Thursday, June 19, 2008

McIntosh reaches finish line in 6th

Photo credit: RAAM blog

Just a quick update: congratulations to Scott McIntosh for completing the 2008 RAAM Men's Solo Division race. Scott took 6th place. He completed the race in 10 days, 22 hours, and 53 minutes. Amazing!

The RAAM blog should have more coverage soon, so keep an eye there. I'll post a more complete update after I hear back from Scott and crew. Update: here's one that was just posted as I was writing this.

Again, CONGRATULATIONS SCOTT AND CREW! Way to tough it out and come in 6th! That's a tremendous accomplishment and you should be proud, particularly of the way you persevered toward the end of the race.

93 to go!

Scott is currently in 6th, 7th or 8th place, pending his arrival at time station 51, which should be any time. Dr. Michael Nehls is making a push at the end and has passed Scott, although Scott's time credit still has him ahead.


As yesterday, Scott has slowed off the pace a bit. But now he's out of all the elevation, so hopefully that will help. Check out this new article on the RAAM blog about Scott and the inspiration he gets from his sister, Michelle -- it's great. There's a video there too.

Go Scott go!

Wednesday, June 18, 2008

RAAM post featuring Scott

Just saw this on the RAAM blog. Check it out.

Exhausted McIntosh battles elevation

Scott last night before taking a rest.

I just got off the phone with Bryce Walsh, Scott's crew chief. "Scott's battling exhaustion," he said. "He's taking more sleep than we'd like -- basically now we're doing twice the rest that we should be doing." Keep in mind that means Scott had about four hours off-bike last night, instead of two. What a lightweight.

"The good news is, he's riding really well right now, " said Walsh. "And soon we'll be out of the climbing, so we'll see what happens then."

But the climbing isn't over yet. Here's what Scott has ahead of him:


"At this point, Scott just wants this over. But he's hanging tough and I expect we'll be at the finish line tomorrow sometime," said Walsh. "It's actually really interesting to see this part of the race from a crew perspective, because to tell you the truth, I don't remember much past Ohio." Bryce took 5th in the 2006 RAAM Men's Solo Division.

Right now, Scott's in 6th place. He's listed 7th on the roster, but he's ahead of Garcia once you account for penalties and credits. 224 miles to go!

McIntosh grinds through W. Virginia, Appalachians

Scott's now in the middle of his final test: the grueling Appalachian Mountains. Yes, they're not as bad as the rockies overall, but they're definitely nothing to sneeze at. Particularly when you're 2700 miles into a 3014-mile race. Take a look at these elevations. The first one shows the elevations he just endured, and the next one the elevations he faces now:

Scott is currently in 7th place, but things are a little complicated because Scott has finally been given 1 hour and 40 minutes of time credit for the delays he faced in New Mexico. After factoring in Scott's credit and other rider's credits and penalties, Scott's still in 7th as of this writing, but things are close. Scott could still advance to 6th or even 5th place if things go his way.

Franz Preihs has pulled away from the middle of the pack, and now rides safely in 4th. Barring some sort of catastrophe, that's where he should finish.

Also, congratulations to Jure Robic, the 2008 RAAM Solo Male Champion. Jure finished the race in 8 days, 23 hours, 33 minutes.

Tuesday, June 17, 2008

YouTube video featuring Scott

Please don't miss my earlier update talking about Scott's position, but yesterday I neglected to post this video of Scott on YouTube, courtesy of RAAM. (don't forget to check out their blog). Enjoy.

McIntosh, riding well, spars for position

Scott takes a short break in Indiana on Monday.

Scott entered Ohio earlier this morning. He's currently in 7th place, but the race is still tight. Yesterday, Scott's position changed between from 5th to 7th a couple of times, and you can expect more of the same today.

