Team Millenium/IRSA
Terry Zmrhal and Tracy McKay
Muffy looked the the route ahead and plotted another
rider sleep break at Fort Bridger just after a section of interstate
riding. We called ahead and got reservations, and then contacted
the riders up the road. We found out Tracy had just started his
pull, so we told them to tell him to slow down, it would be a
long one, and get Terrry up the road to the motel. The problem
was that Terry's pace van was with Tracy and Tracy's was getting
gas. When I called Typhoon, Steve told me they were getting
gas and then needed to shop for a bottle brush. We asked that
they get to Tracy as soon as possible, so Terry could go up the
road for his sleep. I met with some resistance from Steve, but
finally convinced him that we needed them back with Tracy ASAP.
Da Bus reached the motel first and we booked
two rooms, one for the riders, the other for the crew. Chris and
Michael came in and Chris was pretty wiped. We sent her off to
bed with the promise that the Steve and Michael would snore in
the room next door once the riders left, and she and Mary could
have piece and quiet in their own room.
We did a bit of van cleaning and started preparing
for Tracy's arrival. Since I need to adjust Tracy's Ttitanflex
with wheels mounted, I planned to stay with Typhoon with
Tracy and Sharon. Sharon would do both massages, so would need
to stay for both riders. However, she doesn't have very good night
vision, so we'd plan to swap drivers with someone in Zephyr
(Muffy, Philip or James) partway through the night, so no one
person would have to drive all night.
Just after Terry arrived, we got a call from Steve
in Typhoon that Tracy was slowing down, and to bring Terry
back. We told them it was OK for Tracy to slow down, but he needed
to keep riding, so both riders could get sleep. There was also
some confusion about interstate riding. I had misheard Lon at
the prerace meeting and thought he said we needed to exit at every
ramp. Apparently it was only for hand-offs. A few calls to race
headquarters got this clarified, but apparently left one crew
member distrustful of me.
Steve called us back several times to tell us
Tracy was really going slow and to bring Terry back. We again
said Tracy needed to ride and to please keep him rolling, but
to please call when 5 miles out, so we could get Terry ready to
go. If Tracy had slowed that much, our time estimates would be
off, and we wanted to have Terry get as much sleep as possible.
But then, right on the original schedule, and
without warning, Tracy and Typhoon showed up at the motel.
We scrambled to get Terry up and on the bike without losing more
time. Mary seemed a bit stressed and headed off to bed. Steve
laid down in the back of Da Bus and went to sleep.
I got Tracy's wheels and tried to adjust his Ttitanflex.
I got the brakes and rear mech all set, but still could not get
the front to shift reliably. Michael also tried, but we determined
that the old ultegra mech was both worn out and even a new one
simply could not handle the wide range of chainrings Tracy had
(39-56). We could get it to shift into the big ring, but it would
require some manual intervention (pushing the chain with one's
heel) to shift down. This was probably not acceptable in mountainous
terrain.
We also worked to get aero-bars on Tracy's other
bike. Steve had handed me the aero-bars that morning and said
he couldn't get them on. We found bolts in Da Bus, and
kludged up some washers since the bolts were too long, and
eventually got the bars mounted. I did not realize at the time
there was another set of aero-bars in Da Bus!
After all this, I got the cardboard on the roof,
and tried to move the wheels to the roof, but couldn't find any
of the bungees. I tried to get Steve to help me, but had no luck.
I eventually found bungees scattered all over the car. Steve did
get up long enough to remind us we had promised to clean out Tracy's
bottles. Tracy had loads of bottles, but they kept using fresh
ones and letting stuff grow in used ones. I collected a bag full
of used bottles, found a couple of fresh ones to use for now,
and planned to wash them up the road. Then we got Tracy up and
ready to go, but alas, there were no ignition keys. I then became
very unpopular as I had to wake everyone to find the ignition
keys. (It still took two more days before we cable-tied this set
of keys to the car!)
Somewhere down the road we discovered the keys
weren't the only thing removed from the car that should not have
been. The money to cover gas was in still in Steve's pocket.
Despite all this, the rest of the night went by
quite smoothly. I asked Tracy about how he was feeling on the
prior pull, and he said he was fine and felt he was flying. He
had no idea why Steve was telling us otherwise. He was a little
distressed early on when someone gave him the wrong distance to
the motel, but he was riding fine!
After Tracy's pull, Philip took over driving for
me, and I rejoined Terry, Muffy and James. The climb up through
Flaming Gorge was not too bad, a shame we missed seeing
it, since it was dark!
We came into Vernal while Terry was riding. It
was well into daylight and he suggested we stop for coffee. We
made sure he had full bottles and no turns, and took advantage.
We picked up a Strawberry Smoothie for him too. The rider switch
wasn't too far down the road, so he got his smoothie reward right
away. We then headed to Dinosaur and the Colorado Welcome Station
for the next rider exchange.
We bought bleach here and we washed all of Tracy's bottles. We
passed them back to Typhoon at the rider exchange.
Terry got to play tourist a bit.
Communications central here!
Muffy and Michael had been having daily pushup contests, but the
day crew had not arrived yet, so Muffy won this one by default.
We eventually got a call that they had missed a turn and were
now back on route.
John Hughes, Terry's coach, came out to greet
us. He stayed with us for a while, while Terry was riding and
then after the rider exchange to chat with Terry in the car. He
was a great boost to Terry. It is always nice to get a visit on
route.
I hesitate to include the following details here,
but it's very much part of our story. There is some unwritten
rule about not airing dirty laundry, which means that only good
stuff gets written about a RAAM experience. Well not so good stuff
happens too. A group of twelve people thrown together for two
weeks of close quarters, little sleep, and high stress don't always
mesh well, and sometimes crew leave (on their own or they are
asked to leave). I've even heard of some crew wanting to get rid
of their rider! Leaving this part out would give an incomplete
story of our RAAM experience. And having read this, in your future,
if you find yourself in a similar situation, you won't think you
are the first! We heard many stories from other crew of conflicts
as well. On the other hand, many other crews worked perfectly
well together, so don't be put off by the possibility of crew
discord.
We talked some with John and Terry about the crew
issues to try and figure out how to better work together. It seemed
some folks were really miserable. By this point we realized there
was a serious problem. It really seemed that one person was disruptive
to crew harmony in general, and it just seemed like it wasn't
everyone's number one goal to get our riders to Pensacola.
We knew that losing a crew member could mean more
work for everyone else, but it might also make actually things
easier, and this was a decision that had to be made. Muffy considered
staying for a while, and tried to rearrange her schedule, so she
could. We also knew we had Lulu joining us the next days and that
a crew of 8 could actually work.
As much as we wanted to keep our riders from having
to worry about what was going on with the crew, Terry was well
aware of many of the issues and these needed to be resolved if
we were to have a successful RAAM.
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