Georgia Chain Gang

Atlanta, GA

We got to know Charlie, crew chief for the Equipe Schwarz team from Germany, before the race, as we stayed at the same motel in Oceanside. We chased them all through the race, but they beat us by a few hours. This is the kind of friendly rivalry the race fosters and that adds to unique and memorable nature of the whole adventure. Charlie, we wish you well and hope to ride with you again!

“dear all, racers, crew, daves and not daves,
gratulations to your raam result and to the amount of money you collected!
we where waiting for you with ice-cold beer right behind the finish-line, but unfortunatelly my crew was pretty thirsty and we decidet that it would be a shame let the beer warm up.
i`m sorry we don`t meet you wether downtown annapolis nor on the official party, i hope you all are doing all well and you allready stopped crying about the lost battle against our team.
you had the better rider, better bikes and the better crew and the most attractive  crew-captain on raam 2010, for a better performance she just needs a tactical genious by her side. that`s me.
if you are thinking about raam 2011, give me a call, i`m sure travelling with the chaingang is fun.
all the best for you all.
charlie
crew captain equipe schwarz”
June 23rd

Sunday 2:48 am – Annapolis MD

The final 32 hours of RAAM again included many exciting and unexpected moments, with the team and crew rising to the occasion each time to bring it home. Sorry for the delay, but let us catch you up on all that happened on Day 7 and 8 of the race.

At 5am Saturday morning, near Nutter Fort WV, Frank and Dave rotated into the line-up. The hills and mountains of WV did not disappoint anyone – giving us all the climbing we could handle. But the riders were fresh, the air cool and there was the inspiration of another beautiful sunrise on the back roads of America. While we were out of the running for a win in our age group, we were still racing very closely with the women’s 50-59 team (Team Kalyra), a couple of 8-person teams and the infamous Brazilian team (this year reincarnated as a 4-man <50 team, but with one member of their 2009 team returning). Throughout the morning we exchanged the lead many times with these teams.

By 1:30 pm we reached Cumberland MD and the beginning of the hardest section of the race – 37 miles to Hancock MD. You many wonder how the hardest section could possibly be in Maryland, but it’s true. In that short section there are five 1000′ climbs with grades reaching 22% for long sections. Tony put together an tactically masterful plan to attack this section hard. We staged Jerome, Frank and Tony on each climb to break them up and let the riders push the pace hard. At the top Dave took over and rode a fast descent. Then we’d start over. We finished this section in less than 2.5 hours, passing the women’s team for good and closing the gap substantially on the Brazilians. We’d never even put the crew through such a rapid and complex rotation before, but they executed it perfectly.

After Hancock we rode into Pennsylvania where the rolling hills come at you continuously and very steep. By dusk we were in Gettysburg, riding right through the battlefield park. With no other cars on the road, the gathering darkness and the sacredness of the place, we were all dumbstruck. It was as awe inspiring as anything we’d seen the entire week.

Once we hit Hanover PA at around 10pm, there were only 91 miles to go. At that point, with Dave and Frank having been on the road for 17 hours, the plan was to put them in the RV, and let Tony and Jerome pace line it in together to the end. After an assessment of everyone’s fatigue level, however, we decided to modify the plan. We swapped in a new driver and navigator – Dave Payne and Dave Gluck. We also left all 4 riders in the rotation to make sure we could make extra rider swaps if needed in the last 4-5 hours of the race. This turned out to be a good move as we made several rider exchanges down the final stretch, sometimes putting out two riders at a time, at other times leaving a single rider on the road. We made sure everyone was fresh and awake for what would be the longest ride day for any of the riders.

It was a glorious night, with perfect temps and good roads. The smell of the barn along with much needed boots from Starbucks canned double espressos, kept the riders keyed up and alert all the way to the finish. Time station 54, on the outskirts of Annapolis is where the official race clock is stopped. After logging their time there, teams put all their riders on bikes to be escorted to the final finish at the City Docks where friends and family await. This also ensures that each team has enough time for pictures and time on the podium. We were held back some extra minutes as the Brazilian team was celebrating so hard race officials couldn’t get them to move out of the finish area. Yes, we had failed to catch them in our final push.

