A second solo tilt at the Race Across America — strong for much of the continent, but ended by illness deep into the race.
After the virtual RAAM podium of 2020 and the Guinness records that followed, RAAM 2022 was my chance to finish the real thing solo. I reached the United States and lined up at Oceanside for the full 4,940 km coast-to-coast crossing.
I tend to be a strong rider in the second half of a race, so when the early days didn't go to plan, my crew and I took it in our stride. By the fifth day the time I had lost had become serious; we hunkered down and clawed back some of the deficit. Then, on the tenth day, fever set in — chills and shivering on the bike. Having already covered around 4,200 km, the crew judged that pushing on risked real harm to my health, and together we took the hard decision to withdraw.
Back home I chose to rest. I had been training and racing for years on end, and both body and mind needed the break; I stayed off competitive cycling for much of 2023. It was a disappointment — but it set up the comeback that followed. RAAM had not seen the last of me.
The Race Across America is a non-stop transcontinental time trial: roughly 3,000 miles and 175,000 feet of climbing across twelve states, from the Pacific at Oceanside, California to the Atlantic seaboard — through the Mojave and Sonoran deserts, over the Sierra Nevada, the Rockies and the Appalachians, and across the Great Plains. The clock runs continuously; solo riders must finish inside twelve days.
In 2022 I covered 4,200 km in nine days before health issues forced the withdrawal. The race was lost; the education was not — the lessons from that abandonment shaped the strategy, the crew structure and the pacing that won the Armed Forces Cup two years later.
