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British Strategic Lions & Fireflies squads lead Race Across America

Military and fire-fighters speed across USA in 3000-mile non-stop sufferfest.

That epic slog from one side of the USA to the other, the Race Across America (RAAM), got underway last week, with solo riders leaving Oceanside in Southern California June 11, and teams setting out June 15.

As of the latest update, a team with a strong British contingent is on course to both win and set a new speed record for the cross-country crossing, but when you look at some of the names in the eight-man Allied Forces squad, it's no wonder they're quick.

The British half of the Allied Forces squad is the Strategic Lions team of 11-time Best British All Rounder time trial champion Kevin Dawson; double Olympian John Tanner; road race champion, top UK time trialist and cyclo-cross racer Keith Murray; and team founder Andy Watson.

They have teamed up with the American Team4Mil, led by former Navy Seal Wayne K Dowd, along with Shaun Olin, Billy Edwards and Jonathan C. Puskas.

As of about 10am this morning, Allied Forces is 959.7 miles into the 3000+ mile course, averaging 24.13 miles per hour. That puts them on track to break the eight-rider team record for RAAM, which stands at 5 days, 5 hours and 5 minutes, set by team ViaSat in last year's event.

In fact, the Allied Forces team have expressed a burning desire to crack five days for the race, which would beak the absolute speed record for RAAM. A mark of 5:01:08 (24.02mph) was set back in 1989 by the four-rider Lightning team using faired recumbent bikes.

"The signs are looking good for the assault on the world record but with more than 2,000 miles of this epic journey remaining there are still momentous challenges ahead," says Strategic Lions spokesman Stuart La-Ffin.

Strasser leads Solo men

Meanwhile in the solo event, the race leader, Christoph Strasser of Austria has been battling foul weather to maintain his position up front. At the last checkpoint, Strasser had covered 2263.2miles, 140 miles ahead of Reto Schoch of Switzerland, who has a gap of just under 100 miles to his countryman Dani Wyss in third.

Top solo British rider at the moment is Mark Pattinson in sixth place after 1878.5 miles.

Four Fireflies flame on

The Allied Forces riders aren't the only British success in RAAM. The RAAM Fireflies are four firemen from the UK who are currently leading the four-rider category at 857.6 miles. Ben Williams, Harry Evans, Tom 'Embrio' Bowering and Adrian Colyer are only 20 minutes ahead of the German 4athletes powered by gateprotect team, so nobody thinks it's all over yet.

If you're wondering why the eight-rider teams are so much faster than the four-rider squads, that's because an eight-rider team is effectively two four-man team time trial squads. With four riders on the road at a time, Allied Forces has maintained over 30 miles per hour for significant stretches of the race so far.

Here's legendary American race announcer Dave Towle with the latest RAAM daily video update:

Race Across America YouTube channel

John has been writing about bikes and cycling for over 30 years since discovering that people were mug enough to pay him for it rather than expecting him to do an honest day's work.

He was heavily involved in the mountain bike boom of the late 1980s as a racer, team manager and race promoter, and that led to writing for Mountain Biking UK magazine shortly after its inception. He got the gig by phoning up the editor and telling him the magazine was rubbish and he could do better. Rather than telling him to get lost, MBUK editor Tym Manley called John’s bluff and the rest is history.

Since then he has worked on MTB Pro magazine and was editor of Maximum Mountain Bike and Australian Mountain Bike magazines, before switching to the web in 2000 to work for CyclingNews.com. Along with road.cc founder Tony Farrelly, John was on the launch team for BikeRadar.com and subsequently became editor in chief of Future Publishing’s group of cycling magazines and websites, including Cycling Plus, MBUK, What Mountain Bike and Procycling.

John has also written for Cyclist magazine, edited the BikeMagic website and was founding editor of TotalWomensCycling.com before handing over to someone far more representative of the site's main audience.

He joined road.cc in 2013. He lives in Cambridge where the lack of hills is more than made up for by the headwinds.

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6 comments

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Gkam84 | 10 years ago
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Seana Hogan is out  20

Apparently, Seana, was having "lung" or "respiratory" problems that they attribute to dust in AZ. She had some difficulty climbing Wolf Creek Pass, then had to stop for 12 hours in Alamosa, CO to try to get successfully treated.

"Seana has been dealing with some kind of lung problem. The dust storms in AZ are most likely the cause. Her legs feel great but she can not breathe so she has had to slow down climbing Wolf Creek Pass and the roads beyond. We're trying a few remedies to see if we can get her breathing back. If we can't get something to clear up her lungs we'll consider stopping to prevent further damage."

//fbcdn-sphotos-e-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/p480x480/1003665_616609271684025_1086059586_n.jpg)

https://www.facebook.com/SeanaKHogan

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Gkam84 | 10 years ago
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Solo riders set out on 11th and teams on 15th  3

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Farky replied to Gkam84 | 10 years ago
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Gkam84 wrote:

Solo riders set out on 11th and teams on 15th  3

Ah, yes, missed that bit...makes sense now - the teams are flying in comparison then.

No idea how someone gets through this solo....mad effort.

Race around Ireland is tough enough, possibly the effect of a circuit.

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Farky | 10 years ago
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Did I read that wrong?

The 8 man team was at 959miles where the solo was at 2263.2miles?

How long apart did they start?

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Chuck replied to Farky | 10 years ago
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Farky wrote:

Did I read that wrong?

The 8 man team was at 959miles where the solo was at 2263.2miles?

How long apart did they start?

4 days, according to the article  3

Avatar
Gkam84 | 10 years ago
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For tracking, you can get it here http://www.tractalis.com/raam2013/

If you check out Maria Parker aswell, she was out of RAAM at one point, after her follow vehicle got rear ended by a texting driver.

She got a special ruling to get back in and if she keeps her pace up, could actually win the female solo race, even after a day out of the race.

Christoph Strasser is on for a new record, under the magical 8 day mark.

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