George and I were with our driver and navigator at McDonalds in Mercersburg, PA when the RV pulled up telling us that we needed to double back and George needed to take over. Rick’s achilles tendon has been giving him a lot of trouble since early in the ride and he says that it snapped at the beginning of the big climb between TS 51 and TS 52. He thinks that he might be able to ride the final parade leg into Atlantic City if it’s absolutely flat. We’re hoping so…he has worked so hard!!!

Positive thoughts for George, he has 234 miles to take on before Atlantic City. Keep your comments coming, I’ll be at his side the whole way and he loves your support.

If you know George, you know that he lives to ride. Even more so, he lives to climb. Show the man a mountain and he’s ready to take it on. Yesterday while taking on the stage that led into Athens, Ohio one of my crew members mentioned that he thought that George had gained strength over the course of the ride and my reply was…

No, that’s just George Vargas you see right there, that’s how he rolls! I explained that the riding they had seen thus far from George just wasn’t typical, that the sleep deprivation and being sick had really gotten to him.

Well, it seems that he’s back…again! We pulled up alongside him after the bypassed exchange and he starts saying…

“Floyd Landis, stage 17, 2006 Tour de France, he dominated and whether he doped or not, no drug could make him that much stronger. He’s my hero”…that’s what is getting him through this stage of RAAM, right here, right now. He’s laughing, he’s joking, he’s smiling, and damn it…he’s kicking the ass of these Maryland summits.

Keep the comments coming, I’m yelling them out the window to him. Thank you for posting Kim…it means the world to him that Nick is watching!!

Rick and his crew were waiting for us in Flintstone and George decided at the last minute to keep riding. When we pulled alongside him he said that his legs felt great after aching at the beginning of this pull and that he was finally awake…thanks to two Cokes and a Mountain Dew. He wants to keep climbing! He told me to just keep feeding him Cokes. This stage has 4340 feet of elevation gain.

Rick’s crew was caught off guard as much as we were, but the upside is that Rick will get some more rest while George takes this one on.

310 miles to Atlantic City, baby!

We had a long night in the van last night, letting most of the remaining crew, we’re down three now for a total of nine, get some sleep. We worked both of the riders out of the follow van and sent the shuttle and motor home ahead. We’re into some very hilly terrain and swapping riders out every 15 miles worked well for us and we made our way through at least three time stations working that strategy.

Rick and George were spent after that, so we parked it at TS 49 when we rolled in around 4:50 a.m. and let them sleep for a couple of hours. Rick took the first 30 miler this morning and George is in the middle of his right now. We’ll exchange again in Flintstone which is about 15 miles from here. After that we have some nasty climbing that we will break up, working Rick out of the shuttle vehicle and George out of the van. Hopefully we can time our exchanges well and make up some time.

BIG thanks to race officials Mike and Cindy. They are like little angels looking out for us, calling to check in on us, listening to our woes, cheering us on and greeting us with smiles and hugs everytime we see them. I’m getting all choked up writing this, they have no idea how much seeing them lifts our spirits. This morning while getting ready to exchange, George says “I miss Cindy” and not two minutes later my phone rings and guess who it is…Mike! We took a few minutes to visit with them at TS 50 and we look forward to seeing them again soon. 🙂

We’re getting there! This entire team has worked so hard, we’ve had our ups and more than our fair share of downs, but we’ll make it!!!!!!

We have had spotty internet coverage throughout the race and uploading pictures has been difficult. We have thousands of images that will be available to you once we return, we were not expecting to encounter difficulties with upload times.

After a little bit of sleepytime, we’re back on the road. Rick had a 63 mile pull and upon his return, he asked if we were in Iowa…close, it’s another four letter state…Ohio! He was happy to see the food that Bike Forums member John (R900) had brought to us. Who knew that chicken casserole would taste so good at 5:00 a.m.?

George is riding right now, climbing, climbing, climbing a slight grade. We just passed the shuttle vehicle on the side of the road and they were sleeping, so George pulled off, I jumped out and we sent the follow vehicle back to wake them up, with the instruction to use the usually dreaded “siren” mode on the mega-phone. Wish I could have seen that reaction!

Thanks to R900 (John) for the yummy food that he delivered to the time station in Cambridge City. We’ve been blessed with the kindness of friends, old and new, across the country.

We took the team off of the course for a much needed break. One of George’s customers, Scott Brooks, invited us in to his home for showers, sleep, an amazing home cooked meal and massages for the guys. What a treat! We’re a clean bunch now and we’re rolling right when we anticipated that we would. Unfortunately George didn’t get much sleep and he has a headache, but after his 54 miler, Rick will take a long pull and George should be able to sleep some more. Right now, we’re going north for another three miles and once we turn east again, he will welcome the tailwind he was enjoying a few minutes ago.

Thanks to Scott and his family and friends for the hospitality. We truly appreciate it!

Additional thanks to the people of Illinois and Indiana. We have had more people here cheering the boys on, and it is so encouraging to them!

We just left TS 39!! These guys have been kickin’ ass. We switched to 20 mile pulls and it’s just enough time to hammer and not push them over the edge. One more Time Station and we make the final cutoff!

George is out here right now and Rick will be on again in about an hour. We are on our way to a homecooked meal and SHOWERS at Scott’s house which in on the route, just past the Indy Time Station. We can’t wait!

to get to Indy and our next cutoff. We had a day of rapid exchanges where Rick took the rollers which were really hurting George with his respiratory issues and George took the flats on the P3, which were incidentally, hurting Rick with his knee/achilles issues. Teamwork at it’s finest!

George was finally able to get some significant time off of the bike and some good rest. I’m currently following him and he is hauling ass on his 50 mile pull, averaging 19+ the entire time so far. What a difference from this morning, he looks GREAT out there! He stopped once to ask for Rolaids and I noticed that he was coughing up a little bit of blood when he was spitting, but it’s dark and I couldn’t tell how much. I have a call into our team doctor right now.

Rick keeps on keepin’ on. He said tonight that he’s having the time of his life out here! With Shari supporting him now, he is really being taken care of and is able to recover and get out there and do it over and over again.

The crew has really pulled together after our meeting yesterday and the operation is running much more smoothly. The rest of the crew are really helping Shari and myself out, knowing that we are down to sleeping whenever the riders do, which isn’t much! It is so nice to finally see everyone working together toward a common goal…getting these guys to Indy…and ultimately to Atlantic City!

I know that I always end this way, but it’s worth repeating again and again…

I couldn’t be more proud of these guys. It’s truly amazing to watch them put their bodies through living hell pull after pull.

I think they found the one hill in Kansas!~George

I just pulled up next to him and he told me that was quotable and asked if I was blogging. Just so George…lol. 😉