UltraCycling: Lon, congratulations on another successful race.

Haldeman: Thanks, Susan and I were very pleased with this year's race. We didn't have as good tailwinds early in the race as we did last year, but overall the weather was pretty good. There were no severe storms, unlike last year.

UC: What did you think of Clavadestcher's performance?

Haldeman: Andy Clavadetscher had good race. He gave it his all - he was still hobbling around three days after he finished. I like a winner who is toast!

Peter Lekisch's also had a very good ride, the first 60 year old finisher in 12d 20h 50m. When I did my first transcontinental in 1981, I finished in 12 -1/2 days and I was toast! I was in my 20s, very fit, and I only had two days with more than 250 miles in that transcon. Peter's ride is a terrific accomplishment!

Race Director, Lon Haldeman David Kincannon photo

UC: You had a very competitive two-person race.

Haldeman: Yes, I was very pleased with the two-person race this year. That format has plenty of potential. It's not quite as hard as solo RAAM, but the riders thought it was plenty difficult. Only five of eight two-person teams finished; That's about the same DNF rate as in the solo field.

Teams like the Brazilian Discover Ceara/Powerbar team [which set a new two-man record] are thinking of coming back.

The only unfortunate incident was that Angelika Castaneda got hit by a car the last day. A car passed her and then made right turn right in front of her. She had to be taken to the hospital for stitches. Fortunately, her sister was able to finish the race - they set the new women's two-person relay record of 9 days 13 hours.

UC: How did Team Vail do so well? They had a very small crew!

Haldeman: Team Vail was amazing. They had a sedan, a motor home, four crew and the four riders. One rider would hammer down the road. The other rider would drive the car ahead while the crew member navigated. The second rider would get down his bike, they'd do the exchange, and then the first rider would hop in the car with his helmet on and drive ahead. I think low budget teams are the wave of the future.

Marking the course David Kincannon photo

UC: How was the race organization this year?

Haldeman: I was very pleased with the support we got in Portland at the start and in Gulf Breeze at the end. Alex Laws and Greg Pressler did a great job organizing the start and Greg announced both the start and the finish! In Florida the State Police got really involved and escorted riders that last 60 miles during rush hour. That was really neat - but the police cars kept going 20 mph and some riders had to struggle to keep up!

We had volunteers at about a third of the time stations this year, which was great. At some of them, like Stillwater and Kosciusko, the turnout was great. Having people at the time stations really motivates the riders and crews. Jennifer [Wise], Pierce [Gafgen] and all the volunteers at headquarters kept that running very smoothly.

Scott Johnson and the film crew were very enthusiastic about the race and I think we'll have an excellent show on OLN this fall. I also got a lot of favorable comments about the website, the rider tracking system, and Scott's daily updates. Tom [Kingsbury] did a terrific job of keeping the website updated. I just hope that next year we can get more photos during the race.

UC: Any thoughts about next year's dates or course?

Haldeman: When Susan and I get back from the Northern PAC Tour, we'll look at next year's event.