The crew seems happy with Scott's progress so far, but that's not preventing even higher expectations. "The whole race Scott has been pretty insistent upon not knowing what place he's in, or how the other riders are faring, but today he accidentally found out and seemed surprised, " said Mike Feirstein, part of Scott's crew. "So hopefully he'll try to ramp it up and make a move in these last few days."

I asked Bryce why Scott wants to be left in the dark about the race details. "This is a strategy Scott adopted from the start. He wants to focus on running his race, and keeping his tempo where he knows he needs to be."

"When you are at this point in the race, you aren't mentally capable of making good race decisions. You let your crew do that for you, and you focus on the things you can control." Bryce speaks from experience: he came in 5th in the 2006 RAAM Men's solo division.

In addition to a new state and new scenery, Scott has some new faces to look at as well. Mike Feirstein reports, "Two crew members left (Sandy Chung and Dave Rosenblum ) and two more were added (Roger and Ken Polson). Scott's mom also drove down from Indianapolis and saw Scott at the checkpoint. Spirits are high, crew morale is also high and Scott looked good."

Monday, June 16, 2008

Scott enters Indiana in 6th

Last time I updated on Saturday, Scott was just entering Missouri. Now he's crossed all of Missouri AND Illinois, having just entered Indiana this morning. He moved up to 6th place overnight, overtaking Julian Sanz Garcia before reaching the last time station about an hour ago.

There's still a pretty tight grouping between Scott in 6th and Martin Jakob (5th, 47 minutes ahead of Scott), and Garcia (7th). Amazingly, Franz Preihs has increased his lead over Martin Jakob by 3 1/2 hours, giving him some breathing room in the 4th spot. You'll remember Franz is the racer who broke his collarbone back on Thursday.

Scott has 781 miles to go. "Now's the time where Scott starts acting a little weird," said Bryce Walsh, Scott's crew manager. "We really don't let Scott make any decisions at this point in the race. It's up to the crew to make sure he's doing what he's supposed to do."

Saturday, June 14, 2008

Scott on RAAM Blog

I found a mention of Scott in this posting from yesterday on RAMM's blog. This picture was taken on Thursday, 6/12.

Halfway there, Scott falls to 7th in tight grouping

I haven't received my daily call from the crew yet, but I thought an update was in order. Scott is now well over the halfway mark, so he only has a mere 1,278 miles to go in this 3,000 mile race. He's just entering Missouri.

Apparently Scott has fallen to 7th place after a brief stand at 4th last night. It doesn't appear to be anything to worry about -- there's a pretty tight grouping in the middle. From the RAAM blog:
"Martin Jakob, Julian Sanz Garcia, Franz Preihs and Scott McIntosh are in it thick. These 4 riders will most likely change positions back and forth and all around until the final 200 miles. Sleep breaks, when to charge, when to maintain, will be planned out with the strategy of a high stakes poker game. The way I see it, the top three own their positions and it up to them to lose them but one mental mistake and its all over."
This is where it starts getting fun. I'll report back when I get a check-in from the crew.

Friday, June 13, 2008

Scott in 5th Place; Injured Preihs drops to 7th

Story updated 6/13/08 3:11p EDT. See below.

First, here's an update on last night's post concerning the weird "incident" involving the alleged assault of a RAAM competitor.

Bryce told me the racer involved was Mark Pattinson, but I haven't found any information on the RAAM website or on Mark's own website to confirm. The only thing I could find that looked close on RAAM's blog was a mention of Franz Preihs's involvement in some sort "incident". Updated: The YouTube video embedded in the blog post tells the whole story. I missed this originally.

Next, I checked Preihs's website and the story began to unfold -- partially. Franz is Austrian, so I used Google translate to read the German text on his blog. Google translate is great, but it's a bit like reading tea leaves. But I did get some information.

First, it appears either Bryce was incorrect and Preihs's team was involved with the physical altercation (not Pattinson's), or multiple bikers were assaulted.

From Preihs's blog (translated): "The drunks men who 1h early today attacked our team, also attacked other teams and their campers, including a team from England, in their camper the men were able to penetrate and crew members of the Englishman in a brawl were involved with a person of this team has been violated even ......"

