Eat, Sleep, Ride....Day 7+

6/24/09-He'll be home tonight! Got a flight out of Salt Lake this afternoon and I'm picking him up at 9:00pm tonight. So glad he will be home. Just a quick note tonight to say he will be in town tonight. Now I'm off to clean up the house. Little known fact about Ray- he's a neat freak.
6/23/09-Ray officially pulls out. Alittle about yesterday. Yesterday was bad. So he comes into Lima and says his knees are shot but he thinks that if he ices them down that night, he would be ok the next day. I tell him, "are you crazy? First of all, this race is not worth you injuring yourself for good and second of all, it's not worth you risking hypothermia. You have only more of the same ahead of you. Freezing rain, hail, ice, snow on the passes and more mud to push through. For what? So you can get 40 more miles down the road and almost kill yourself?" You really need to think about this. I'm not trying to be negative here, but you are not meeting your mileage goal and you can not battle against mother nature anymore. Do you really want to go through more mud? Call me back and think about it.
So, he calls me back and says he's done. But I could tell that he was upset about it. He says he doesn't want to give up. I told him he didn't give up anything. He got out there and tried his hardest and gave his all. It's time to come home. This is too dangerous right now. If conditions were better and he wasn't having to fight with mother nature, I have no doubt that he could have been in Colorado by now.
Later that evening I get a voice mail from Ray. Call me back right away. I call back and a lady answer and says her name is Ruth and she is with Ray and then all I heard were the words "bike" and "ambulance". I thought I was going to pass out right there. I call her back. She says that Ray has cut his hand and that the ambulance is taking him to the local hospital to stitch him up and he is just fine. About an hour passes and Ray calls back. Says the local hospital can not stop the bleeding and that he has cut an artery in his hand. He's cut it really deep. He said he was cutting a zip tie off the bike and his Leatherman slipped and cut his hand. He said it was like a scene out of Halloween. The blood was just going everywhere and it is all over the floor in his hotel room. He could not get the bleeding to stop and 911 is not working at the front desk. So he runs over to the restaurant across the street and messes up their floor too. So now that the local hospital can not fix it, he has to go by ambulance to Butte to have a specialist do surgery on his hand that night. He says in the ambulance "as long as I can flip off Dallas drivers when their done, then I'll be fine". He called about 1:30am, just got out of recovery. They put him under to do the surgery. He says he can move all his fingers. So today, he had to wait until the trauma doctor looked at him to release him. He got out around noon today. Problem is, there are no rent cars to be had in Butte today and he has to get back to Lima to get his bike and all his things. We are hoping he can make his way to Salt Lake tomorrow and fly home. At this point, it's all up in the air. He says this has definitely taken his mind off the race and he is ready to come home.
6/22/09-Day 11 Mile 865.6. Conditions have gone from bad to down right scary now. Sleeping on the top of the mountain again last night. Came across an old barn and kicked the elk out to get some shelter from the rain. Rain, storms, soaked to the bone and super cold at 8,000 feet. Ray says that if you don't find shelter out there you will die in this stuff. Those are really not words that let me sleep at night. Coming over the pass into Lima was nothing but an un-rollable mud fest. The elements are taking their toll. His knee is starting to give out now. With this combination it will be difficult to put in the miles needed to make up ground.
6/21/09-Day 10 Mile 830 and still riding..... This race is better than watching a soap opera. Can't believe all the latest developments. The Italians are cheating, one guy DQ'ing himself and looks like 2 others that will be DQ'd as well and then there's Justin. Did he really think this race was going to be FUN?
Ray seems to be having a good day today. No words yet from the top of the mountain. Looks like he is pushing to the top of Island Butte tonight (8,000'). There won't be anything around until he hits Lima and that is still a few miles away. I hope he is getting a break from the rain and staying warm. He has some nice weather ahead although trail conditions are bad. He still has snow and lots of mud to go through. 6 people have officially dropped, 1 DQ, 2 others that will be later, 2 guys on the verge of dropping out with knee issues, one guy way off track in Dillon and then there are the Italians...the herd is getting thin. Ray, hang in there.
6/20/09-Day 9 Mile 727. Had a rough go of it last night and this morning. The weather is really starting to put a damper on him making his miles. He said it rained on him and Jeff last night on top of the mountain and it was really cold. He slept in a 6x6 bathroom (ladies) and Jeff slept in the mens. He said at least it was dry. Woke this morning to more rain and it is really set in now. He was soaked to the bone and cold coming into Wise River. He said Jeff got up this morning and said "I'm done" and turned back to ride 50 miles back to Butte! Ray called me from the bar in Wise River. The locals said the rain was not going to let up until Monday. He got a room and hunkered down for the night and went and dried all his clothes. This evening, the 2 guys he past the other day, showed up in town and said they would push on tonight but that Ray would probably catch them in the morning. He's planning on getting up early and will see how far he gets. I told him conditions were not favorable ahead and that another guy had dropped today. This seems to be a race of attrition. He is just taking it one day at a time at this point. He will continue to push on in the morning and I hope the weather cooperates for him.







6/19/09-Day 8 Mile 696 and counting. Had another really good day. Had some great weather. Said it was cold last night on the top of the mountain, but no rain. Today he blasted into Basin and had a quick breakfast and was off again. Past up a couple of guys on the way to Butte and then hooked up with Jeff Kerby (listen to his latest call in). They are going to hang together tonight because they are both pretty freaked by all the bear encounters going on. He says the 20 on the back is making a difference and he is able to climb things that he was walking before. He's still feeling real good and I think he's in the groove of it now. Stocked up on a couple of cans of SPAM and headed out. He's climbing toward and over Mt. Fleecer tonight and I hope the weather holds out on them tonight. Not sure if he will make it to Wise River tonight. Next few days could prove to be tough if they don't stock up enough in Wise River.



6/18/09-Mile 630 9:30pm - Only 2 casualties so far, one major stretched out singlespeed chain and one toe nail gone! He's still out there tonight pushing his bike and he's up on top of Corral Gulch trying to make it to Basin tonight. I'm thinking that he hunkering down right now eating his can of chicken and his pop tarts he bought earlier. I hope it's not storming on him tonight as he tries to sleep on the ground. Pulled in to Helena this afternoon and had the bike shop switch out his back cog to a 20. They also put on a new chain and fixed his computer. Seems he Macgyver'd it last night with a magnet from the hardware store and some duct tape. He said he had to "eyeball" his way into Lincoln after the magnet on his computer feel out. He thinks it was done in by one too many creek crossings. I had a good feeling about today when I saw he was up and on the bike bright and early and making some good time until he hit Priest Pass. It was painful watching Spotty today as he walked several miles up and up and up this pass. But he bombed the downhill into Helena and called me as soon as he put in his order for a double meat cheese burger and fries. He's sounding like the old Ray now. Sounds good. He said he had taken his bike over to the shop and they were charging Divide racers $20 extra to move them to the front of the line. I said, that sounded fair to me. They had him going in no time. I ask him if he had considered putting on a 1 x 9 and he said, no, it would take them too long to get him setup and besides, if he didn't finish this thing on what he started it on, he would be kicking himself! Now that is what I'm talking about - that is Ray! He's back.