Update on Saturday Morning

Another email home from Tim:

We are heading to rendezvous with the team to go on shift at 5 pm to 5am (EST).The countryside has been magnificent.

We see it on the bus going to ourdaily rendezvous and we have about 5 hours of daylight during our shift.

Yesterday, we rode from Flagstaff, AZ to Cortez CO.Northern AZ is beautiful with rock and sand formations. We hit MonumentValley in the dark - I will come back another time but not on a bike.Yesterday was our second shift and we were sore and tired at the start.Four hours sleep in the motel and a few on the bus didn't do it for me.The riding before sunset was tough with a wicked cross wind.

We had lots of communication technology on board including satellitephones. Nothing worked. Then the mandatory lighting on the van thatfollows the rider failed. The support team was great. They shiftedjobs, covered each other, moved another vehicle in to follow and keptriders on the road the whole time. We were down to our road bikes andlost some time without our tt bikes, but we kept rolling.

Once we got into the dark things started to improve. The wind dropped,temperature dropped and we got into a good groove.

The pilot vehicle was out front finding transition spots for riderchanges, the follow vehicle was repaired and on station, the sprintervan was shuttling riders up for the next shift.We are out in the middle of nowhere. A 4-person Irish team wasshuttling back and forth. Lots of encouragement both ways. Then aroundmidnight an RV for the North Coast Cycling team appeared.

We knew theywere coming up. They had put out fresh riders on the road and caught usin the dark on a couple of climbs. I heard their follow vehicle in theclimb shouting encouragement through the bullhorn to the guy coming up.We held them off for another climb, but we blew a rider transition andthey were gone up the road. We were trashed, but knew we were going tobe throwing in fresh legs in a couple of hours. I hear the boys pulledthem back this morning. It looks like another battle around midnighttonight.

Let me tell you about life in the sprinter van.We spend 12 hours in it. We are riding 6 km shifts. We had to dropfrom 30 minute shifts to keep the pace up and to stay loose betweenshifts. The van certainly has the appearance of a bachelor's car.Bodies stretched out. Three changes of clothes, coolers, bikes, feedingon peanut butter sandwiches, yogurt , energy bars, bananas, and juvenilehumour.

I would like you to meet some people on the team. Most are sleeping onthe bus right now.

Noelle is Mother Superior - she has made all arrangements, keeps the buson schedule. Good humour, no sleep. Totally committed. She has sonMackenzie and husband Mark on the other squad.

Mike Carter is our squad's Crew Chief. He has to work with thenavigator, ensure we have all we need. Last night he had to find somehydro workers to help repair the Follow Vehicle.

We start in 1.5 hours. 12 hours in the Colorado mountains coming up.We will go to quick changes - hot, sunny and dry.Friday the 13th. Keep your fingers crossed!

Thanks again for all of your support. You can follow our progress onthe website at http://raceforsickkids.ywd.ca/

Thanks for reading.

Tim