What they didn’t know, however, was that we had a 30 minute time credit because race officials had failed to give us a last minute route update, causing us to get lost during the night on Friday. We knew we didn’t need to pass them, just to close the gap enough to get within the 30 minute window and beat them – again. And we did. In spite of the time lost Friday night, we had closed the gap to within 11 minutes of our rivals, so with our credit we beat them easily. Since we weren’t contending for a place at the podium, it wasn’t a big deal, but when 3 teams are within 10 minutes of each other in a 3000 mile race, and those teams are seeing each other regularly along the route, riders and crew alike get pretty competitive.

Many of our families and friends loyally waited up until after 3am to cheer us across the finish line at the docks in Annapolis. We drank champagne and toasted the Brazilians. We cheered the Kalyra women across the line, just like they’d cheered us whenever we rode by on the road. These women set a new 4-woman 50-59 record. We hugged the crew and wondered at how such an intense around the clock experience forges new friendships and cements old ones. The riders are truly indebted to our crew – each and everyone of whom went beyond the call of duty to bring us safely over the finish line AND score a big win in the fight against Leukemia and Lymphoma.

When we say team now, we don’t refer simply to the 4 riders. The Georgia Chain Gang is a team of 14 strong brothers and sisters for life!

Your Georgia Chain Gang,

Tammy Addison, Dave Armento, Warren Bruno, Matthew Corrigan, Jane Eastham ,Mark Engemann, Frank Fuerst, David Gluck, Stephanie Grant, Dave Laws, Tony Myers, Dave Payne, David Rossetti, Jerome Rossetti, Marshall Siler

Friday 5:00 pm – Greenfield OH

At the 6 day mark we reached Greenfield OH for the hand off to Jerome and Tony at 5 pm on Friday. We enjoyed some great riding weather through Indiana and Ohio, through rolling farmland the entire time. We have just 530 miles to the finish. By 5 am Saturday we should be somewhere in West Virginia and ~325 miles away. West Virginia and Western Maryland are the hardest sections of the race so we will modify our rotation to get through without too much pain. Dave and Frank will start their regular rotation at 5. Tony and Jerome, after a short rest, will come back to join us around noon. From that point forward we will use a 4 man rotation – all the way to the end. While it means no bed rest from 5am to the finish, it also means that the climbing load will be spread out among more riders. If all goes to plan we should reach Annapolis sometime between 1am and 3am Sunday morning. It’ll be an exciting 24 hours

For much of the race and right up to today we’ve been seeing several teams regularly throughout the day: T801 – 8 mixed team, T411 (Kalyra) 4-woman team, 50-59, T412 (Race Brazil) 4-man, under 50. We’ll see how everyone holds up on Saturday!

Over the last couple of days we’ve seen a number of solo riders. When I passed on of them I tried to strike up a conversation, but the poor guy was so exhausted he could barely talk to me. His head and helmet were supported by an elaborate neck harness designed to hold his head up. If I ever had a desire to try the solo race it is gone now. If you look at the solo standings you will see the large number of DNFs (did not finish) – in some categories more than 50% are marked that way. It means either the rider dropped out or did not reach one of the cut-off points in time.

Crew and riders on our team have remained cool, calm and collected. We’ve seen other examples where fatigue and sleep deprivation take their toll and the important crew-rider relationship can break down. I watched a rider cuss out a crew member when they got lost on the route. The reason I witnessed this was because we were lost too. Sometimes, in spite of all the planning and preparation, something goes awry with our navigation. You just have to recognize it quickly, figure out how to get back to the point you went off course and then get going again. 

It has been particularly inspiring to see how many people we run into on the road who see our RV, strike up a conversation and then give a donation. Sometimes it’s cash, sometimes a check, sometimes some free stuff. We got a case of ice-cream drumsticks today from the ice-cream man.

Thursday 5:00 pm – Hamel IL

We finished off Kansas and all of Missouri in the last 24 hours. Jerome and Tony started with a night ride in pouring rain, pushing through without a stop. Dave and Frank picked up before dawn south of Jefferson City, finished off Missouri, crossed the Mississippi and handed it back to Jerome and Tony in here in Hamel, Illinois. By early Friday morning we should be in the middle of Indiana and through Ohio by the end of the day Friday. After that we enter WV and Western Maryland – the hardest riding of the race. More and steeper climbing than the Rockies.

