The last 48 hours

As I write this Tim Woudenberg is riding solo down the Interstate into Atlantic City. he has been riding solo since yesterday morning at 6:30 am (i.e., nearly 24 hours). And on the day before he pulled close to 12 hours on his own. Not often will you see a team rider ride a RAAM share and then do a Furnace Creek event on the last day.

These two riders showed what can be done with grit and determination. They recovered from some very difficult crash situations on the first night - they gave up 2 and a half hours to Team Bacchetta. Then they clawed that back especially on nights 3, 4 and 5 and put down the hammer through Kansas. The hills of Missouri found the true cost of Glenn's accident manifested in a sore knee. A first visit to an emergency department - during which time Tim rode 4 hours solo during the day - allowed Glenn to put in some blistering riding during the night through Illinois. In one time station segment he gained 22 minutes on the team behind. Waking the next morning was the telling moment with the knee very stiff and painful to ride - with the hills of West Virginia to contend with, it was no surprise that Glenn was again off the bike and Tim was riding solo.

Another visit to Emergency Department in Cumberland Ohio was not enough to get Glenn's knee right. Decision was made to get him off the bike and to finish the race as a solo effort around 350 miles from the end. At 1 am yesterday the whole team pulled up and slept on the roadside until 5 am - the aim was to test Glenn on the downhill and flat sections. That lasted 20 miles before Glenn chose not to risk his future cylcing career and Tim stepped up to the plate to finish this thing. We split the crew up and the majority of us took Glenn down to Atlantic City.

This morning at 4:30 am Tim reached Atlantic City and the team was finished in 7 Days 11 hours beating Tim's time from last year. An amazing feat