Near Ellenboro, W.Va. – Team Type 1 remained on pace Thursday morning to finish the Race Across America (RAAM) a little after midnight Eastern Daylight Time.
The team that is comprised entirely of athletes who have Type 1 diabetes is also riding fast enough to better the RAAM transcontinental crossing record of five days, nine hours and 43 minutes, established last year by the Norwegian Byggkjøp presented by BMC Cycling Team.
Through 2,575 miles of the 3,021-mile (4,861 km) race from Oceanside, Calif., to Annapolis, Md., Team Type 1 was averaging 23.76 mph. The second-place team in the race, Team ViaSat, was averaging 22.64 mph and riding nearly five-and-a-half hours behind Team Type 1 as of 8 a.m. EDT.
The past 24 hours for Team Type 1’s Jeff Bannink, Simon Bennett, Alex Bowden, Matt Brooks, Tom Kingery, Lonny Knabe, Bob Schrank and Mark Suprenant has not come without a few setbacks.
Bowden briefly had a scare Wednesday when his FreeStyle Navigator continuous blood glucose monitor revealed his blood sugar dropped from 307 to 56 in 25 minutes during a shift in Illinois. But he made a quick correction using rapid-acting insulin Apidra, along with eating gels, cookies and some candy.
Team Type 1 was also hit with its first 15-minute penalty of the race Wednesday night when RAAM officials ruled the team’s follow car failed to yield to follow traffic in Ohio.
But there was a more memorable moment Wednesday when Brooks turned in one of the most impressive riding shifts of the race when the vehicle carrying the riders who would replace him took a wrong turn near Oxford, Ohio.
“Matt ended up being out there for 28 miles and he averaged more than 26 miles an hour,” Team Type 1 RAAM Coach Nate Keck said. “The kid just cranked it.”
About a day behind Team Type 1 on the road, Team Type 2 was producing its own impressive performance. The eight riders who have Type 2 diabetes shifted up their strategy – turning to shorter, three-mile riding shifts – to up their average speed by nearly an entire mile-an-hour in a 24-hour span.
The team of John Anderson, Bill Arnold, Bob Avritt, Bob Chaisson, Larry Cleveland, Peter Cowley, Mark Thul and Denny Voorhees throttled through three of the 53 time stations along the route with an average speed of more than 22 mph to raise their average speed to 17.45 mph. At that pace, Team Type 2 will reach the finish line Saturday night.
“We’re going to try and add another mile an hour to that today,” Avritt said. “We’re going to do everything we can to go fast until we hit the Appalachian Mountains because we’ll give back some time in those climbs, for sure.”
Avritt was also pleased that Team Type 2 is riding fast enough to easily make the second of three time cut-off points (the Mississippi River) for teams.
Follow the progress of Team Type 1 and Team Type 2 during RAAM by going to teamtype1.org or on Twitter by following @teamtype1 and @teamtype2.
Photo: Courtesy Karen Scheerer
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