6/13/07 RIDER COMMENT- JOHN

It's 25 miles later and the sun has gone down bringing us a 35 degree drop in temperature. "Our energy is back now that the sun's not out and sucking our will to live!" (Ha, ha in the background:-) With any luck we'll make it to where we need to go AND be able to get some sleep tonight.

6/13/07 - RIDER COMMENT - JOHN

John (rider in Pete’s group) “It’s been a real cooker out here today and to top it off there has been plenty of head winds. We are making progress albeit somewhat slow. Pete’s out on the road and we just left Tuba City, AZ and now we’re going uphill. We have about 130 miles to go until we can sleep. It’s real exciting out here and we’re all having a really good time staring out at nothing.”

6/13/07 - TIME STATION 10

TS 10 - Tuba City, AZ. 565.1 miles into the race with 2477.7 miles to finish. They did 1,980 ft of climbing this section making the total climbing 24,000 ft. Their avg speed this station: 19.88 mph. One more station in Arizona and then it is into Utah. The team is currently in 4th place in the Corporate Team division.

6/13/07 - COMMENT FROM CREW MEMBER - KEN

Ken (Pete’s group crew member) “Hello blogisphere people. We just put Pete and John out to do a serious climb on Hwy 89. Our goal tonight is to be in Utah sometime in the next 8 hours or so. Our guys will be riding late into the night till at least until 1 or 2 in the morning. We’ve got some serious climbing to do before a drop down into Utah. John & Pete are both having a great time right now. Everybody is doing well.”

6/13/07 - COMMENT FROM RIDER - RON

Ron - Jim's group - "So far we've only had one flat tire for this group. One of the benefits with bikes all over the outside of the van is that you can grab another bike and stay on schedule."

6/13/07 - COMMENT FROM CREW - KEN

Ken – Pete’s crew member – “Van is repaired and we are back chasing. We will catch up and keep them safe and sound over night. A miraculous thing happened before we broke down. We stopped to get gas and one of the riders was in the follow van so Suzanne could be in the van with her husband John in the rider van. Then we switched Pete and Suzanne out and coincidentally the van broke down after that point – had the van broken down with Pete in our van it would have been disastrous. We find that to be a silver lining in our otherwise difficult day.”

6/13/07 - COMMENT FROM CREW - DAVE

Dave – Jim’s crew group – “We’re in northern Arizona heading into Utah to get our next ½ night of sleep – hopefully a little more than that. We’re hoping the other group gets their van fixed and continue on and catch up with us in the early morning.”

6/13/07 - COMMENT FROM CREW - SUZANNE

Suzanne – Pete’s Crew – "Our van broke down – getting fuel pump replaced. We found an awesome repair place – put it right up on the racks right away. Come to find out we were one mile from the route and so we ran over to the corner just in the nick of time to cheer on Jeff Pierson as he rode by here in Flagstaff (crossing over Route 66). Amazing!! It’s a beautiful day – just a little breezy! We should be getting on the road within the hour and should catch up with the rider van and be with them before dark so we won’t lose any time.”

6/13/07 - COMMENT FROM RIDER - CHELSEA

Chelsea – Pete’s Group – "We just had a great transition with the other group. They did absolutely awesome. They were definitely ready for the change off. They were a strong shift. We are on now…doing strong – nearing Flagstaff. The car trouble with crew seems to be either a fuel pump or vapor lock – not sure yet. Please pray that it will be fixed before night comes. All is well and having a blast."

6/13/07 - TIME STATION 9

TS 9 - Flagstaff, AZ. Miles into race: 448.9; 2,553.9 miles to the finish; Average speed this station: 19.69; avg speed from the start is: 19.73. 1,390 ft climbed this station with a total climbed of 22,000. The team is now in 4th place in the corporate division.

6/13/07 Team Update- Ron

The night crew just handed off to the daytime crew at TS8. The handoff went well except for the night crew's vehicle problem! It will go into the shop at Flagstaff and they need it back by tonight- so PLEASE PRAY for a quick fix and that whatever the problem is, that it can be finished by nightfall.

6/13/07 -TIME STATION 8

TS 8 - Williams, AZ. Miles into the race: 452.8; Miles to finish:2590.0; Avg. speed this station:18.32 3,220 ft climb this station; 20,600 ft total climbing.

6/13/07 - UPDATE FROM CREW MEMBER - KEN

Ken – Pete’s group – “Hello Bloggers! We just broke down on the side of the road (the van broke down). We have many theories as to why but all we know now is that our car has started running again after letting it set for 15 min. Not sure what the cause was yet but will have it checked out. As of right now we are back rolling again. Our challenge right now is to catch up with the other group that is heading to Williams. Pete and the group are catching up with them and we will be getting this car checked out so we can drive through the evening with Pete’s group. That’s our adventure right now. We're thankful that our car is running again. Talk to you later.”

6/13/07 - COMMENT FROM RIDER - RON

Ron – "We were climbing the steep hill outside of Williams on I-40 approaching Devil Dog Road- there was a semi in the middle lane stopped dead on the freeway in front of us like he missed a gear or something. We gained on him but didn’t catch him. It’s a killer hill and Joe T. was out there and not wanting to be caught by anyone and determined to get off of Devil Dog Hill - Joe did an amazing effort. At the end of our day and are tired but doing good!"

6/13/07 - COMMENT FROM CREW MEMBER MIKE

Mike – Jim’s group crew member. “We just arrived at TS 7 (Prescott, AZ). Everyone is doing pretty good – all the crew says HI! All the riders are doing well. Aside from the annoying ticking from the hazard lights everything is good!

