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Brian Welsh RAAM 2011 - SOLO |
The Motivation to Crew
If I was going to crew for someone, I would like to know what motivates them. Before I even considered the 'How' I would want to know the 'Why'. Why is this person aiming to sit on a bike for up to 24 hours a day for up to 12 days? 3,000 miles or nearly 5000 kilometres. What credentials does he have? Is this a waste of time? The Why
In 2001 I was lucky enough to be invited to try to break the 'World Record' for an 8 man team cycling around Australia (9000 miles as near to the edge as possible) In this race I learnt what it takes to be a good cyclist: mile after mile of training and loads and loads of guts. I think the team would agree I lacked the first, but had the second in 'spades'. I came back from that trip, humbled as an athlete but excited. One night in a pub after training a man with more guts than brains (and he is quite clever) started chatting about doing this race in America, called strangely enough, Race Across America. We knew nothing about it, but the clue was in the name. We put a team together: Russ the cave diver turned triathlete, Helen, 'I can do anything' Wootton and Kevin, 'what do you need the easy gears for' May. To say we were na誰ve would be an understatement. The quote from one of the 'marshal's' overheard by a member of the crew was not very encouraging, 'they'll never make it'. Well we did and we took home the four persons winner trophy in under seven days. At the end a famous RAAM rider called Danny Chew was asking us when we would go solo and Russ threw in the line, 'yes Brian will do it'. That was 2004 and seven years later I'm getting ready to do it. RAAM gets into your blood, so in 2006 when another opportunity came up for another attempt with three good riders, I jumped at it. We were slower, but more organised. Then in 2008 my 'better half', Stacey had planned to do it with an all female team. The team never quite got off the ground, so I offered to do it with her, but only as a pair as I wanted to test myself. This was the biggest challenge of either of our lives (on a bike), it was not a given that we would succeed, particularly as they had cut the time limit by a day, to nine days. As you can see, we made it!! So since then the plan has been to do it solo. It has had a few bumps and scrapes along the way, the biggest being hit by a car, wrecking my bike and bits of me. It wasn't serious, but I now have titanium and not on the bike. I have now given myself 10 months to get ready for it. At the moment I'm 5kg overweight and riding slowly, but I will be ready as I have been each time we have raced. So if you come, fitness, efforts and guts will not hold us back. Crewing
The plus points: You get to see America at a leisurely pace, I am hoping to average 15mph/24kph for 20 hours a day. Some of the sights are amazing, even in the dark. You get to be part of a team trying to achieve the something that very few people have ever achieved. Less people have done RAAM solo than have stood on the top of Everest and you'll have helped to put me there. The downside, you'll be sleep deprived and you will have moments when you think, 'WHY?' and then you will know why, you are writing history. I will be the first ever British over 50 male to achieve this. If we can go under 10 days we take the world record. A big ask for any team, do you want to be part of it? The Timetable
In the run up to the RAAM we will have various training weekends, so you can learn the technical aspects. Not all of the crew will be new to this. We will have some crew who have either crewed for RAAM or a similar race or ridden it themselves. Stacey will be crew chief and we have various ideas on how we want the crew to work. This will all be discussed and any input will be valued. |