hill Country 600, and was crew chief for a two-man RAW team this year. Team Raven Lunatics Tweeting The Course The terrain is varied, beautiful, and often rugged. With the green forests of Mount Hood and Battle Mountain, the river gorges of the northern grasslands, the hot and arid high desert, and the painted rock canyons in the south, it’s as if the course traverses portions of a half dozen different western states. The route is incredibly remote and visually stunning, but what RAO riders focus on most is the road rising up in front of them. With approximately 45,000 vertical feet in 535 miles, this route is all about climbing. The first climb begins within a couple hundred yards of the starting line. 35 miles later the riders have climbed nearly 5,000 feet. This is the easiest of the major climbs. The course is almost never flat. In addition to large rollers, long shallow upgrades, and countless short climbs, there are 19 major climbs on the course. They are not particularly steep. Grades are typically six to seven percent and only rarely exceed nine. But they are long and unrelenting, usually climbing without interruption from beginning to summit. If I am able to stay on pace, I will spend nearly 19 hours grinding my way up these 19 climbs. The Race This is one of those races where just getting to the finish line is a significant achievement. In last year’s race, 22 soloists started. There were only ten official finishers and of those ten, four finished with less than one hour to spare before the 48 hour cut-off time. In its eleven year history, only three recumbent soloists have ever finished RAO. These include Bacchetta team members Jim Kern in 2005 and Michael Wolf in 2007. The third was Oregon racer Keith Kohan in 2009. Jim’s third place overall finish has become the stuff of legend. At that time the course finished with a __ mile climb to the ___ ski area on Mount Hood. Jim made that climb in a snow storm while coughing up blood. While there can be no comparison of my race and that of Jim Kern, I recently became aware of a couple of interesting connections between the two. Jim’s crew chief was also David Bradley, and his coach and a crew member was Kellie Moylan, who has been coaching me for the last 18 months. In addition, it was while crewing for Jim during his 2006 RAAM solo attempt that I first became interested in ultra racing. The solo fields are usually relatively small in number, but include many very strong riders. 2009 recumbent rider Keith Kohan will be back this year and will be joined by his son Alex. Keith finished fourth among all racers last year. In 2008 Alex became one of the youngest soloists to ever finish the Furnace Creek 508. The men’s solo DF field includes a 2009 RAAM solo finisher. The women’s DF solo field includes a professional rider who is a past member of the Canadian national team and is currently the reigning Israeli national time trial and road race champion. The weather is often a major factor. With the race now being held in July, the snow Jim Kern faced won’t be an issue, but temperature extremes will be. Daytime highs near or over 100 are likely, while pulling on the woolies is required for the nighttime descents. As the numerous wind farms on the northern part of the course attest, the wind here likes to blow. Last year, racers faced winds gusting over 50 mph during the afternoon of the second day. For the nearly two years I have been planning and training for this race, I have received a great deal of help from a whole lot of friends. You know who you are. I want to say a heartfelt thank you for helping me to get to tomorrow morning’s 5 AM start line. I wouldn’t be there without you.
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Javid (pronounced "David") Bradley
Ti Aero
"My Drinking Team Has A Racing Problem"
www.TeamRavenLunatics.com
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