So things were already bad for Preihs when they suddenly took a dramatic turn for the worse. "Franz ramm(ed) at a quite high speed (at that time was slightly downhill) head a speed limit traffic sign that due to a construction site something in the roadway," again from the translated blog.

Franz Preihs broke his collarbone, but is somehow, some way, continuing to race. He's fallen to 7th as of this writing, but the mere fact he's even back on a bike is nothing short of jaw-dropping.

For Scott, things are looking up. Mark Pattinson, in 4th, has a little over an hour lead on Scott. 6th, held by Martin Jakob, is about 20 minutes behind Scott.

More updates to come later today...

Thursday, June 12, 2008

Scott moves past Rockies, closes on Kansas

Scott's now about 40% through the race. With the Rockies safely behind him, he can breathe a little easer now. More importantly, he's racing well. "The crew has been doing 12 hour shifts, but I think I'm going to change it to 15 to give people a little more time," said Bryce Walsh in our phone call today. "Scott's running really well, and when he's doing 20MPH like he has been lately, it takes quite a bit of time for the off-shift follow vehicles to catch up to him."

Click the map for realtime GPS updates on Scott's location

Scott's still safely in 6th place. His closest follower, Martin Jakob, is about 1/2 hour behind him. This is a closer gap than the 1-hour lead Scott had yesterday, but Bryce's explanation for it was shocking. "Last night in Talus, Scott took a little bit of a break. When we were ready to go, they wouldn't let us back on the course. It turned out that one of the riders [Mark Pattinson] was attacked."

"A couple guys came out while he was changing clothes and beat him up. He was banged up, his helmet got cracked. It sounds like it was pretty bad."

Mark's still in the race at third place, if you can believe that. Amazingly, I can't find any mention of this story on the RAAM blog or even on Mark's blog. It's good to know that he's OK and still racing strong.

"By the time they finally let us go, some of the riders behind us had caught up," said Bryce. "But when Scott finally got out of there, he jumped right ahead of everybody back into 6th place."

What RAAM will do with this time discrepancy is unknown. They may ignore it, or they may discount the wait time from Scott's total race time post-race.

Franz Preihs, currently in 5th place, has about a 5-hour lead on Scott. That means Scott's catching him -- yesterday the gap was 6 hours.

Stay tuned, more to come...

Wednesday, June 11, 2008

Scott back in 6th

I got this text message from Bryce last night around midnight: "Scott is sleeping now for 3 hours in Cortez, NM. He kicked butt today."

Kicked butt he did. If you take a look at his stats page, check out those average speed times. And it worked: Scott is now back in the 6th position, but with competitors Martin Jakob (35 minutes behind Scott) and Ryan Correy (37 minutes). 5th place is held by Franz Preihs, who is roughly 6 hours ahead of Scott.

Of course, now things start to get juuuust a little bumpy. Check out this elevation map, below. Scott is going through this part as I write this.

Lots of fun -- if you're riding a rollercoaster instead of a bike.

Tuesday, June 10, 2008

Scott back on form after a long Day Two

Scott earlier today in Arizona, heading towards Utah.

Yesterday was rough for Scott. "He had some stomach problems that caused some issues," said Bryce Walsh, Scott's crew chief. "Those cleared up later in the evening and now he's running well."

That appears to be the case. After dropping to 10th place late yesterday, Scott has improved to 7th place, posting an impressive 20MPH average at the last checkpoint. "Scott feels really good today, he's riding strong," added Mike Feirstein, part of Scott's crew. "He's had a lot of downhill, but that will change soon."

Scott is now in Utah, heading towards Colorado and the daunting Rocky Mountains.


