Bringing a Mountain to Race Across America

One is a 37-year-old Newport Beach commodities broker who wants to travel across the Pacific Ocean . . . on a bicycle.

The other is a 23-year-old snow boarder-turned-sales manager for a mountain bike company.

Although Perry Stone and Jeff Estes are competing as a team, they have different agendas.

Thursday, they will leave Irvine on the first leg of the 16th Race Across America transcontinental bicycle competition. They will be the only ones in the race to compete on mountain bikes. Riders are expected to begin reaching the finish line in Savannah, Ga., Aug. 1.

It’s doubtful that Stone and Estes will be the first to finish, but the quest here is not necessarily winning.

“Getting there will be nice, but I don’t think we’ll be outrageously happy when we cross the finish line,” Estes said. “We’re not doing this for the finish line. The ride there is why we’re doing this.

“I thought it would be interesting to use a mountain bike in this race,” Estes said.

Stone’s explanation, on the other hand, raises an eyebrow. This race, all 3,010 miles, is merely part of his training. He will attempt to travel from Canada to Sydney, Australia, on a specially designed kayak that he will pedal.

The “Primal One Expedition” will leave Vancouver in April. Stone’s reason? Well, life is short.

“I’ve been working for 3 1/2 years to prepare for this,” Stone said. “I’ve been inspired by other people who have faced fatal and terminal situations. You see people who don’t give up despite the odds they face. They dig down and find some inner strength.”

Terry Fox, who suffered from bone cancer and ran halfway across Canada in 1980 to raise $24 million for cancer research, and actor Christopher Reeve, who was paralyzed in a horse riding accident, are two whom Stone mentioned.

“I had had a pretty cushy life and decided that I didn’t want to wait until I had prostate cancer before I started living life,” he said. “[Race Across America] is a real hard grind and a test of my will.”

But the test required a partner.

Stone contacted two Australian riders, but neither was interested. Six months ago, he called the mountain bike company where Estes worked, looking for a sponsor. He got a teammate as well.

“I sent out 450 releases, trying to find a teammate, and Jeff was the only one brave enough to take me up on it,” Stone said.

Estes had his reasons. He had wondered why nobody had even used a mountain bike in the race. Riders use touring bikes, which are lighter. But Estes felt his product might be better suited to the race.

“A lot of people who tour use the mountain bikes because they can put packs on them,” Estes said. “It will be slower. The touring bikes are more aerodynamic, they have bigger wheels and are geared for higher speeds. But, it’s like cars, everyone wants to drive something different.”

Estes is well aware of the mountain bikes’ capabilities. He competed as a snowboarder after leaving Colorado State, but used mountain bikes five days a week in his training.

Snowboarding turned out to be an iffy career financially, so he switched to mountain biking.

“Bike shops tend to pay their bills better,” Estes said. “Snowboard companies don’t pay if you don’t compete. If there is no snow, then there’s no competition. There is no such thing as a bad biking season.”

Estes and Stone hit it off immediately, despite differences in age and agenda. The one thing they had in common was the need to try this race on mountain bikes.

“We’re not trying to make this any harder,” Stone said. “Basically, mountain bikes seemed like a natural. There are a lot of mountains between here and Savannah.”

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Race Across America

The 3,010-mile nonstop, transcontinental bicycle race, from Irvine to Savannah, Ga., enters its 16th year.

* When: The solo race begins Thursday, with riders leaving the Irvine Holiday Inn Select at 9 a.m. Team race riders leave Sunday at 9 a.m. Riders will begin arriving at the finish on Friday, Aug. 1.

* Top male participants: Among the 20 competing, last year’s winner, Danny Chew, 36, from Pittsburgh, returns, as does Rob Kish, 43, from Port Orange, Fla., who has finished the race 11 times and won in ‘92, ’94 and ’95. Paul Solon (’89 winner), from Corte Madera, Calif., and Austrian Wolfgang Fasching (finished third last year and set fastest first-time crossing mark) return to go after Chew’s course record of 8 days 3 hours 11 minutes.

* Top female participants: Seana Hogan, 37, from San Jose, has won the women’s RAAM division four consecutive years. She holds the women’s transcontinental record of 9 days 4 hours 2 minutes. Her competitors will be Idaho’s Muffy Ritz, 40, who finished second to Hogan in ’93 and ‘95, and Arizona’s Kathy Simko, 33.

* Top teams: Ten international teams will try to break the mark of 5 days 6 hours 4 minutes, set last year by the Kern Wheelmen from Bakersfield, who return and expect to be challenged by 1993 champions Team Pacificare and Team Brazil/Coca Cola, which finished second in 1995. The all-women’s team is Team Judy Flannery, named after the world triathlon champion who was killed in an automobile accident while training for RAAM this year. One of its members is triathlete Sally Edwards, 49, from Sacramento, who is a 13-time Hawaiian Ironman finisher, winner of the Western States 100-mile endurance run and winner of the Iditashoe 100-mile snowshoe race.

* Facts: There are no timeouts and no drafting, except for teams. Most riders will compete 20-22 hours per day and subsist on a liquid diet. The winner will average 350 miles per day. The team competition is considerably faster, as the four riders may trade off riding or ride as a group. . . . There is a $25,000 prize for any female rider who finishes first overall. . . . Ranked the world’s toughest event by Outside magazine.