A very exciting, yet brutal day in the RAAM today. After covering the RAW single-speed (fixie) winner in Durango, Media 2 set out to catch up with a number of riders who set out early. We saw very few initially, but the crowd quickly bunched up and the day would be the most exciting I've seen so far.
First on the menu: a thousand foot ascent into Pagosa Springs, CO. Main course: the climb up Wolf Creek Pass with a side of chilly descent into South Fork, CO.Dessert was a sweet dose of 41 mph SSW sustained winds with 50+ mph gusts, with a light dusting of Alamosa dirt, that saw many crews diving into the follow vehicles in search of surgical masks or bandanas to cover their rider's mouth and nose. The after-dinner run-in to La Veta, CO through thick fog and drizzle on the descent. Altogether the most punishing day we've witnessed in the RAAM so far and one in which the riders faced an almost complete range of weather extremes.
To start the day, many riders who had rested a little overnight in Durango after riding through some substantial rains on the ascent emerged from their RVs or hotel rooms. Julian Sanz of Spain headed out at daybreak to tackle the adventure, with the morning portending rain. The rain would stay away until the racers crested the La Veta Pass.
We caught up to Ferenc Szonyi at the base of the climb to Wolf Creek pass and he looked strong despite the high, thin air.
We stopped at a roadside waterfall to take in the scenery and catch a roadside shot of Szonyi. 
We also caught up with Julian Sanz, Tony O'Keefe, and Dr. Michael Nehls along with his enthusiastic and sizable support crew.We topped the climb and waited as each of the riders donned more clothing for the chilly descent down the back side of Wolf Creek Pass from an altitude of more than 10,600 feet. Down the road a mile at the ski resort we captured a couple images and seconds of footage of the riders plunging down the decent before heading on.
Some other riders spotted after the descent were Kevin Kaiser, Ross Muecke, and Georg Payer, the latter receiving a bottle and a little spray-on sunscreen from his support team at a stop light on the outskirts of Alamosa. 
The big story of the day were the punishing winds between South Fork and Alamosa. The wind picked up dust from the many farms in the area and blew punishing salvos at the riders. Rob Morlock, working to improve upon his current position, donned a surgical mask and leaned hard into the crosswind, but still powered on.
The conditions shuffled the standings of the women's race as Sabrina Bianchi caught and passed Amy Xu for fourth place. Third place Sandy Earl stopped at the roadside as Bianchi continued to charge ahead, buffeted and leaning heavily against the crosswind. The next update to the standings may show more changes to the women's leaderboard. Bianchi looked to be in fine spirits despite the tough conditions, even managing a pleasant smile as she passed. Her crew appeared to share her good mood, offering a wave and a cheerful thumbs up.
Men's third place rider Mark Pattinson had made it through the storm in Alamosa but looked battered and battle-tossed. Typically focused and quiet, he offered no commentary on the conditions as we passed. He still had the ascent to La Veta Pass before the foggy decline toward quaint La Veta.Conditions improved quite a bit in the town, but the 65 miles that separate it from the next time station in Trinidad, CO offered the riders a mix of thick fog, drizzle, darkness, sunshine, downpours and even pea-size hail heavy enough to pile two inches deep at the roadside.
It was in this little valley that we happened upon Michelle Santilhano pushing through the fog and drizzle.
Her team was in good spirits, and told us that she'd plugged along through the wind on the way to Alamosa and continued to motor along like a diesel. She said hi to us as she passed, and as we left her and exited the valley, the clouds opened to reveal bright sunshine and a rainbow. It must have been a leprechaun's trick because all I found at the end of this rainbow was a Media 2 van containing two other grumpy, poorly rested, and slightly smelly photo journalists…
Trinidad's as far as we go tonight, as we've all but caught the leaders and need to hand coverage to Media 1 and Media HQ. It will be nice to settle in some place with a high-speed internet connection because the wireless coverage has been infuriatingly inconsistent the last two days. We'll get plugged in and caught up soon.
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