Training Wheels Off as Race Across America Gets Under Way : Cycling: San Jose’s Pat Ward takes lead almost from start and is 41 minutes ahead of next rider after first 200 miles.

A few minutes past 8 a.m. Sunday, Kay Ryschon walked out of the Holiday Inn lobby and into a cool, overcast morning.

A few friends and family members, her lifeline for the next eight to 11 days of the Race Across America, broke into applause as she strode across the parking lot.

“You look like a million bucks,” someone said, offering Ryschon a hug.

A few paces away, Victor Gallo stood in front of his support van signing an autograph.

“You guys are something else,” the autograph seeker said.

“Thanks, see you at the finish line,” Gallo said.

At 8:15, Jim Penseyres of San Juan Capistrano and his crew pulled into the Irvine parking lot. Penseyres, riding shotgun, slapped hands with a friend as they drove past.

Standing near her pace van, which was filled to overflowing with water bottles, T-shirts and bicycle paraphernalia for the trip, a friend rubbed sunscreen on Michelle Grainger’s arms, shoulders and face.

Twenty minutes before the 9 a.m. start, John Marino, the race founder and director, began introducing the 45 cyclists, who, if all goes well, will cover 2,922 miles in 10 states from Irvine to Savannah, Ga.

Matt Bond, a 6-foot-8 design engineer from Dayton, Ohio, stood out among the crowd, earning the most applause.

Photographers and friends, sometimes one and the same, milled about the riders, trying to get a few snapshots and soothe their nerves at the same time.

The tension was palpable.

Ryschon, in green, black and pink spandex, fidgeted. A 32-year-old biostatistician from Omaha, Neb., Ryschon is attempting her first RAAM.

At 58, Gallo is the oldest rider in the field. But he is considered a threat to win. Recently, he set a record for a ride from his home in Miami to Portland, Me.

“It’s pretty exciting,” said Gallo, who is also riding in his first RAAM. “I’m relaxed right now. By the time I get to the staging area, it’ll be a different story.”

A few seconds past 9, Penseyres, a 43-year-old machinist at the San Onofre Nuclear Power Plant, and Rob Kish, a 35-year-old land surveyor from Port Orange, Fla., and the elder statesmen in this year’s field, rode out of the parking lot and turned left onto Main Street.

Penseyres and Kish, who were 13th and sixth, respectively, in the 1985 RAAM, led a group of 30 escort riders who accompanied the RAAM riders as far as Yorba Linda Park.

The start continued that way--two RAAM riders, desperately trying to hold back pent-up energy, trailed by inexperienced riders trying to get their feet safely into the toe-clips without causing a crash.

By 9:20, the riders had started, headed toward the Santa Ana River trail. They rode in congenial packs to Yorba Linda Park. Once there, the RAAM riders reassembled, bid a final “See you at the finish line” to family and friends and began the long trek toward Savannah.

At 9:30, the last of the support vans had left the Irvine parking area and the sun began burning off the coastal fog.

The cool morning rapidly turned into a hot, windy afternoon as the riders continued east toward Palm Springs. Pat Ward of San Jose took the lead almost from the start and was 41 minutes ahead of Rick Kent of Houston and Bob Fourney of Denver at 9 p.m. after the first 200 miles Sunday.

Laura Stern of Menlo Park led the women’s division. She was about 165 miles into the race and in eighth place overall at 9 p.m.

The riders encountered an atypical head wind in the Palm Springs area. The temperature was a few degrees above 100 as most of the riders moved through the desert city between 3:45 and 6 p.m.

As the sun faded a bit and the temperature dipped below 100, the riders met their first difficult climb. In about 30 miles, they went from 14 feet below sea level to 1,800 feet above at Chiriaco Summit. Ward passed the rest stop near the top of the summit at 6:10 p.m. and second-place rider Kent didn’t pass until 40 minutes later. Ward hit the second time station in Desert Center at 7:42 p.m. Ward’s crew said he felt fine and didn’t mind the heat.

“That’s (the heat) what he likes to train in,” one crew member said.

Penseyres had yet to pass the second time station as of 9 p.m.

Over the summit, the riders were greeted by a full moon and storm clouds that brought lightning. Combined with a sandstorm on the horizon, it promised a difficult night’s ride.