Good morning from Oceanside!

7:45 AM and the crew is just getting up and running. I haven't seen Rob yet. He gets his own hotel room the night before the race because this will be the last good sleep he gets in a few days.

I shared a room with a member of Danbury's finest, whose snoring sounded like he was being strangled by a chainsaw murderer. This is the glamour of being on the RAW crew.

We'll all grab breakfast and then here's what happens:

(All times I am reporting in this post are Pacific time).

- After breakfast, we will install the speakers on the pace van that follows Rob the whole. These are the speakers that plays the music he listens to.

- 9:00 AM - Pack up both vehicles (pace van and shuttle van) and get ready to head down to the pier for the race start.

- 11:00 am - Rob has to be at the starting area.

- Noon - The race begins. It will be a staggered start, with racers departing individually at one minute intervals, time trial style.

At this point, all racers have to ride "unsupported" (without their support crew behind them) for about 23 miles to get out of the traffic congestion of Oceanside.

The day crew in the pace van will meet up with Rob at the 23 mile mark.

The night crew, including me, will be driven in the pace van about 100 miles up the race course to prepare for transition at 6:00 PM. That means the day crew will get out of the pace van and the night crew will get in to take Rob through the night. Once it is 7:00 PM local time, the rider and the van CANNOT be separated. They are considered one unit.

We figure Rob will ride between 110-130 miles in that first six-hour period before transition. We will follow Rob all night, and then day crew will come back in at 6:00-7:00AM Thursday morning.

We'll take photos before the start and post them here as individual blog posts.

It's go time!