Race Across America ?

[HLaB]

I just caught the end of this documentary on ITV4, what was that thing on his back?

 

[HLaB]

It was a homemade neck brace to support his head.

It was an interesting program about a British bloke taking part in a Endurance race across the States in 12 days.

 

[yello]

I'd love to be able to watch this but can't being in France. Same with the Beeb, you can't view from outside the UK. All to do with licensing, I'm sure, but it is annoying. I might have to research spoof IP addressing, or whatever it's called.

 

[roadiewill]

that looks pretty cool, itv's response to bbc's mark beaumont program

 

[wafflycat]

The beeb made a programme about the RAAM a couple of years ago. I know a couple of guys who have done it (one of whom has one it as captain of a four-man team and won the category, and the other the first British guy to do it solo). The programme the beeb did was part of a series where a newbie to a sport was set an extreme challenge. Alas the beeb showed it in the middle of the night. In that one, the newbie was a marathon runner who, if he could get good enough at cycling, could join the four-man team (Team RAFCC). The marathon runner newbie was arrogant and couldn't hack it, so they wouldn't let him on the team on safety grounds (folk have been killed on RAAM) and he was well tee'd off. It was, however, absolutely the right decision to make at the time. Plus, there's a woman I know who aims to be the first British woman to do the RAAM next year. It is tougher than TdF...

 

[Chuffy]

that looks pretty cool, itv's response to bbc's mark beaumont program

Not quite, the ITV program was shown several months ago, during the course of the TdF.

The neck-brace thing is a solution to a not uncommon ultra-long distance audax problem, when your neck muscles can't support your head any more. One chap used a bungee cord with one end on his saddle rails and the other attached to the back of his headband.

 

[Blonde]

This all female RAAM team are really inspiring. They didn't make their self-set goal but they still did it! It's a different thing a team effort in relay but it's still pretty grueling - no real sleep and you've go to keep that average speed up. If you read the individual women's profiles they are really special and yet also really ordinary - a few of them came to cycling quite late in life too!

http://www.sggdoraam.org.uk