Race Across America prep continues… Here we are in Oceanside, California! The team has been based at a house one street back from the beach for the last few days. A frenzy of preparing bikes and vehicles, coordinating roles and responsibilities and disseminating information passed down from the race organisers. At inspection, we had to line up everything, from bikes to helmets, even shoes!
As a team we’ve ridden out the first part of the route, and despite best intentions not to race, we couldn’t help ourselves when we saw other teams who were also out checking the route! In fact, today is the first day that I’ve not ridden since getting to Oceanside. It has also been really useful getting used to the Garmin I’ve borrowed (got to save costs somehow) and familiarising myself with American traffic.
Vineyards in the rolling Californian hills on a training ride
The Californian sun still saps my energy, even when I’m not on the bike, but I’m getting used to it, plus it’s a welcome change from unpredictable English weather. The hills can be brutal in the sun, but they’ve got nothing on Yorkshire hills, and the descents are long and swooping – lots of fun.
Today was the RAAM racer team meeting, where we got to meet all the other four person relay teams. The crew also did a LOT of shopping at Walmart and we moved our belongings into the RV – our moving home for the next week.
The race starts for us just after midday Pacific Daylight Time (PDT), so less than 24 hours to go. I’m feeling as ready as I’ll ever be, so I can’t wait to get rolling!
Keep pedaling!
GeekintheHills
Geek in the Hills 