Monday, June 9, 2008

Scott nears Phoenix, in 6th position


Quick update everyone:

Scott is just outside of Phoenix. His location as of this writing is shown in yellow. Click the map to get Scott's current location via his GPS tracker. Scott is currently in the 6th position. Last I talked to Bryce, he was running well. That was last night though. I will post more as time allows.

Sunday, June 8, 2008

Day 2: No Fresh Strawberries






Holy Hannah. Ok so there were some minor complications. Where to begin...
We started off nice and early to prep the vans for Inspection. Jon Londres, a most experienced and most awesome crew leader successfully hooked up the speaker system to the roof of the follow vehicle for some added tune support to Scott's ride as well as sharing some of his own vocal stylings. The follow, support, and go-ahead vehicles were rigged and stickered for regulation, with just one seemingly insignificant detail: how to keep the mandatory orange flag on the rear left side top of the vans. It turned out to be a somewhat pain in the place where the sun don't shine. But everthing got done.

Finally with some bungees and twist ties we all headed for Inspection, making it with a minute to spare. First, turns out our supply and support cargo van was not going to pass inspection with no viewable side windows...huh? really? Sooooooo, ok the ol' switcharoo. The crew got busy transforming the smaller go-ahead vehicle as a replacement. I myself went in search of safety pins, excited to be returning triumphant, only to gaze shockingly at a support vehicle minus one rear window. Totally shattered! Whaaaaaa........??? The rear window completely shattered after someone went to close it. Huh??

2 cars shy and already a shoe string budget. What a beginning. Scott and the more expereinced crew, seemed to be handling things pretty well given the situation, keeping everyone else in good spirits. We got to keep going right. The race doesn't end in the beginning. Anyway, after more bad news from the rental car dealer, long story, different post, we continued to prep the 2 functioning vehices for Sunday's start, made some last minute runs to the store, while some of the crew leaders like Bryce Walsh and Mike Feirstein were busy determining the best alternative plan probably involving some crew staying behind with car and autoglass shop mechanic guy/girl.

Not a great start but not a defeatist start. Scott's in good shape with what seems like an amazing crew who seem to genuinely care for Scott and to do what it takes to help him get to that finishline. Also, for those who have generously donated to Scott's fund, awesome, you are awesome. Thanks so much, it is really needed and very much appreciated. It really helps... keep em coming.

Okay long post from the least experienced. hee hee.

I think they have fresh strawberries at the greasy spoon today. Sweet.

Saturday, June 7, 2008

First Day Preparation


The crew from Chicago, including myself, Sandy Chung, first time crewee, has made it safely to San Diego last night. After a pretty easy flight out we crashed out early at the hotel. Scott looked pretty geared to go. Today we'll be prepping the vehicles, laying out some schedules and shifts, shopping for supplies, and checking out the route East. It's still pretty early here on the West Coast. We will be posting more as the days progress. I'm pretty excited especially for Scott. Hope we can back him up as best we can.

Can I get a wooooooo Scott!

Coffee.......

Saturday, May 24, 2008

Cubs Game Rooftop Benefit



On Sunday, June 1st, the Cubby Bear is hosting a rooftop party with Scott as the guest of honor to help raise money for his RAAM venture as well as the American Breast Cancer Society. For $100, you get a great rooftop seat to see the Cubs playing the Colorado Rockies. It’s open bar with beer and wine and a grill going, and Scott will be there, riding his Moots on a trainer. Attendees will see the speedometer and can throw bets on what miles per minute he’ll hit. For more info, contact Josh@cubbybear.com. Or purchase online with paypal:






Wednesday, April 23, 2008

Scott McIntosh RAAM Benefit - Friday April 25 @ Cals

Everybody's favorite Ultracycling Bartender, Scott McIntosh, is doing Race Across America this year. To help cover the expenses(often greater than $15K) there is a benefit this Friday at Cals Bar.

Bands Playing:
Black Bear Combo
Diablo Blanco
+ Special Guest

Come on down and drink a few beers to help send him across the country.

Corner of Van Buren and Wells in the Chicago Loop.