RACE ACROSS AMERICA NOTEBOOK : Savannah Offers Hero’s Welcome a Second Time, in the Daylight

The city of Savannah got its first daytime look at the Race Across America winner in a noon press conference at the riverfront finish line Tuesday.

John Marino, RAAM’s race director and founder, and Savannah Mayor John P. Rousakis agreed that next year’s race would again end in Savannah. And that seemed just fine with Bob Fourney, who won this year’s race a few minutes past midnight local time Tuesday morning.

Past RAAMs have finished in Atlantic City, N.J., New York City and Washington D.C. with little or no attention.

Despite the late hour, about 200 people, including crews from all three Savannah TV stations and a reporter and photographer from the Savannah Morning News, gathered in Rousakis Plaza to watch Fourney’s finish.

Last year, only 25 hardy souls watched Paul Solon finish on the George Washington Bridge, leading into New York. There were no TV cameras or newspapers to chronicle Solon’s 8-day, 8-hour 45-minute ride.

“This is by far the best finish we’ve ever had,” Marino told a crowd of 100 Tuesday afternoon. “We’re formally asking to come back next year.”

A few moments later, Rousakis stepped to a microphone and said, “Your request is hearby officially approved.”

Later, Marino told reporters he didn’t see the point of going back to New York.

“We’ve never had this much press,” he said. “We’ve never had the mayor come to the finish. In Washington, we had to stop riders because the President was leaving the city. It was such a headache.”

Fourney, who fielded questions from the press and passersby, liked Savannah’s reception.

“New York is New York,” said Fourney, who lives in Denver. “But you have to ride through scumville for 200 miles before we got there.”

Georgia’s rolling countryside as well as its hospitality have apparently won over RAAM.

Fourney, who shared the spotlight with second-place finisher Rob Kish of Port Orange, Fla., was a few minutes late for the press conference. He was soaking in a bathtub.

Asked if he missed getting on his bike Tuesday morning, he said, “No. Anybody wanna buy a bike?”

Richard Fedrigon of Chicago, a race leader in Utah and Colorado, finished in third place as an evening thunderstorm picked up steam. Fedrigon, soaked to the skin, finished at 3:51 (PDT).

At 9 p.m. (PDT), Al Muldoon of St. Joseph, Mich., alone in fourth place, was only 25 miles from Savannah.

Bob Breedlove of Des Moines, Iowa, and Roger Charleville of Cincinnati crossed the finish line at 7:40 p.m. to win the men’s tandem race. Lon Haldeman and Pete Penseyres, the only other tandem team, dropped out two days into the race.

At last report, Jim Penseyres of San Juan Capistrano was at time station No. 42 in Montgomery, Ala., 401.1 miles from Savannah.

Women’s division leader Nancy Raposo of Newport, R.I., was 15 miles east of Columbus, Ga. at 9 p.m. Cheryl Marek of Seattle was in second place, having just crossed the Mississippi border into Alabama. Michelle Grainger of Portland was in third place, approaching the Mississippi River.

Raposo is expected to reach Savannah some time late tonight.