June 22, 2006 (Atlantic City, New Jersey) – America’s first ever Tour de France competitor, Jonathan “Jock” Boyer, of Monterey, Calif., made a successful return to the Race Across America, adding a Solo Enduro victory in the 3,043 epic to his first RAAM win back 1985.

Arriving in Atlantic City at 1:35 p.m. on June 21, Boyer was tired, but happy with his time of 10 days and 52 minutes.

This made him the first winner of the new Solo Enduro division of racing, in which riders were mandated to take at least 40 hours of stops.

For Boyer, who first won RAAM aged 32, his return to the race 20 years later was dogged by difficulties.

The problems began on the second day, when extended time in the aero position of his time trial bike started to place excessive stress on his neck muscles.

Within 48 hours he started to need a head support, which was initially fabricated as a cardboard pillar taped to his bars and later replaced by a proper neck brace.

Next, when traveling through the high winds of Kansas on days five and six, so much debris was blown into the air that visibility was sometimes reduced to only a few feet.

One of his support vehicles drove off the road and a wheel sheared off. Hospital treatment was required by the car”šs occupants, but thankfully none sustained more than superficial injuries.

This left Boyer with only one support vehicle, seemingly an unsustainable loss.

But RAAM veteran Byron Riper was recruited from Fort Scott, Kansas, and under the expert support crew leadership of another RAAM veteran, Kerry Ryan, Boyer became the first Solo rider to win with the support of only one vehicle and three crew members.

“We were begging and borrowing where ever we could. One company chief, who was a stranger I randomly called, even made a $100 grocery order for us and brought it out to the course. People really stepped up all around us to help keep Jock on the road. That’s all we had to do, we knew he’d win it if we could just keep the support moving,” said Ryan.

All the way Boyer diced with the leading Solo Traditional riders, but in the end he had to let them get away and settle for victory in the Enduro division alone. He remained philosophical about this. “Riding for a cause makes for a whole different viewpoint. You can’t get disappointed when what you’re achieving is not a personal goal. Bringing information about organ transplants to people all along the route, that’s what my race was really all about.”