Some of you have asked what we eat. As the ride goes on most of us like the sports gels, blocks and drinks less and less, and crave regular food more. The crew makes sure we get a lot of variety, including fruits and vegetables. As an example, here was my meal plan today:

4:30 AM: cereal, bagel
6:30 AM: yogurt
9:00 AM: turkey and cheese sandwich, chocolate milk
11:00 AM: sub, coke
1:00 PM: pizza, coke
3:00 PM: more pizza, 32 ozs Powerade
5:00 PM: 32 oz Powerade, cracked corn, pint of blueberries, strawberries and raspberries
7:00 PM: hamburger, broccoli, soup and salad bar

The next couple of days will be interesting. The team is beginning to smell the barn, but are also tired and sore from 5 days of riding on 3-4 hours daily sleep. Tony is obsessively plotting and predicting our arrival times at the remaining Time Stations, figuring out variations in our rotation schedules to improve our performance. We are doing our best to make our party in Annapolis Saturday night, but also have a party planned for Sunday evening.

A special word of thanks must go out to our crew chiefs, David Payne and Jane Eastham. Dave is driving the Follow Van 12 hours a day, maintaining bikes and providing coaching where needed to the riders. Jane is riding in the Follow Van in the alternate 12 hours. She is also working closely with Tony to forecast our locations every 6 hours for the next 48 in order to find rooms at Holiday Inn for our 4 hours of sleep. I also know that Dave and Frank look forward to seeing her step into the Follow Van every day at 11am as she always brings something good to eat. Dave and Jane, and the whole crew, are always cheerful and positive when dealing with the riders, who can get a little ragged every day (some more than others…).

Pedal on.

Wednesday 5:00 pm – Yates Center KS

When Dave and Frank handed the baton to Jerome and Tony about 50 miles from Fort Scott on the Missouri border the team had been pedaling through Kansas for 28 hours. The winds blew from the south or head on the entire distance, so we never got the benefit of a any tail wind. On top of that we hit our first rain, lightening and even hale. Some of the solo riders dropped out of the race during this stretch - when they passed through a couple of days before us the weather was even worse. In one town the streets were flooded and riders saw fish, turtles and frogs swimming by their wheels.

Near Wichita KS 2 local TV stations were set up alongside the route and filmed Dave as he raced by. After asking the crew to continually take his photo along the route this just confirmed his reputation as a media star. Some o the crew have take to calling him “Hamento”.

We learned later that the reason the TV crews were on on the route there was because a rider from the Spanish team, COANFI Desafio ASPANOA, had been hit by a car there and seriously injured. We are still rrying to get word on his condition.

Jerome and Tony will be slogging through the Ozarks throughout the night on Wednesday. We should cross over both the Missouri and Mississippi rivers sometime on Thursday. Forecast is for continued scattered thunderstorms along the route.

Tuesday 5:00 pm – the plains of Eastern Colorado

The Rockies are beautiful but we are glad to say good-bye to all that climbing. We crossed 3 major passes in the last 24 hours – two of them in the middle of the night with temps in the 30′s. The climbs were tough enough, the descents left us all numb and shivering. This part of race seems to be harder than last year – race organizers must’ve gone out of their way to pick the hardest route through southern Colorado. Still, we saw some spectacular scenery at unusual times and places that we will all remember for a long time.

Our crew is doing a fantastic job. They are in constant motion doing the endless chores necessary to house and feed a continuously moving caravan of three vehicles which are always in different place, except for rendezvous of just a few minutes every 6 hours. AND these rendezvous points are all determined on the fly based on the riders progress. We are making extensive use of the skills of an and ex-Marine, cycling coach and retired elite rider, Delta pilot and many others. Most importantly we are relying on the resourcefulness and good humor of these folks to get us safely and swiftly to the finish line. This is not only a team of 4 it is a team of 14. And that includes our beloved Warren, crew chief back in Atlanta, who is following our every move on the web and with regular phone calls.

We are 1230 miles through the race with the plains of Kansas ahead. Jerome and Tony should make it about halfway through Kansas during Tuesday night, and Dave and Frank should finish the other half Wed.

