Yesterday, I took a little field trip to witness one of the best examples of an endurance athlete the world has to offer. I got up very early for a chance to catch a glimpse of ultra-cyclist Christoph Strasser as he headed to Annapolis, MD for another win in Race Across America. This guys holds the fastest time record at RAAM of 7 days, 15 hours, and 56 minutes to ride from Oceanside, CA to Annapolis, MD. This year he didn’t go quite that fast, nearly 24 hours slower at 8 days, 9 hours, 34 minutes, but incredibly his nearest competitor was more than a day behind. No surprise, he also holds the record for greatest distance on a bike in 24 hours–556.856 miles. I had to see this guy with my own eyes, especially cause of my previous experience with RAAM.
I guess the race was having some problems with their live tracking which made it difficult for me to time a meet up with him as he descended out of the mountains of West Virginia and Pennsylvania, but after many hours of trying to track his location with a spotty signal and trying to scout a good spot for a photo, I found him and his crew.
I first saw his RV pop up over a rise in the two lane highway 16 just north of Mercersburg, PA and I knew he must be approaching. Next I could hear the sound of the loudspeaker attached to the follow vehicle with an almost constant dialogue coming from within. 
Too bad I can’t speak German to understand what they were saying to him. There were quite a few cars passing between him and me as I chose a spot on the opposite side of the road. He saw me, too. He’s not much of a smiler, but can’t blame him with a little over 3,000 miles under pedal and less than 200 to go. I think he was probably wondering who in the hell I was. The moment passed so quickly, after spending the entire day trying to catch him, I moved ahead two more times to get more shots.
On the street of Waynesboro, PA a man riding his bike with his young daughter stopped me to ask where the cyclist had started. When I told him California just over a week earlier, he was amazed. I think this may be one of my favorite aspects of this race because it passes through these small towns and the people generally have no idea what’s happening.
Amy Linn Doherty 