Update from Matt Pain of RAAM River Riders
July 22, 2011
Today I thought I would add a couple of other perspectives to my daily blog so I give you, Lisa, one of our wonderful racers and Jessica, RV mum and my amazing wife.
Here is her take on today’s accomplishments:
Today we hit the flats of Kansas and Missouri. While I was missing the epic climbs and beautiful scenery of the Rockies, it was nice to be able to hammer it on the flats. Between the ripping tailwind and extra oxygen, I was effortlessly cruising on the Fuji at 30 mph for much of the day. After a long afternoon nap, Michi and I took the late night shift through Missouri, which turned into quite the party. Apparently the crew had a little too much caffeine, and decided to make the night entertaining for us by turning the leap vehicle into the River Riders own personal night club. The boys were singing and dancing in the car, on the the car and on the side of the road all night long. No way not to ride hard with all that positive energy.
Of course, I almost fell off my bike laughing when I rode by the boys dancing in nothing but their boxer shorts and safety vests! The night concluded with a ride over the Missouri River while the sun was rising and a nice big Mcdonalds breakfast! Only a few more days left… This trip is flying by!
Now that you got a racer perspective on a day of RAAM, here is crew member Jessica:
Once we got to Kansas it became very redundant, miles and miles of high plans and corn fields. I found myself doing what I could to pass the time, the crew and the racers started joking around at that point, anything to pass the time. Best part about Kansas was the speed the girls were maintaining, I was shocked you could go that fast on a bike.
As for everyone else, we are all in good spirits, most are quite tired though due to some of us being up for 20 or so hours such as yours truly. To help with the tiredness, we have been trying to sleep whenever and wherever we can while the girls are riding during the day in shifts. We are still making great time and should be finishing some time Saturday morning.
Team River Riders is one of our sponsored teams in Race Across America 2011, we’ll be following along and providing updates throughout the race. Keep checking back here or on our Facebook page for regular updates.
It’s been a week of RAAM racing! We’ve been following both of our sponsored teams as they make their way from Oceanside, California to Annapolis, Maryland. Check out all of our coverage for Team Live Forever and River Riders.
L&M athlete Meredith Miller is competing in the National Criterium Championships this weekend. Good luck Meredith!
On the non-bike related side, Jeremy Rodgers, a member of Team DART-Nuun-SportMulti, just won the Teva Games Downriver Race. Rodgers is a team member with L&M sponsored athlete Cyril Jay Rayon. Congrats!
And last, but not least, a little video inspiration for you: Skyler Schneider, a member of TIBCO’s junior girl’s team and mentored by Meredith Miller, who just won the Junior Woman 13/14 race!
By Matt Pain
Tuesday June 21, 2011
Today was great overall. We made it out of Colorado, and into Kansas late in the night. We did however have one 40 mile mishap, our on navigator that was on shift — who shall remain nameless for their own safety — coming out of Trinidad, Co got a bit mixed up and Kristen and Lauren ended up riding 40 miles off course which cost us a bit of time. After realizing the mistake, Roman loaded the girls up in the follow vehicle and took them back to where they rode off course since riding backwards on the course or riding back to the course is not permitted unless they walk or are driven back. For obvious reasons, the second option to drive was chosen.
By Matt Pain
Sunday June 19, 2011
Today was day two of our Race Across America. So far it has been pretty good, we have crossed from California to Arizona. During the day — which was fairly uneventful — our fourth rider, Lauren, bonked in the desert from not keeping herself hydrated enough, but after some rest and nutrition she came back nicely.
The other three girls worked together very well to maintain pace but special credit is due for Lisa today. Like all of the riders, Lisa is an asset to our team, but she has been incredibly consistant in her riding and has maintained a big smile on her face for the entire ride. She has been aptly nicknamed “The Beast” due to her incredible climbing ability.
We got to see some amazing scenery going through Sedona today also, there wasn’t any space for us to directly follow so we were regularly “leap frogging” to keep riders on track and doing well. Once night fell, we rode into the Navajo tribe territory where there was some great descending and a few riders even reported having to dodge coyotes. Luckily, we have the most amazing light setup so between the Light & Motion lights on the bike and 6 very bright lights on the follow vehicle, it’s like we are riding in daylight.
Saturday June 18, 2011
By Matt Pain
Today was the start of our race and it was very exciting!
All of the raam teams were started off in one minute intervals and all four girls got to ride together for the first eight miles in whats called a “parade start.” After that, Kristen set off on her own to start the first part of the race. Luckily for everyone today we had a very strong tailwind so we have been maintaining a great pace.
So far our average has been 20 mph and that’s with a flat tire and a couple of small technical difficulties with the van. Michelle deserves the MVP award today for riding as the Florida girl who isn’t used to hills, and descended the glass elevator which is a 10 mile descent with a load of twists and curves, and still managed to sit around 45-50 mph for most of it.
Night riding was pretty good also, no mishaps or close calls yet. The light set up between the bikes and the van have virtually turned night into day!
Our game plan has and shall be: We split into two teams of two and are riding one hour on, one hour off, back and forth for four hours and then switching to the other pair of riders. We did deviate from that during the larger climbs so the girls wouldn’t get too exhausted by riding in 30 minute intervals. So far, it has been working great!
Between great lighting, amazing bikes, crew, riders, and super quick transitions thanks to the bike racks being so easy to get our bikes on and off of, I think we are going to finish this race in great time! More photos are available on our River Riders Facebook page.
Team River Riders is one of our sponsored teams in Race Across America 2011, we’ll be following along and providing updates throughout the race. Keep checking back here or on our Facebook page for regular updates.
As part of this year’s Race Across America — a ride that has riders traverse 3,000 miles across 12 states and climb 170,000 vertical feet – , we are sponsoring two teams: Live Forever and River Riders. We’ll be featuring profiles of the teams and posting regular updates from them throughout the race. Follow along!
My name is Matt Pain and I am writing this blog on behalf of the River Riders RAAM team; my role on this team is the team captain. We are a cycling team of four women that have come together the beat the 4 person women’s team record for the Race Across America which is 6 days, 12 hours, and 28 minutes. We are doing this test of strength, endurance, passion, and overall sanity in the name of raising awareness and money for a disorder named Rett syndrome.
This year, we are riding in honour of Kara Kimmelmen, who is a 7 year old girl that resides in Fort Pierce, Fl. This lovely young girl is very close to the girls hearts and an inspiration the the girls and the thought of Kara is going to be keeping them pedaling hard throughout the race.
The girls will be riding nonstop from Oceanside, California to Annapolis, Maryland, 3,000 miles, with the support of their nine — almost equally crazy — crew members. Everyone on our team, crew and racers alike have a cycling background and are all very passionate about what we do and how we do it. We will be doing our best to break this record which has been existence since 1996 as well as raise awareness about the International Rett Syndrome Foundation, all the while having a great time and testing all of our limits, mentally and physically.
Be sure to check out our team website and the website for IRSF.
Fran on 
Chantel Touryan on 
jacob on