There’s another (very) long distance event happening this month and that’s the Trans Am Bike Race 2015. It’s a race along the Transamerica Trail, 4,200+miles from the Western Oregon coast to Yorktown, Virginia, and it started two days ago.
It’s quite different to RAAM in that it’s an open race - no entry fee, no prize money, anyone can enter and a good race time could be anywhere from 12 to 40 days depending on the rider’s goals and experience.
Unlike RAAM, the riders have to consider food and water supply themselves, including the potential for treating whatever water they can find during certain sections. While there will be lots of opportunities to restock from the towns and cities passed through, this is more bikepacking in style than RAAM.
So, where does the technology come in? Trans Am is using spot satellite trackers and TrackLeaders, a tracking service, to follow the riders as they move across the country. You can literally watch as the riders progress through each day on a live map. It’s quite addictive to follow them!
RAAM will have even more live data and reports available through their chosen service, RideFarther, that looks like it will be combining video, news and pictures as well as the satellite tracking map once that event starts later this month.
If you haven’t tried this kind of tracking system before, you’ll be surprised quite how engaging it can be for these kinds of events. When combined with some of the rider’s own online updates, it can really bring an event alive.