Mississippi River

The RV just pulled into TS # 35 at 9:25 local time. We can see the Clark Bidge over the Mississippi River into Illinios.

Jeff riding over the Mississippi River into Alton, IL

So I (Tim) was on the overnight van crew last night with Gail and Jeff was really moving. We did the entire 75 miles from TS 33 to TS 34 in the dark. It was an interesting ride. The road was completely flat for 55 of the 75 miles but had two 10 mile sections of 13% up for a mile and 13% down for a mile. Jeff was hammering up and flying down these crazy roads with lots of sharp curves. I was driving so I had to break out my race car driver skills in order to keep him in my headlights. We were both having fun.

When we got to TS # 34 it was 2 AM and Jeff was wide awake and feeling good. 2 cups of coffee and some pizza later he could not keep his eyes open. Gail and I made him get moving because we thought that the coffee would kick in but it didn't. We made it 8.9 miles out of TS # 34 in over an hour and Jeff was asleep for most of it. I kept having to yell at him to get on our side of the double yellow line. He kept saying he just wanted to see what it was like over there. Kind of funny now but Gail and I were pretty stressed out for that hour. Finally we stopped and put Jeff in the van. He kept asking what was wrong and if he crashed, then 2 seconds later he'd be snoring. We had called the RV up from TS # 34 and they caught us in about 10 minutes so we got Jeff showered and into his "real" bed. I was asleep when he started this morning at 6 AM so Heather will need to do an update on that.

What is the capitol of Missouri?

Jeff leaving TS # 33 at Jefferson City, Missouri at 20:15 local time. Heading toward the Mississippi River.

Even with the really hot weather and high humidity Jeff is feeling good today and riding faster than almost everyone else. He is planning on riding until 4 AM and getting up later tomorrow to see if he can ride a little better in the morning when the sun is brighter.

Update from the Ozarks--plus article links

Some articles to check out about Jeff and RAAM in the Fairbanks News-Miner:

http://nl.newsbank.com/nl-search/we/Archives?p_action=doc&p_docid=119CBC1C6BCAF7D0&p_docnum=1
http://nl.newsbank.com/nl-search/we/Archives?
p_action=doc&p_docid=119B15A77B33CEB8&p_docnum=2

And one about Jure Robic, RAAMs current leader and multiple past winner by Daniel Coyle, author of Lance Armstrong's War (you have to register to read from NY Times):
http://tinyurl.com/2au8bl

Hot and humid in the Ozarks today, near 90F and humid. It's hard to believe many of us grew up here and never seemed to notice! After a slow start Jeff has been riding well and asking for ice cream sandwiches. The crew is trying to decide if a little more rest (3 hrs instead of 2 hrs at night) will do him any good or if after his longer rest he'll wake up just as groggy and struggle for the 1st hour on the bike anyway. We're attempting to balance our primary goal of finishing the race with our newfound position high in the pack; which means deciding whether to increase or cut sleep and whether to push Jeff beyond his self-percieved physical limits. I never anticipated a time would come that I would be asking him to go further than he thought possible, but rather assumed I would have to be the one holding him back for his own safety. We'll see how it plays out over the next 3 days.

Collins, Missouri

This is Jeff getting ready to leave Collins, Missouri at 12:25 local time (13:25 race time) heading for Jefferson City which is 2 time stations down the road. We are at a busy gas station on a busy road. Hopefully the traffic will let up a little. I think it gets worse up ahead as we are heading for Lake of the Ozarks.

Jeff slept from 3 to 5 last night and had a fairly hard time getting going this morning. He spent about 30 minutes on the bike basically asleep, weaving all over the road, and going slow. After that it got better but he claims that he felt a lot better yesterday and might want to sleep a little bit more tonight. We are loosing time to Kaldy and can't really tell where Richard the Aussi is but he is at least keeping his gap in front of us. Meanwhile we are holding our 1.5 hour time gap over Peter Oyler. We have been seeing his crew, cars, and RV less and less so hopefully we can put some more time on him.

El Camino Kansas

This picture is Jeff leaving Manter, Kansas on 6/14/07 after eating dinner. He rode for another 7 hours and 100 miles after this picture was taken, all in the dark.

We just rolled into TS # 28. Actually it's El Dorado - Jeff thought El Camino sounded better. Jeff is eating some food - tortellini, a leftover 1/4 pounder with cheese (more on that later), and some other stuff. It is hot, about 87, and humid. Much different than yesterday when it was cool and cloudy all day. Jeff hasn't had much time off the bike today so he is resting with his feet up, ice on both knees, and clothes mostly off. He'll probably stay here for 30 to 45 minutes and then hit the road. We have switched to a 2 person van crew with 4 in the RV. The van duties are pretty light so 2 people can handle it and this allows the next van crew to get some real sleep before their next shift. The RV is leapfrogging past the van and rider going about 50 miles and then stopping for 2 to 3 hours at each time station. Sometimes the RV has groceries to get or other errands to do so it's not always a real "rest" stop but it seems to be working pretty well.

We are chasing Richard and Attila across Kansas and Jeff is feeling pretty good so he is hoping to catch one of them in the next day or two. Jeff is really into the standings and where people are in front of him. We are trying not to let him look too far ahead in the route book or get too exited about having only 1485 miles left.

One of the highlights so far was TS # 26. It was in Pratt, Kansas at the McDonalds and the time station and McDonalds people were very exited and welcoming. The entire crew all got whatever we wanted to eat for free, they gave us lots of cookies, a case of bottled water, and they even remembered Ben from 2 years ago - something about being the "hottest" rider in the race. We still have a bag full of McDonalds so we'll be snacking on whatever Jeff doesn't eat for dinner tonight. We were all laughing about "all you can eat for free at McDonalds" 2 days ago but when we got there it was no joke and everyone ate a lot and enjoyed it.

Photos from the Front Line

Jeff at the start. Photo: Gail Koepf

Jeff has been wearing a dust mask to keep his mouth from drying out so much
(maybe to keep the dust out, too?)...

Photo: Larry Best



Photo: Ben Couturier

Past the Continental Divide

This is Heather posting for Jeff this time...
He's made it into Kansas and his climbing days are over until we hit the Appalachians.
Three BIG climbs yesterday in Colorado--Wolf Creek Pass (10,800 ft), La Veta Pass (9,400 ft) and Cuchara Pass (9,980 ft). He rode until almost 4 in the morning to put them behind him. Today a gradual desent from the Rockies into west-central Kansas.

Each morning Jeff is having trouble eating right as soon as he gets up (after 2.5 hrs rest), but after an hour on the bike is spotting a diner or local eatery and asking for some breakfast foods. His appetite is improving and therefore is his caloric intake. We've been having mild weather (in the 60Fs all day today)and now without mountains to climb he is exerting himself less and can digest better. We hope his strength on the flats will bring him up in the standings. With much of the nice scenery behind us, Jeff won't have much to focus on other than riding.

Yesterday Tim Stern, a buddy from Colorado joined the crew as Rob Sampson left. Jeff's brother Mike came and rode with the crew for a few hours to do a newpaper story. Jeff seems very happy to have the distractions of visitors and new faces.