JEFF OATLEY: TOP AMERICAN IN RAAM ‘07

Training for the Race Across America is a challenge for any rider. To have the stamina and conditioning to ride 20-hours a day for more than a week in June, a competitor must put in long rides in January, and beyond.

How does a guy do that in Fairbanks, Alaska, where temperatures in January can drop lower than 30 degrees below zero?

“You ride,” Alaskan Jeff Oatley said in a pre-race interview, explaining that he uses his “snow-bike” with double wide rims and tires. “We ride on sled-dog tracks, which when they’re packed down, is kind of like riding on Styrofoam.”

Oatley maintains dedicated training program through harsh conditions has paid off for the 38 year old civil engineer. He’s had top placings in the Leadville 100, the Iditasport 130, the Iditarod Trail Invitational and the Fireweed 400.

While he had come into this year’s RAAM with no real expectations, in the early days of the event he found himself as high as fourth place, before finishing early Thursday as top American with a time of 10 days, 21 hours and 59 minutes.

Your roving RAAM reporter had spent the past several days at the back of the pack, giving those riders the attention they so deserve. Two days ago, after sending in a few stories and a bunch of photos, I decided it was time to catch up with Oatley to give him his due.

Despite taking major highways instead of the quiet back roads of the RAAM route, it took nearly 24 hours to catch Oatley. It’s amazing how much ground even a tired RAAM rider can cover. Of course, I caught a full five hours of sleep, while Oatley snoozed for only two.

I finally found Oatley on the road between Hancock, Maryland, and Rouzerville, Pennsylvania. Not wanting to take up his limited off-the-bike time I jumped onto my own bike and rode along with him through the Pennsylvania countryside. During our on-the–road conversation I was able to see that despite the miles, he was still mentally alert, with his easy-going nature and dry sense of humor still intact. Asked what it means to him to be the top U.S. rider in this year’s RAAM, Oatley simply shrugged modestly, “I guess that just means that not a lot of Americans entered this year.”

In Gettysburg.

His take on his first RAAM is that it has gone, “pretty good.”

“I didn’t know what to expect or where I would be able to be in the standings. But we’re happy about it, so far,” he said. “There’ve been no real problems and I’m having a good time. But I’m really looking forward to getting to Atlantic City.”

It was just a few moments later that we came into road construction zone with backed-up traffic. “I could do without this traffic, though,” Oatley said, an understandable statement coming from someone who is more likely to encounter a moose or bear than a traffic jam. Throughout the past ten days of RAAM, more than a few riders have mentioned that not all the motorists they’ve encountered have been friendly.

According to Oatley, though, “Ninety-nine-and-a-half percent have been great! They’ll give a friendly honk or wave as they go by. I guess they have some idea and appreciation of what it is these riders on the road are doing.”

As we neared Rouzerville, I picked up my pace and pulled away to catch up to my RV (I’ve done about three thousand fewer miles than Oatley over the last week). I wanted to get ahead to shoot some photos of Oatley riding through the civil war battle site in Gettysburg. Approaching Gettysburg I encountered part of Oatley’s crew waiting to shoot their own photos of him at a covered bridge.

It’s good to see that his crew still has the energy to make their trek fun. So many crews and riders fail in that regard. Soon Oatley came into view and I captured some of the images you see here. As my driver (also known as my spousal unit Kathy) leapfrogged ahead so that I could get more shots, I suddenly realized that I’d forgotten to ask Oatley a very important question, which I was able to ask when he stopped to get a water bottle from his follow car.

“Will you do RAAMs again?” I called out.

“Heck, I don’t know,” he with a laugh.

We motored ahead again, wanting to get one more sequence of photos as he exited the historic area. As he came into view he looked over at me and added to his answer, laughing as he said, “I’m still trying to figure out how I’m gonna pay for this one!”