Vic Armijo / Headed toward Gettysburg, Pennsylvania June 23, 2011
Your crew in the Mighty RAAM Media 1 van caught solo male leader Christoph Strasser yesterday morning. For the rest of the day and into the wee hours of this morning, we shot photos and videos and interviewed Strasser in repeated drive bys. We finally left him behind in the Appalachians at 1:30am EST this morning; retired to a very poor 3 hours of sleep in the Mighty RAAM Media 1 van (big rig trucks rumbled by every few minutes). We caught him again this morning, still in the final miles of the Appalachians. We’re now about 90 miles ride time ahead of him, just outside of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. We’ll capture more images of the young Austrian as he pedals through the historic civil war battle site.
As expected, the relentless climbs of the Appalachians took a big chunk out of Strasser’s overall speed average. He’s now down to 15.11mph, just short of Pete Penseyres’ 15.4mph record. But with the tough climbing behind him and plenty of level roads ahead, there’s a very real chance that Strasser can bring that average back up.
This morning as we drove alongside him somewhere west of Cumberland, Maryland, I asked him what he’ll order when he finally gets to so sit down in a real restaurant in Annapolis (they have some good ones there!). Strasser laughed as he considered my question, and then said enthusiastically, “Everything!” Current projections have him finishing in Annapolis at 10:46 EST tonight. If those projections are accurate, he'll have completed the 3050 miles of the 2011 Race Across America in about 8 and a half days! I hope that some of those nice restaurants around the RAAM finish line at City Dock stay open late!
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