June 17, 2006 – Jean-Marc Velez officially dropped out (DNF) of the 2006 RAAM yesterday evening at approximately 22:00 EDT citing only the reason of “None” when asked why he was quitting.

Velez did crash earlier in the race (near T.S. 20 in Colorado) and was able to continue after a trip to the hospital to get patched up. However, he only made it to the next Time Station before calling to announce his withdrawal… It appears that Velez was simply “course-whipped” by the race. RAAM HQ estimates report that Velez was in serious trouble of making race cut-offs.

David Jones very reluctantly called in his withdrawal from Ulysses, Kansas after assessing his ability to make cut-off times and dodge a looming storm that his crew was alerted to. David reports that he felt good climbing into Colorado, then got a little down with his nutrition through the eastern side of the state, and then once again felt good getting into Ulysses which makes his decision even more difficult.

As a rookie who has dedicated the last year of his life to planning and training for RAAM, Jones says it will feel a little weird returning to his full time job as an aerospace engineer. He’s happy to be a part of the RAAM experience and didn’t realize how rewarding it could be for his crew and himself to overcome the immense obstacles of RAAM. The race wishes David well and looks forward to hear his decision about racing the RAAM again.

Meanwhile, Traditional solo race leader Fabio Biasiolo is estimated (by rough computer analysis at race HQ) to arrive at Time Station 35 (the Mississippi River) at 10:12 AM on June 17… however, the two lead teams are estimated to arrive 62 and 54 minutes ahead of Basiolo!

But since this is the Race Across America and anything can happen, we’ll leave it to the race gods to decide who gets to the Mighty Miss first.

The latest RACE WEATHER — Continued “howling” winds followed by more “howling” gusts of wind.

Two-time RAAM winner and ultracycling pioneer Lon Haldeman said that in the 25 year history of RAAM he’s never witnessed such a sustained period of high winds across such a large area — which in this race has included 30-40+ mile per hour winds across the eastern half of Colorado and through the entire state of Kansas.

From the rolling desk of Danny Chew somewhere in Kansas…

Danny Chew called in his “Chew’s Views” report for Friday, June 16, as he travels across Kansas catching up with many solo riders.

20 men and one woman in both solo divisions were slowed considerably across the plain states by these 30+ mile per hour south crosswinds bringing average speeds down considerably and literally blowing Fabio Biasiolo and Jonathan Boyer off their bikes.

Despite being blown over, Biasiolo has built a considerable lead of almost four hours over the rest of the Traditional division into the first Time Station in Missouri, while Boyer has established a 40 minute lead over the Enduro field through the same spot.

GUUS MOONEN (Traditional) only had 30 minutes of sleep in the first third of the race through Durango, CO and this lack of rest seems to have caught up to him as he rolled into Time Station 26 in Pratt, KS. Moonen took four hours of sleep in a motel across from the wild and wooly McDonald’s serving as T.S. 26 (see Report from the Field, 2006-15-06, 21:15 EDT) last night, and then had to take another two hours during the day.

Being from Holland, Moonen likes flat terrain and is looking forward to the next few days through the middle states.

DAVID HAASE (Traditional) had a relatively unlucky day as his crew left Pratt, KS in a hurry to catch up with him and drove under a clearance that was too low for one of his bikes. A bike store owner had a bike Fed Ex’ed all the way from Wisconsin to Time Station 27 in Mount Vernon, Kansas while Haase took a huge 11 hour sleep. With a new bike on board as back-up, Haase appears refreshed and is back to form.

KEVIN WALLACE (Traditional) can barely speak from a bout of dry, cracked throat which many racers picked up with the extreme climate change from Arizona to Colorado, but his form looks good and he’s in an extremely confident mood. Wallace has set his sites on all the riders in front of him, and after “taking it easy” through the first half of the race, he’s ready to turn it on when he gets to the Mississippi River.

KENNY SOUZA (Enduro) fought what seemed to be a bout with pneumonia through Utah and Colorado, and took an 11 hour sleep to try to shake it off and recover. Souza has now accumulated over 35 hours of off-the-bike time with less than half the race course completed and it appears that his intention to finish the race is still extremely high, though he may forego a good result.

On the TEAM side of the race, TEAM TYPE 1 continues to close the gap on BEAVER CREEK/VAIL. The rookie racers of Team Type 1 lost ground early and were down as much as 2 hrs, 2 minutes at T.S. 20 in Trinidad, CO. Now, they are a mere 6 minutes back through T.S. 31 in Collins, MO. Team Type 1 has been experimenting with putting two riders on the road at the same time to draft off one another in order to increase speed. The move is still tentative and little utilized because of the unfamiliarity of the teammates with each other. Averaging over 20 miles per hour, Team Type 1 is well ahead of the eight-person speed record of 19.84 mph.