Fourney, Kish Have Two-Man Race

In the four days before Saturday, the Race Across America has been a four-man event.

But since late Friday and all of Saturday, it has become a two-man 14-mph sprint to Savannah, Ga.

Bob Fourney of Denver has passed Rob Kish of Port Orange, Fla., and has a 13-minute lead as of 9 p.m. (PDT).

The two front-runners have opened up more than a 190-mile gap over third-place Al Muldoon of St. Joseph, Mich. Rich Fedrigon of Chicago is fourth, 225 miles back.

Kish had led for the two previous days, but finally was passed by Fourney about 60 miles before the Mississippi River on U.S. Route 80 in eastern Louisiana.

The pair had ridden within a mile of each other for almost two hours in the late afternoon.

At 9 p.m. (PDT), Fourney was 2,236 miles into the 2,922 mile race And near Edwards, Miss. At the current rate, the winner would finish at about 4 a.m. Tuesday. That would be a total of 8 days and 16 hours. The RAAM record is 8 days, 8 hours and 45 minutes, set last year by Paul Solon of Tiburon, Calif., on a 2,910 mile course from Costa Mesa to New York City.

Fourney has some added incentive to open his lead to at least 46 minutes in front of Kish, because Fourney has 45 minutes in penalties from earlier in the race.

Fourney was fined 30 minutes for a bike light that wasn’t bright enough for night riding and 15 minutes for having his two pace vehicles driving in back of him at the same time. Only one support vehicle is allowed to travel behind a rider at a time.

The race rules are enforced by RAAM officials who travel along with the leaders.

Fourney, who was the leader Wednesday when the riders were on his home Colorado turf, had spent the end of the week trying to reel in Kish, who is riding in the heat and humidity he’s used to.

Kish held a 1-hour, 52-minute lead over Fourney at 9 p.m. (PDT) Friday as the riders came through Corsicana, Tex. They traveled over mostly slight, rolling hills out of Texas, across Louisiana, then into Mississippi.

The two leaders approached the Mississippi River about 7 p.m. (PDT) Saturday, but missed a chance to cross the river on the Interstate 20 bridge because race officials were unable to obtain clearence from local authorities. There is an alternate bridge near, but it’s only open to bicycle traffic, not support vehicles.

“Only the racers could go across,” RAAM director John Manino said. “We just don’t want something that unsafe, so we are going to drive them across.”

Jim Penseyres of San Juan Capistrano is in 10th place. Penseyres was in Laguna Park, Tex., 1,791 miles into the race.

Nancy Reposo of Newport, R.I., held her lead in the women’s division. Reposo was in Hico, Tex., 1,747 miles into the race. Cheryl Marek of Seattle is in second, 120 miles back. Michelle Grainger of Portland is in third, 198 miles back all as of 9 p.m. (PDT).

The tandem team of Bob Breedlove of Des Moines, Iowa, and Roger Charleville of Cincinnati was in Athens, Tex., 1,883 miles into the race as of 9 p.m. (PDT).

Wondering what makes a RAAM bicyclist keep going? Well, it’s a high-calorie drink called Ultra Energy. The drink, which tastes something like a chocolate-flavored chalk, according to some, provides riders nearly 4,000 calories per 12-ounce drink, when mixed with water.

Most riders are taking between 12,000 and 16,000 calories per day to keep going.

As amazing as it sounds, consider this: One would have to eat 80 Twinkies a day just to take in about 12,000 calories. Actually, that on 40 twin packs.