Many thanks to all of you who are emailing encouragement and posting comments to our individual and team Facebook pages. You have been very generous with your donations, bringing us close to $100,000 at this point!

Monday 5:00pm – just west of Durango CO

After leaving Prescott AZ in the afternoon Sunday, Jerome and Tony rode on to Flagstaff, passing through beautiful Sedona, and up Oak Creek Canyon. Then it was on to the Navajo Indian reservation in NE AZ. This is a long and desolate section of the route and the boys passed through entirely at night. We saw many teams on the road that night.

The standings are starting to sort themselves out. This RAAM has the biggest field ever ant there are some very good teams here. There are several we seem be near a lot, passing them and later getting passed by them. We hope to put at least one of these teams behind us for good.

Frank and Dave came back in the line-up early in the morning, while still in Arizona. The temp was in the low 40s at that point and it made for some cold riding. but after about 3 hours dawn broke and we found ourselves entering Monument Valley just over the border in Utah. It spectacular landscape and a great way to see the dawn. 

Our crew chief at home base in Atlanta, Warren Bruno, has been checking in regularly with all the team and crew, anxious for the latest update and to see how everyone is holding up. During one of his calls, Mark was able to patch him into our PA system so Warren could speak directly to Jerome while he was on the bike. It surprised Jerome so much he started talking back. Yes – we are experiencing some sleep deprivation.

Just short of Cortez CO, at the 48 hour mark, we were 820 miles into the race. We can all use some more sleep, but the riders are all doing well. Our Master Massage Therapists, Stephanie and Matthew, are doing a great job keeping our muscles smooth and loose and working out the kinks.

Tony and Jerome took over in Cortez and started on one of the hardest sections of the race, including a climb up and over the continental divide at Wolf Creek Pass – a long steep climb to 11,000 feet, in the dark. The temps will likely be the lowest we see this week.

5:00 pm EDT in Prescott AZ

When Frank pulled into the Wal-Mart in Prescott Arizona the Chain Gang had been riding for 24 hours. Jerome and Tony took the first 12 hour shift, alternating 2 hours each on the bike. They rode through the entire width of Southern California – 230 miles by 2am (Pacific Time), after a 2pm start from Oceanside. Dave and Frank took over from there, starting with 1.5 hour pulls during the first hours of darkness. Later in the day as the temps went up in Arizona and we started climbing, we switched to one hours pulls. We ended the day with a 15 mile climb from 3000′ to 6000′ and on into Prescott, a beautiful town a mile above sea level with an amazingly cool climate for what you might expect for Arizona

On our first day on the road day we all got to experience one of the most beautiful aspects of the ride – night riding through the desert. Even with the follow van behind us it is still quiet enough to hear the telephone lines singing in the wind. Occasionally a bat will wing its way down in front of you before disappearing again into the night. Night riding is also very safe, with almost no traffic and the follow van close behind at all times illuminating the road ahead. And best of all it is cool

Just a note about the amazing team work of our crew. I’ve already mentioned how the riders split up into 2 teams and each team takes a 12 hour shift (Jerome and Tony 5pm – 5am EDT, Frank and Dave 5am-5pm EDT). Our crew is divided into 3 teams. Dave Payne, Dave Laws and David Gluck drive the follow vehicle from 11pm to 11am, then Jane Eastham, Mark Engemann and Marshall Siler take over the follow van from 11am to 11pm. When not driving, each team finds their way to motel rooms to rest up. We are very thankful to Holiday Inn for donating one million points to the team that we can use at any of their hotels along the way

We have a 3rd team made up of David Rossetti, Tammy Addison and our 2 massage therapists – Matthew Corrigan and Stephanie Grant. These folks man the RV where the riders rest eat and sleep when they are off-shift. Besides tending to the riders these folks have to keep the RV running and maintained. The crew must coordinate the movement of these vehicles around the bikes moving at a continuous 18-20 mph speed. Our rider and crew changes started out as barely organize mayhem, but by the end of the first day these folks were performing like a NASCAR pit crew.

Saturday, noon – Oceanside CA

Race day is finally here and we have a few hours to get ready and give you and update on the last couple of days.

