June 23, 2006 – Tinker Juarez, of Downey, California, made it clear at the finish: compared to all of his world cup, Olympic and 24-hour mountain bike races, the Race Across America was by far the hardest.

Finishing as the third Solo Enduro rider, and first rookie in his division, with a time of 10 days, 22 hours and 21 minutes, Juarez said in Atlantic City on June 22: “Just finishing this race was the hardest thing I have ever done. There are no words to describe how hard it was.”

The Juarez crossing was notable for the 65 logged hours he took off the bike, and an estimated additional 10 hours of unlogged down time.

“I’d love to say I’ll be back, but I can’t see myself sleeping only one or two hours a day. That’s a different breed of rider,” said Juarez.

Yet he saw possibilities for other riders from the 24-hour mountain bike scene to compete in RAAM, and pointed to 34-years old Nat Ross of Vail, Colorado, who raced on the victorious Vail/Beaver Creek team this year.

“Nat has come to check it out on a team. I could see him competing in the Solo category,” Said Juarez. As for other 24-hour mountain bikers, Juarez said: “If they could get a crew together, anything is possible.”

Juarez never had it easy in the 2006 RAAM. His first crisis came on Day One, when he had difficulty getting comfortable on his aerodynamic bicycles and ended up riding most of the race on his standard carbon/aluminum Cannondale without aero bars.

“I came apart that day, but I regrouped, slept, came back… and then hit Kansas. That was the most horrible wind of my life. I put my head down between my legs and rode at 13 mph for 15 hours straight. I don’t want to bag Kansas, but it was lonely out there and I was happy to get out of that state.”

Not only did he seldom use aero bars, but also Juarez spent hardly any time out of the big chainring (the larger of the front cogs). Crew members said that while going through the Ozarks in Missouri and the Appalachians in West Virginia he dropped onto the small chainring on a few occasions.

“I didn’t want to injure my knees, but in the last two days I went back to the big ring. When I used the (little) ring I felt like I wasn’t going anywhere,” he explained.


Kenny Souza Places 4th

Former Duathlon world champion Kenny Souza, of San Diego, California, battled his way to the finish line to claim fourth place in the Solo Enduro category of the Race Across America (RAAM), with a time of 11 days, 4 hours, 47 minutes.

He pedaled his bicycle into Atlantic City on June 22nd at 4:56 p.m.

For Souza it was the end of a very long and immensely difficult ordeal, the level of which he had not quite foreseen before the race.

“There was one point where I rode four miles in one hour,” said Souza to illustrate just how tough it got for him. “Finally I just laid my bike down on the road and said ‘I’m done’. My crew chief said ‘Fine. You can ride home then, because we’re leaving you here.’ There was a lot of tough love!”

To observers following Souza, however, it looked like he would never quit.

And his 14-years old son, Dalton, who was a crew member, always believed his father would make it to the finish. “Watching him go through hell, go through all of this, I’m so proud of him. You see the true human nature of survival. I hope to do this one day,” Said Dalton.

Souza’s participation in RAAM materialized very quickly. This time one year ago he hadn’t even considered competing in the Race Across America. Then a two-person team effort in the Furnace Creek 508 turned into a solo ride when his partner was injured in an accident shortly before the race. Souza won the Solo category, and when a few weeks later he heard that RAAM was introducing the Enduro division with 40 hours of mandated rest breaks, he decided that he would enter.

Paradoxically, after the race Souza stated that if he did it again he would enter the Traditional category, in which riders can choose where and for how long they stop.

“I think the Enduro is tougher than the Traditional race. Riders in the Traditional division can bring up the RV when they get tired and take a break. We had to pedal on to the next control point, and at the mandatory control points we had to stop when we might have been feeling great,” Remarked Souza.

In the event, Souza logged 48 hours 30 minutes of sleep and accumulated an estimated six to eight hours of additional breaks. These breaks included an 11-hour stop in Alamosa, Colorado, plus a seven and five hour break on either side.

“Those long breaks were for my illness, not so much to sleep,” explained Souza, who had caught bronchitis on Day Two.

“I needed to be sleeping four hours a day from Day One, I made mistakes trying to push it with the sleep, even though I was riding conservatively. I had to find that magical sleep balance. My nutrition was good, and my fluids were good, but my mind wasn’t there at times.”

Despite his fatigue and physical distress, Souza remained an avid competitor throughout, and as soon as he had recovered began picking off riders ahead of him one by one. His goal in the closing days was to catch Tinker Juarez, but when Tinker rode through the final night Souza saw that was not on the cards. He finished 5 hours, 25 minutes behind Juarez.

Souza rode to raise funds for the Challenged Athletes Foundation.