The race is into its 3rd day and the wear and tear is starting to show on the riders and even some of the crew. One four man team from Spain – Team COANFI - only has four support crew – compared to other 4 person teams who have up to 19 crew members. One of the race officials was telling me that their crew hadn’t slept at all and so when they pulled over for a quick nap, they missed their rider because they all fell asleep. But each time we see the riders on the road, they are all smiles. Plus they are all very short and have legs the size of my waist. They are all so cute I just want to put them in my pocket.
We just crossed over into Kansas and the roads are flat and the horizon is dotted with towering grain mills. Here are a few odds and ends from the race so far:
We got lost or missed a turn three times – and all within the last day. Either we’re whizzing along at 75mph and fly by the turn we are supposed to take, or in one case we were following a couple of teams through twisty turny canyon roads and we came to a fork in the road - one team and rider went straight, and the other team and rider kept going straight. We went straight and 30 seconds later we were all turning around.
Crews are not getting sleep and I don’t know if it’s because they are still too hopped up on the race activities or what but I think we’re going to start seeing some interesting things in the next few days.
Weather has been perfect. No rain, snow, wind, or dust storms. The solo men riders have had terrible weather and storms were following them from Colorado through Kansas. Fingers crossed weather stays this way.
Cutting this short…we’re off to hit the next city – Ulysses, KS. We are going to sit and wait for relay teams to show so we’ll likely be there for the afternoon.
Photo: Time station 22 at Kim, Colorado. Teams checking in.
Photo: What the riders see for 71 miles leading up to Kim, CO.
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