Thursday night – our last chance to party hard before the race as we will all be going to bed early on Friday. We of course hit our “base camp” from last year - the Haunted Head Saloon, where the crowd tends to be a mix of Marines, surfers, bikers (the Harley kind), all with a lot of tattoos, but not many of the shaved leg and spandex crowd. After a few rounds of Jagermeister, beer and fussball we managed to fit right in. You will see some Haunted Head t-shirts back in Atlanta.

Friday – it all came together: photo sessions, paperwork, jersey fittings, official meetings, team meeting, even a chance to go for a warm up ride…

It’s fun to see the teams from all over the world. At the registration and team meetings you catch them eyeing each other, sizing up the competition. It is most intense among the under 50 teams, but even the old guys are pretty competitive. There are even 2 teams in the 60-69 age group. We;ve talked a good bit with Charlie, crew chief for team Equipe Schwarz from Germany. They are entered in our 50-59 bracket. Jerome is worried that his spying on us, but we sold him a GCG jersey so we are happy to share what expertise we have. Charlie told Jerome he bought him a special t-shirt – one with tombstones on it. Jerome replied that we’ll be waiting for him at the finish to receive it.

Co-chief Dave Payne has done an amazing job tuning up the bikes. They are all in top shape. He even managed to get Dave Armento’s machines looking almost new. From what we can tell neither had been cleaned since RAAM 2009. 

Tony of course is obsessing over every detail. He and Jerome built out the Follow Van with a sleeping platform, speaker system that can plug into any iPod, full wiring for the lighting system and plugs for the many devices we have to charge and keep running along the way. It is amazing how many electronic devices we seem to need these days – iPod, iPhones, iPads, Blackberry’s, cell phones, laptops, GPS devices, bike computers

By Friday at 5pm we finally had all our crew together with the team for the first time – ever. We attended the full teams meeting down at the Pier and then held our first all hands meeting while eating around the pool in the evening. We riders are extremely lucky to have such a skilled and dedicated crew. Many thanks to Warren, Jane and Dave Payne for pulling these folks together. Besides being incredibly committed to the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society and its mission, they each bring unique skills to the team – computer and navigation experts, two massage therapists, bike mechanics, vehicle mainenance, and most of all, a willingness to take on what has been called the “most horrible job you’ll ever love.” They don’t know it yet, but they are in for one of the great adventures of their lives.

Atlanta GA

After a year of planning, training and fundraising we are now only a few days away from the start. Vehicles, supplies and people are starting to make their way to San Diego. The RV, loaded with equipment, supplies and 8 bikes, and driven by Dave Rossetti and his road trip buddies, should arrive shortly. Jerome and Tony are already in Oceanside, building out the Follow Van. Rumor is that they are also getting reacquainted with the Haunted Head drinking establishment in town. 

One of the fun things we do in preparation is to walk the race route mile-by-mile in the course book and using our mapping software. A major change in the route this year means we will not go through New Mexico at all. We will be traversing the Rockies entirely in Utah and Colorado. There is a lot of high altitude riding and mountain climbing in this section. We ascend through 4 passes above 9000′ and cross the Continental Divide at Wolf Creek Pass at 10,857 ft.

In spite of the excitement as we approach race day, the team is also sad to report that one of our crew chiefs will not be joining us during the race. Crew Chief Warren Bruno has been the driving force behind our team this year, taking the lead in organizing us and in our fundraising. He hosted our very successful silent auction at his new restaurant, Ormsbys. We all looked forward to leadership during the race, but for the past 2 weeks Warren has been in the hospital fighting a serious infection. His ongoing battle with Lymphoma, and the treatment that goes with it, has weakened his immune system. He just got out of the hospital and is now back at home resting, but isn’t strong enough right now to join us on the race. While he will not be joining us on road he will be cheering us on from Atlanta every mile of the way.

Warren is one of the reasons we are doing this and we are are more dedicated than ever to our cause.

A HUGE thank you goes out to all of you who have so generously supported this endeavor with your encouragement, labor, in-kind donations and money. Many of you have ridden with us on weekends as we trained. None of this would be possible without your support. Your donations do make a difference and will increase the odds of survival for all cancer patients. This is the last update from Atlanta. The next time you hear from us we will all be in California. Once the race starts we will try to send a newsletter update out daily. Riders and crew will also be making updates to the GCG Facebook page, to our individual pages, and of course Twittering away.