Race Across Oregon - the crew chief's perspective

[Susan Otcenas]

Well, it turned out that the head hunters HAD called in at Time Station 4. They left a message on the t/s answering machine, which the t/s guy apparently didn't get until several hours later - in fact, it wasn't until they were finished and the organizers asked them why they skipped the t/s. So, no time penalty was merited.

Ultimately, they finished 1hr 43min ahead of us. But to be honest, by the end we'd pretty much forgotten about them. We were pretty focused on making it there ourselves.

And yes, there were 18 men who started the solo division, though only SEVEN finished. Hot cocoa guy was a dnf just before Prineville. One guy did 532 miles on a FIXED GEAR 42x15 before his dnf at the base of the hill to Timberline. Only 6 miles from the finish, but far and away the harderst 6 miles. Plus, it was like 3 or 4 am on Monday morning at that point, and the cut-off was 5am. But the race organizer told me she would have waited for him until 9am if necessary if he had wanted to walk his bike up the hill. How heartbreaking to dnf so close to the finish! Apparently, he had signed up to ride single speed, and the organizer accidentally slotted him as a fixie. So, he said ok, fixie it is!

Here's the map for RAO. Not technically "across", I guess, though it's about the same distance. http://www.raceacrossoregon.com/route/RAO2004_map.jpg

Susan

[CorsairMac]

[QUOTE=Susan Otcenas]
And yes, there were 18 men who started the solo division, though only SEVEN finished. Hot cocoa guy was a dnf just before Prineville. One guy did 532 miles on a FIXED GEAR 42x15 before his dnf at the base of the hill to Timberline. Only 6 miles from the finish, but far and away the harderst 6 miles. Plus, it was like 3 or 4 am on Monday morning at that point, and the cut-off was 5am. But the race organizer told me she would have waited for him until 9am if necessary if he had wanted to walk his bike up the hill. How heartbreaking to dnf so close to the finish! Apparently, he had signed up to ride single speed, and the organizer accidentally slotted him as a fixie. So, he said ok, fixie it is!
Susan[/QUOTE

only on a womans board would reading something like this make me cry! thanks for the update on the Head Hunters - next year Susan....next year!!
and thanks for filling in the rest of Their storys!