We caught team All Wheels 4 Fibromyalgia as Gernot Wolfram pushed the pace, hammering the flats of Kansas and passing RAAM soloist Valerio Zamboni. Wolfram and team were in high spirits and made a rider exchange shortly after passing Zamboni and exchanging greetings. In our rolling interview, Zamboni told us that he'd been having stomach problems earlier, but had since recovered, was feeling good, and hoped to cover about 350 miles today on the flats of Kansas. We are once again looking at the tail end of the weather system that has brought torrential rains to the solo riders over the last three days.
We should cover a little more ground than Zamboni today as we catch up and get the stories and photos from the race that's heating up today. Eric Dufour told us about a little knee trouble that has plagued him over the last couple of days. He was still positive and told us he would soldier on and finish the race.
We happened upon a very interesting scene in Mullinville, KS. A local farmer, sculptor, political satirist has lined his property with this artwork depicting various political figures, historical events, or just random statements. It was truly astounding to think about the man-hours that went into this display. We also happened upon another professional photographer taking some photos with an old full-format camera. He was not very nice, ignoring me and only grunting in response to Brenden's queries. Oh well, the teams on the roads are a lot more fun to hang out with.
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We next caught up with Team Bandwidth.com, Inc. in Kansas where David Morken was laying the smack down on the road, riding a really sharp looking Cervelo P4 with Zipp carbon fiber wheels, resplendent in the powder blue kit. This is a really professional looking team with a delivery-type van, Provost RV, professional drivers, and a sharp crew. We later caught up to the team at TS26 (the half-way point for the 2010 RAAM) and toured their Provost rolling HQ. Really swanky digs!
We also stopped for a quick detour through Starvin' Marvin's BBQ and enjoyed the RAAM discount on some great BBQ. We all piled back in and headed off in search of Team Bandwidth.com. We stopped to get a roadside shot of David Morken hammering it. However, I got back to the car and couldn't figure out why the picture came out soft looking. I had inadvertently hit the stabilizer off button on the lens. Good news is that I was confident we'd see them again. The weather in Kansas was great, with temps in the low 80s, reasonable humidity, and tons of puffy clouds that make for great backgrounds.
Rick Carpenter of Team AFU-Rex Racing (currently lying second in the solo male 50-59 category) was next down the road, having been overtaken by a storming Bandwidth team. He had fashioned what he'd termed a "neck bra" to hold his head up. He told us as he stopped for a stop light that his kneck had been bothering him a little since the dust storm in Alamosa, and the brace was more a preventive measure.
We rejoined Team Bandwidth.com as Sean Matt was wrapping up his shift. He was enjoying the sunny day in Kansas and was happy with the team's progress as they lead the 4-person team competition by two time stations at this point. He was quick to point out that this is a long race and there's plenty of road ahead. We raced ahead to catch David Morken starting his next shift and looking really powerful and focused although he did give us a wave and a smile. The fact that Morken was back on the bike just a couple hours after we last saw him illustrates the team is keeping turns at the front short and fast. A crew member told me they are usually changing every 12.5 miles, although they were taking one-mile turns on Wolf Creek Pass and going flat out.
We reached the closest we'll come to my home town of Austin, TX today when the route crossed over I-35. Tempting to just hop out and grab a Greyhound home, but from what I've heard about Greyhound, I'd probably get there about the same time as I would heading to Annapolis and flying back...
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