June 29, 2004 – Four days after the flare-up, the dust began to settle on a controversy that raged during the middle of the race, possibly effected the outcome, and certainly made the newcomers Jure Robic (Slovenia) and Mike Trevino (San Diego, Calif.) acutely aware of the psychological warfare that’s a traditional part of the Insight Race Across America (RAAM).

It’s nothing new for one rider in RAAM to be disbelieving of another rider’s average speed over a particular stretch of the country, and by the half-way point the Robic camp – competing in only their second RAAM – found themselves puzzling over the way rookie Mike Trevino was tenaciously able to hang on and remain in contention with the Slovenian former road-race cycling champion.

Accusations soon started flying. Robic – representing the Slovenian military – deployed one of his support vehicles to spy on Trevino, and the problem was compounded when the race officials monitoring these two riders had problems with the brakes in their van and withdrew from the race for 18 hours while repairs were made, leaving the two riders unmarshalled for a period of a few hours.

The organization acted within an hour of hearing about the problems to bring in extra officials, but different circumstances worked against the situation, and distances to be covered were as much as 300 miles. Within 24 hours both of the two leading riders in the elite Solo category were under the watchful eye of an official.

Meanwhile tension within the Robic and Trevino camps was reaching boiling point. Trevino responded to Robic’s spy car by enlisting one of his own – a move permitted within the rules of RAAM. Several hours later an official caught up with the Robic spy car and issued the team a 15-minute penalty (added to Robic’s finishing time) for ‘caravanning’ which is when cars from two teams get too close to one another and cause a potential obstruction to passing road traffic.

Fatigue blended with stress and frustration to create a bitter cocktail. Angry messages were posted to the Robic team web site by team members who were concerned the organization was biased against them. Hate mail started coming into the race administration from fans of Robic.

The race organization moved to bring matters under control by informing the Robic camp of a rule that prevents teams from denigrating the race. Once they learned that official vehicles had been dispatched to both theirs and Trevino’s team, the Slovenians were satisfied that appropriate action had been taken and a retraction appeared on the Robic web site. His crew members later admitted that they might have acted too hastily in the heat of the moment.

The controversy, however, was not over. Meanwhile, in the Trevino camp at roughly the same time, a reporter for the race’s in-house television crew asked Trevino to comment on the allegations of cheating made by the Robic team. This was more than the San Diego software developer was prepared to take, and the team imposed a media ban that remained in effect until the run into Atlantic City.

The incident with the journalist was the last straw for Trevino, a former high school wrestler and line-backer in his college football team, who then became an ultra-distance runner before stepping up to RAAM. Struggling with his motivation to stay in the race, on Friday evening, June 25, he climbed off his bicycle and went for a 20-minute run to ground him while he reflected on the situation. On return to his team car Trevino remounted continued to Atlantic City – although his tussle with Robic for line honors was by then long over.

Trevino’s result – second place in the Solo Men’s category – identifies him as a remarkable athlete who pulled off an impressive feat. This is the result that several great RAAM champions have gotten in their first year of the race. The determination he showed in staying with Robic for the first half of the race made Trevino’s 2004 campaign all the more impressive. However, after his 2004 experience Trevino – while admitting that the complexity of the race was fascinating – would not immediately commit to entering again.

Of course RAAM veteran and co-owner Lon Haldeman has seen it all before – and he permitted himself a wry chuckle and a demure lowering of the eyes on hearing accounts of the events. Haldeman recounted stories from his days of racing RAAM, where he committed acts of trickery with the express purpose of inducing paranoia in his rivals, playing on their frayed nerves and tired minds. “We used to get up to all sorts of things, far worse that that,” Said Haldeman with a smile.

RAAM race director, Jim Pitre, himself a record-setting winner of the two-person team division was not overly sympathetic for either the Trevino or the Robic camps, and said: “There was no proof of any cheating. With proof we’d take a different view of the matter. People do not take into account that in any kind of racing mind games are played. This just happens to be a more drawn-out saga, and there are other factors such as sleep deprivation thrown into to complicate it further. This is a perfect example of how people’s minds get set sideways by the race. I see this kind of thing as just a part of RAAM. They’re big boys, I say ‘get over it’.”

Almost six hours after Trevino’s eagerly-awaited arrival in Atlantic City, three-time winner Wolfgang Fasching of Austria pedaled a tired cadence along the Atlantic Expressway to complete his seventh RAAM. For Fasching, who counts Robic among his personal friends, this had not quite been his year. Lack of proper training was one reason he gave for never managing to mount a challenge to the leaders – having decided to compete in the 2004 race as late as April. Around lunchtime in Atlantic City, the extraordinary and ebullient Grand Pac Masters team rolled gleefully onto the legendary Boardwalk to complete a record breaking ride in their age division, of 7 days, 6 hours and 31 minutes.

As the evening came, the wife and husband team of Terri Gooch and George Thomas riding for VeloWear/Co-Motion, from Corvallis, Oregon, completed their trek in the Two-Person Mixed category, in 7 days, 18 hours, 5 minutes. Thomas, a six-time veteran of RAAM, has now ridden the race as a Solo, with Gooch on a tandem, and now with Gooch in a mixed team.

A few minutes later, Germany’s Team Frauleins rolled triumphantly up the boards to complete their first RAAM and take second place in the 4-Person Women’s category with a time of 8 days, 4 hours, 40 minutes.