Remember the fight scenes in the "Rocky" movies when, at some point, Sylvester Stallone and his opponent du jour are basically just standing there, half out of their minds, sort of punching each other whenever they can muster the strength to lift an arm?
Well, that's pretty much what RAAM is like at this stage of the race.
Spoke with the "A Team" (aka day crew) just a few minutes ago and everything is pretty much as it has been for the past 36 hours in that Rob is riding well, punctuated by waves of fatigue. So, he takes a break, recharges, and jumps back on the bike.
Crew chief Mike Perron says that he is, once again, attacking the hills today, and that's good, because he has a few more to climb before it's all over.
When will he finish? At this point, I would predict between 8:00 AM and noon Sunday, but, again, that could go either way depending on what he does today and tonight.
He has another racer about 90 minutes behind him, so that should be a motivating factor.
Can Rob catch Kaiser, the guy ahead of him? It's unlikely unless Kasier has a meltdown because he is about 60 miles ahead of Rob and there is a "10 percent" theory in RAAM that says you can never make up more than 10 percent on the guy in front of you. Rob has about 340 miles to go, which means Kaiser would have to be 30 miles or less in front of Rob for Rob to have a shot at catching him.
So now, it's about maintaining and taking it into the finish.
Speaking of which, I am heading there this morning, so this will be my last blog post for a while. I am going to head out onto the course to see Rob and the guys, and try to blog from my mobile, including photos. Not sure it will work, but check back later this afternoon.
1 comment:
Bring it home Rob! What an amazing achievement (again). We've been watching various sites and waiting for Bill's great blogs. Kudos to the whole crew for a successful and safe journey, you're a special bunch. Enjoy the finale to the barn!
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