Monday, June 19, 2006

Ultra-Rob update

According to a daily diary on the Race Across America Web site, Springs cyclist Rob Lucas has fallen behind the 10.48 mph minimum average speed for an official finish. Lucas is also noted for logging the least credited sleep hours - 31 - in the eight days of the race.
No word from Rob, but it appears he is still riding, having covered 1996.5 miles so far.

2 comments:

UltraRob said...

The time station shown where I dropped to 5th was because I had been off the bike a lot because of my IT band and quads had knotted up on the left knee. In fact I finally got to the point of not being able to ride. At the time I got shuttled back to the last control point and slept until business hours and my crew was able to find a chiropractor.

In eastern Colorado we had 30-40 miles cross winds for hours. Talking to officials today, I found out riders a couple hours behind us enjoyed a tailwind. Through fighting the wind, my pelvis managed to rotate which was causing the muscle problems. After a couple chiropractic treatments and a massage over 2 days. It was really frustrating because I felt good overall but had too much pain and even worse I couldn't get any power out of my left leg. If it had only been pain, I probably could have pushed through it. Even though I was off the bike a lot I wasn't sleeping much because of going to chiropractors, a pro massage, and my crew massaging me every 15 minutes sometimes when I was trying to ride. I had a decent day of riding yesterday but got really sleep deprived in an effort to get my speed back up. Even so I had to be stretched out several times.

This morning as I rode about 20 miles basically asleep on the bike, I realized I could not safely get my speed back up before he cut off tomorrow morning in Indy. Rather than draw it out, I rode to the timestation at the Mississippi River and dropped out.

As to my thoughts on the Enduro category, I had issues with it before the race but the time cut-off was longer plus known at the start. I didn't like being forced where to sleep but never realized how bad the mandatory stops would be. With the regular control points you can shift you sleep a couple hours one way or the other but the mandatory stops can end up totally off your sleep schedule.

Dena Rosenberry said...

Rob, when you're back and rested and ready to reflect, give us a ring. I'd be interested to hear more about your time on the road and this whole Enduro class experience. You really looked strong as we were following along online.