Every year the Race Across America comes through our city. "RAAM" is a 3000 mile bike race from California to Maryland. Once the clock starts for you (solo) or your team, it does not stop until you reach Maryland.
In 2010 I got involved with the time station in Blanchester, Ohio. I took photos of passing cyclists and their crews.
Last March I was asked if I could house a solo cyclist from Austria for his training rides. Christoph Strasser and his cousin Michael Kogler came and stayed with us for a long weekend. Then in June when the race came through his team stopped at our house to swim and took showers and ate pizza and donuts.
So this year they looked forward to stopping and taking a break for a few hours.
One of the guys sleeps outside. They said it didn't matter if it was 5 degrees he would be outside. So we found him on the back porch sound asleep.
They had 11 crew members in 2 vans and 1 RV. 1 van and RV came ahead of Christoph at 9 am and swam, showered, ate donuts and fruit. Then when Christoph came through around 1:15 that van went with him and his follow van came to the house.
Then that van and the RV left around 2pm. Good thing they did, the vans had 5 flat tires for the whole 3000 mile journey, Christoph only had 3 on his bike. ... new record. This team sat all kinds of records.
Last year Christoph beat the 26 year record with
7 days, 22 hours..
This year he beat his own record with
7 days, 15 hours.
He is a machine.
I didn't get too many pictures because I was filming, yelling, ringing my cow bell and this is what I got.
This is some of the shoes at the front door. It's funny because they don't have air conditioning at home so they walk out the back door and leave it wide open. Everyone of them. So I don't say anything. I just swing it shut. They were freezing in the house. While I was burning up with no estrogen and hot flashes.
I can't figure out how to rotate this picture. It was in my file but when it comes into blogger it rotates back.
They had beach towels, underwear, swim shorts, laptops, cameras everywhere. And when the left there were a few coffee cups on the table. You would have never known they were here.
This was from last years visit. at 1:18 they show Josie and her friend Jamie. Then they pan around the kitchen and you can see Greg and my co-worker Robb. I am hiding around the corner in the livingroom. This year they filmed us too. They did a interview with me and we are going to be in their new show this fall that comes out in theaters in Austria. They try to ad the English subtitles for us folks that don't speak German.
Please hang on. I am trying to get the video back.
http://youtu.be/ANOiUgoaStI
So if you are interested in helping out, go to www.raceacrossamerica.org They are always looking for officials along the 3000 miles, photographers, and crew always need additional American crew members (cause it doesn't cost as much to fly us to California as it does from a foreign country) And if you are along the route or really close and you would like to house a crew or let them shower
We received these shirts from the race headquarters this year for our outstanding service to the racers. 
There are 55 times stations across the states and we are voted one of the best. How do we know this..cause racers, crews and official tell us. The only other one that sometimes beats us out is the one in Arizona.. they have a pool. After riding in the heat and sand storms and heat they really like their pool. Clothes and all. or not. Bikers will get off the bike and flop in the pool. We are voted best because of our crowds. We always have a crowd. Now in the middle of the night from 4-7am there may be only one person but all other times we 
So racers have bare crews, some have their own media crews, doctors, massage therapist, nutrionist etc. You name it they have it. 
Marko's wonderful crew running along exchanging water bottles and giving him a pat on the back. Now it's time for cookies.
Gerhard's crew was funny. Everytime I looked up he had his camera on me. I told him in a very stern voice they must edit me out. I haven't seen myself anywhere yet.. 
a trailer full of very expensive bikes.
Team bus rolling through. 
This rider carried his daughter stuffed animal with him. 
And off.. to ride through the night. 
This is how it works. 
In the down time we keep ourselves busy by getting hair out of the tent zippers or in my case taking pics of everything. Then we wait..wait..wait.. we stand in the road, we sit in chairs, we talk, we wait.. Then they start to arrive. Sometimes one at a time and other times we are busy beavers. 
So then we wait. I tell everyone "where else can you hang out in the UDF/ McDonalds parking lot all night and not get in trouble." Or stand in the middle of the road and take photos. It's gives me a thrill to stand in the road. It's like going against everything you were ever taught..heeee. heee..
At night this is what we see.. Usually a follow veh with his bright lights on, sometimes loud loud music or a 
So with Christoph, he had a 13 hour lead but did not stop, he was then trying to beat a all time record to the finish. Which he didn't get but he sure did try. Christoph is 29 years old and was busting butt when he came through. 
So after he passes the crew hangs around if they have time. So what should crew that has been on the road for 7+ days straight do.. They eat.. 
These are Amy's famous cookies. Everyone knows to eat cookies at our TS (time station). One rider even requests them and tried to take the whole box last year. Amy actually told him to take them but to leave the box. 
What we didn't know until this crew left was we were offering coffee and they took it. Then we found full coffee cups sitting around...oooopss. the new coffee maker had a timer and had timed out before they got there. They coffee was ice cold.. oopsss. lesson learned ...we watched it from then on. Sorry guys..next year. 
This is James. He is a race official. He follows along the route to make sure no one is cheating or to take care of reroutes if needed. 
