6/15/07 - COMMENT FROM CREW MEMBER - SUZANNE

Suzanne (Crew member, Pete’s group) – "We’re still traveling through Kansas and it’s still pretty flat. Nighttime has started to set in and we’re doing all of our headlight stuff. I wanted to let you know that the fireflies are starting to come out and play and they are dancing in the ditches next to us. It’s pretty cool. There doesn’t seem to be any wind. The skies seem to be pretty clear and hopefully we should have a great night and average over 20 mph. We’ll talk to you later.”

6/15/07 - TIME STATION 27

TS 27 - Mount Vernon, KS. 1496.8 miles into the race with 1546.0 miles to finish. They did 460 ft of climbing this section with their total climbing at 52,700 ft. Avg. speed this section: 19.04.

6/15/07 - PRATT, KS - McDonald's Stop

Crew received free food here as well as a small donation to the North Coast Cycling Team efforts!

6/15/07 - COMMENT FROM RIDER - RON

Ron - Jim's group rider. "We ate at McDonalds in Pratt, KS. All you can eat for free!!! And as I was explaining what we were racing for, a lady gave me a $20 donation for the NCC efforts. Cool!!!!"

6/15/07 COMMENT FROM CREW MEMBER - KEN

Ken- Pete's group. "Hello, blog line, this is Ken from the follow crew on what we are calling the "swing shift" these days. We are currently following Jeff Pearson. We just came out of Pratt, Kansas, where the folks were very hospitable. We were actually encountering some more technical problems or should I say minor electrical problems with the vehicles that we are working through. Every individual we came across in Pratt, Kansas, was amazingly helpful and pleasant. If we are going to have problems it is nice to be in place like that where they are so nice. The graveyard shift (Jim's group) is hopefully tucked away in their beds or close to their hotel where they will be going to sleep soon. At 2 in the morning we will be hooking up with them and we will be making the transition from one team to another. They probably have already blogged to say they had a great day of riding with 250 miles today. We have also had a good day of riding. Our riders have been riding into a steady headwind for most of the day, but using the drafting technique they have been keeping a good attitude about the whole thing and appear to be riding very strong. That is it for this blog, and we will probably blog a little bit later as well."

6/15/07 RIDER COMMENT - CHELSEA

Chelsea- “This is Chelsea calling, I have a funny story. We just finished going through Pratt, Kansas. This is also a time station where we check in our times, so the boys put me out just before the time station and radioed me and said, ‘ok we are just going to run in here to McDonalds to get free food in Pratt,’ it was free for all the RAAM racers, so they said ‘we’ll catch up with you.’ 30 minutes later in a headwind they catch up with me. Obviously priorities came in to play. They put the girl on the road so they could all go eat free McDonalds. That’s all I have to say about that. That’s right, and John said that Pete had to sign autographs in McDonalds in Pratt, Kansas. It’s so funny.”

6/15/07 TIME STATION - 26

TS 26- Pratt, KS. 1443.5 miles in the race with 1599.3 miles to the finish. Avg. speed this section: 20.05 mph.

6/15/07 RIDER COMMENT - CHELSEA

Chelsea- “It’s Chelsea again. I forget to tell you, as we were going through this rainstorm, Jeff and I, as married couple, got to experience it together. It was awesome. We were drafting off each other because of the strong headwind. So it was really sweet because I got to eat all the dirt off his bike as I was drafting him, but then he got to eat off dirt from my bike as he was drafting me. So it was a fun married couple experience. A headwind and a rain. I tell you, what could be better than that? We should have thought of that for our honeymoon! Just kidding. Thanks, bye.”

6/15/07 RIDER COMMENT - CHELSEA

Chelsea- “Hi, this is Chelsea calling again. Lots of messages today. Well, we just went through a big rainstorm. It was hard but short, so that was good. We got nice and soaking wet but we are biking more so we will dry off. We are just heading into Pratt, Kansas, where they are giving all RAAM racers free McDonalds food. We’ll let you know how that goes. I don’t know, about McDonalds on a race. I don’t know, we might be on the side of the road somewhere. But that is pretty generous of them. I don’t know how that will go but just wanted to give you the latest."

6/15/07 RIDER COMMENT - CHELSEA

Chelsea- rider on Pete's team. “Hi this is Chelsea calling and reporting that we went through Greensburg, Kansas, and that was unbelievable. The devastation there is unreal. I don’t think I have ever seen such devastation. In one strand of homes there was but one home standing. It was unbelievable, unbelievable. The tornado totally wiped them out. I just wanted to call and report that. It was just very devastating. Other than that, things are good. It looks like we are heading into a bit of a storm here, hopefully not. Keep our fingers crossed. Other than that, strong headwinds. That’s all I can report. Kansas is strong headwinds."

6/15/07 TIME STATION 25

TS 25 - Mullinville, KS. 1401.4 miles in the race with 1641.4 miles to the finish. Avg. speed this section: 19.58 mph.

6/15/07 COMMENT FROM RIDER - JOHN

John- rider with Pete's group. "It's about 3:45 race time, I guess it’s about 12:45 California time. We are making our way from Montezuma to Mullinville in a huge, huge head wing. Pete and I got out there and worked together for a little while and managed to keep up almost a 20 mph pace. Jeff and Chelsea are out there together and we’re hoping that a couple of storms will converge and give us a little bit of a tail wind when we get to Mullinville. That’s all for now. Bye."

6/15/07 - COMMENT FROM RIDER - RON

Ron sent a cell message “Hi! We’re done for today. 253 miles – wahoo!!! We’re now on the road to the hotel. All’s well. Stomach was not so good yesterday but doing great today. Knees are sore but OK. All went very well for me today – hammered hard but can do it again tomorrow!”