6/13/07 - TIME STATION 7

TS 7 - Prescott, AZ. Miles into the race: 389.9; Miles to finish: 2652.9; This section had 4,670 ft of climb with a total climb number at 17,400 ft. Avg. speed for this station was 14.94 mph.

6/13/07 - PETE COMMENTS

Pete: “Good Morning! Our team got into Blythe last night after an incredible series of rides through the desert around the Salton Sea and particularly noteworthy was the ride up Box Canyon where we were trading off with 2 other teams – basically drag racing up Box Canyon. Then we got onto Interstate 10 and just flew into Blythe. We didn’t have a tail wind so we did it all with just lots of work and everybody got involved. When we got off to make the exchanges at the off ramps on I-10 there was the moon and the stars looked like you could reach u p and almost touch them. We could see the Milky Way in the East right across the sky – it was amazing.

The switch over at the hotel last night went perfectly. Those guys (Jim, Joe T., Jeff H., Ron) were so pumped up and ready to go. They were standing in the front of the hotel – they couldn’t wait for Chelsea to pull in. We got a decent hotel and some good rest.

We are going to try to intercept the team this morning. We are not following the course because we need to book it…so we’re going towards Phoenix and then around Phoenix and straight up to Flagstaff and depending where the other group is we will exchange as soon as we get to them.

We are really excited! We’re having a great time.

6/13/07 - RIDER COMMENTS

Wed AM – From Chelsea: “We are on the road in Arizona- Jeff John Chelsea Pete. It’s Wednesday morning. We had an awesome day yesterday. It was so much fun. Our team did an awesome job especially through the heat. And OH did it get hot! No flats, no accidents so that was an absolute blessing! We are having so much fun. I tell you what – along the way somehow we accumulated more SPIZ to drink and fresh apricots were given to us. We’ve been given food all along the way from people watching the race.

It’s been a close race between us and a few other teams, we were only minutes apart so it was close. We are having so much fun at this point that we’d do it again…but ask us again at day 7.

We just talked to the other group - they are just through Prescott, AZ and they “are cooking” says Joe T. Cooking meaning speed wise.

Pete says in response to Chelsea’s earlier comment about not smelling like a girl anymore: ‘I don’t smell like a girl any more but I never started smelling like a girl.

We’ll keep you posted. All’s well – having a blast.”

HELLO FROM CREW

From Mike. "Just past TS 6. Dave, Diane and I are doing well. Hi Mom, Hi 20Somethings, hope you guys are checking the blog out. That’s it for now. Talk to you soon!”

TIME STATION 6

TS 6 - Congress, AZ. Total miles: 341.6; Miles to finish: 2701.2; Avg. speed to this TS: 20.08. Climbing this section: 1,740 ft; climbing totals so far: 12,700 ft.

REPORT FROM TIME STATION 5

From Dave. "Just made TS 5. Just exchanged riders, having fun. We had a little fun…Jeff H. lost his tail light during this last leg. We’re going to have to do a little shimmy of tail lights to keep everything legit, but we’re good.”

TIME STATION 5

TS 5 - Hope, AZ. Miles into the race: 281.7; Miles to the finish: 2761.1; Avg speed to this TS: 20.77 mph.

TIME STATION 4

TS 4, Blythe, CA. They are still in 3rd place at this TS. Miles into the race: 228.4; Miles to go: 2814.4; Avg. speed to this TS: 25.52!!!! Go team!

TIME STATION 3

TS 3 report stats: Chiriaco Summit, CA. They are still in 3rd place at this TS. Miles into the race: 161.2. Miles to finish: 2881.6; Avg. speed to this station: 19.97. They have now done 8,000 ft of climbing so far in the race with 2,080 ft of climbing just between TS 2 and TS 3.

6/13/07 - RIDERS ON THE ROAD IN ARIZONA

From Ron – “Good Morning. Just finished my first pull on the road. We passed into AZ at 1:18 am. We’re ahead of scheduled, we thought we would be on the road at 2:00 am and they (Pete’s group) got here early. This will be great! I got my first 30 min. pull on the road. It feels to good to finally get on the bike and rolling. We’re flying down Interstate 10 in AZ.”

PETE'S GROUP RESTS

From Suzanne. “Hey everyone in blog world. Stopped in Blythe. We sent the other team off and hopefully we’ll catch them somewhere in Arizona tomorrow. We are absolutely tired, going to sleep. Hopefully we can fit in 5.5 hours sleep and we’ll get on the road again. We’ll blog you tomorrow again.”

JIM'S CREW TAKES OVER

From Dave, crew member for Jim’s Crew group – “We took over not too long ago. It was about 1:15 am (4:15 race time) when we made it into Arizona. We are chugging along in AZ now.”

JIM'S CREW ON THE WAY TO BLYTHE

This group had the arduous job of riding in a van to Blythe the first leg of this race. We thought you'd enjoy seeing how Joe spent some of that ride time.

PETE'S GROUP FINISHES FIRST SECTION

Suzanne “Hey everybody out there who is reading this blog. We appreciate it. We are rolling along on the 10 somewhere between Indio and Blythe. We probably have about 50 more miles tonight before the graveyard shift takes over. Pete is out on the bike. He is doing very strong - between 25 and 30 mph. We are just rolling along doing our thing. Keep on reading, we appreciate all your support and we’ll talk to ya’ll soon.”