June 20, 2007

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

6 comments:

razor said...

to Glenn and tim bravo on such a fantastic effort to finish RAAM.To Tim what a man to do what you did by yourself!!! Glenn,all us Aussies are really proud of you and hopefully you will compete again.You both have written yourself into RAAM folkore.
To all the support team a kob well done as you got the guys across,no DNF.
As Lance Armstrong so wisely said "It is not about the bike"

Regards and have a few Beers now !!!

Ray

Annie said...

Maybe Tim, Glenn and support crew have settled into an early opener, singing the Aussie songs Tim and Glenn have enjoyed. You sure deserve a celebration! Or maybe you're in the land of nod?

Brad said...

Congrats to the whole team on a fantastic race. Well done. We are all very proud of all that you have done. Good on you Tim for getting the wheels over the line. Good on you Glenn for giving it all you got. Now celebrate just as hard :)

Bill Spaeth said...

GREAT JOB EVERYONE, RIDERS & CREW!

TIM, IMPRESSIVE. IT REALLY SAYS SOMETHING TO BE ABLE TO SWITCH FROM RIDING A 2-PERSON TEAM TO SOLO DURING AN EVENT, THE PHYSICAL AND MENTAL CHALLENGE, NOT TO MENTION YOU ARE PROBABLY A LITTLE BANGED UP YOURSELF FROM A FEW CRASHES (HOW MANY? 3 AT LEAST!) DURING THE RACE.

GLEN, WAY TO KEEP THE FOCUS AND EFFORT FOR AS LONG AS YOU DID. I HOPE YOU HAVE STARTED REHAB ON THE KNEE - REHAB SMART SO YOU CAN RECOVER QUICK.

HOPE EVERYONE IS RELAXING, MAYBE IN THE HOT TUB?

BILL SPAETH

Prince of Dimness said...

Well done to both Glenn and Tim - its something I cannot fathom at such a daunting pace and distance. Your both extremely lucky to have been able to compete in a great event.

I hope your knee recovers Glenn - so you can tow me up Mt Buffalo next AAC ;)


Enjoy the beers

Skillsy

reclaimfreedom said...

Well done Glenn. I don't know why you do it, but I'm impressed. It sounds like you picked a top team mate as well.

Are you going to add it to the resume when you get back?

DavidLeyonhjelm