6/15/07 - COMMENT FROM CREW MEMBER - MIKE

Mike - Jim’s group – “We are all doing good. I’m especially doing good since I got about 3 hours of sleep this morning on the road. We just finished our 12-hour shift and we are headed to Pratt, KS to get some free McDonalds and then we are going to move forward to Iola, KS to sleep for a while before we hit the road again. So that’s our update for now. Hope everyone is doing well. We’ll talk to you soon. Good night!”

6/15/07 - COMMENT FROM RIDER - CHELSEA

Chelsea – Rider w/Pete’s group. “I just wanted to report from yesterday because we didn’t have much cell phone service. We had a great day on Thursday and had lots of hill climbing. But what goes up must come down!! We had great down hills – we had a great day yesterday. It rained a bit and we saw snow in the mountains. We went up to 11,000 ft in elevation.

Today is Friday. We just did our team exchange and they had a great ride last night, early morning. Now it is our turn. We are in KS. We are on flat ground but I tell you what, this head wind is huge! Even though it’s flat it feels like we’re climbing because the head wind is so strong. Had a few sprinkles but all is well as far as rain. We’re having fun!”

6/15/07 - COMMENT FROM CREW MEMBER - SUZANNE

Suzanne –crew member Pete’s group – "Hey everyone out there in the blog world. I’m out in the van with Maggie and Ken and we’re racing toward catching our other group who are in KS. We just entered KS recently racing along the 160 trying to catch them between 2:00 and 3:00 pm race time (Eastern time). We’ll switch out and then we’ll take the next 12 hours and pedal our way across KS towards Missouri but will probably end up switching out again late, late in their evening around Iola. Have a great day!”

6/15/07 - Time Station 24

TS 24 - Montezuma, KS. 1345.6 miles in the race with 1697.2 miles to the finish. Avg. speed this section: 18.86 mph.

6/15/07 - COMMENT FROM CREW MEMBER - DAVE

Dave – crew member Jim’s group “We luckily found our ice chest cap that has been missing since Utah. It magically appeared in Diane’s purse. Of course we think that it was actually put there on purpose so that when Mike laid down in the back seat he would get all wet from the melting ice. That’s good news.

We are in Kansas having some head winds. Went through TS 23 just a little while ago.”

6/15/07 - TIME STATION 23

TS 23 - Ulysses, KS. 1295.3 miles in the race with 1747.5 miles to the finish. They climbed 110 ft this section with a total climb at 51,300 ft. Avg. speed this section: 21.78 mph.

6/15/07 - COMMENT FROM CREW MEMBER - DAVE

Dave –crew member Jim’s group – “Just entered Kansas after going all night through thick fog and we’re looking good and hoping to gain a lot of ground here.”

6/15/07 - COMMENT FROM RIDER - RON

Ron- Rider on Jim's group – “The North Coast Cycling team wants to report we have entered Kansas as of 6:08am San Diego time!!! Rolling on the flats – still a beautiful day with hardly any winds so it’s rolling smooth and flat. Sun is coming up. Just wanted to report we have passed through CO and we are in Kansas and rolling strong.”

6/15/07 - TIME STATION 22

TS 22 - Springfield, CO. 1222.7 miles into the race with 1820.1 miles left to finish. They climbed 350 ft this section with total climbing at 51,200 ft. Avg. speed this section was 22.89. They are still in 5th place but the other two teams vying for 3rd with them are very close. Go team North Coast!!!

6/15//07 - COMMENT FROM RIDER - RON

Ron –Rider on Jim’s group “Good morning from the racers on the course. It’s about 5:17am CO time. The sun is just coming up and we feel like we are back home because it’s all foggy here. We’re on a really fast section of the course and we have no wind, which is a hugh praise. Last year we heard stories about this section having major head winds. We are just flying through this section with a slight down hill - almost flat. We’re having a kick – lots of fun. Joe is on the course at the moment and we’re heading towards Kansas. We’ve already checked into TS 21. It looks like June gloom out here – it’s not really cold so that’s nice. Wonderful cycling weather. We’re having a blast going fast. Watching the sun come up as we get to Kansas and to points east from there. Thanks for your prayers and support. We’ll keep you posted.”

6/15/07 - TIME STATION 21

TS 21 - Kim, CO. 1173.1 miles into the race with 1869.7 to finish. They climbed 1,840 ft this section with 50,800 ft total climbing. Avg. speed this section: 19.60 mph.

6/14/07 - COMMENT FROM CREW - MAGGIE

Maggie-crew member Pete’s group “Sending in a blog to this blogisphere. We’ve been in and out of phone service all day. It’s been an interesting day. We’ve crossed the Rockies 3 main peaks – beautiful scenery. Really excellent day. Good weather but the last bit was a bit of a wet event and that made it interesting. We fueled up good old Pete with a Dairy Queen blizzard and that seemed to set him in good steed for now. We’ve seen a couple of elk and lots of deer this evening. After a really long day, we’ve just got a few minutes left here so we’ve had a good day in the beautiful Rocky Mountains.”

6/14/07 - TIME STATION 20

TS 20 - Trinidad, CO. 1101.09 miles into the race with 1940.9 miles to finish. They climbed 3,950 ft this station with 49,000 ft total climbing. Avg speed this station 17.92 mph. Both Teams 601 & 608 are about 25 minutes ahead of North Coast Team at this point keeping us in the 5th place slot for now. Keep up the good work North Coast Team!!!