RAAM CREW PRIMARY JOB:

Rider

 WHAT WAS YOUR BEST MOMENT DURING RAAM?

 There are so many:

-   Monument Valley, the beauty of the place and what it symbolises.

-   The start when everything we had worked for came down to that moment.  It was all pedaling from there.

-   Racing Daniel Rudge and Ben Popp felt like real racing.  I felt that on some of the last days the way I raced, I must have been the strongest and fastest at times.

-   Feeling so looked after and knowing people cared and were doing whatever they could.  I felt very humble, I was at my lowest ebb and the team was behind me.  We operated as a team so well, there were a few things that we needed to sort out at first but we did and then we moved on.

 But:

- Seeing how we were as a team and how some of the team flourished remains and will always be the best bit for me

 WHAT WAS YOUR FUNNIEST MOMENT DURING RAAM?

 The evening the girls were in the follow car messing around and trying to make me laugh. 

 WHAT WAS YOUR WORST MOMENT DURING RAAM?

-   When I was run off the road by the lorry driver.  It felt like he was prepared to kill me.  It was scary, but you just deal with it.

-   The stone-throwing incident, where the truck came past several times throwing things at me.  It affected me psychologically.  It is strange to feel so cared for and then face this, a real shock.

-   Numerous times when I was out there on the bike at 2, 3, 4 in the morning having been on the bike for 20 hours, tired, whacked.  It was sometimes windy and so hard to keep going.  That last 10 miles or so each night when I was exhausted, I was digging so deep physically, mentally, everything. 

-   The whole experience was tougher than I expected.  It was lonely as much as anything.  I was out there on my own, the car behind me seemed miles away sometimes, I had no idea what was going on in it, the miles ticking by and I was glued to the road. I felt very emotional at times, wondering why people in the car weren’t talking.  I often felt like I was going downhill when I was really going uphill.  This meant I thought it should be easy but it wasn’t so it was so tough psychologically.  I was hallucinating at times too.

 WHAT DID YOU LEARN?

 -   I really found where my boundaries were, certainly at the end it just demonstrated how reliant I was on the team to help me through.

 -   I learnt to let go and really trust other people – I had total emotional dependence on certain members of the team at times.

 -   The sum of the parts is greater than the individuals was so true for us and reflects the beauty of the race. My goals became the team goals - how we quite achieved that I am not quite sure on though I think the key was passion and positivity; we had little negativity throughout all our time in America.

 -   We seemed to be able to galvanise and inspire people both within Davis Langdon and friends and families. The analogy of the wheel with hub and spokes that Tom used is so apt though I do not feel I should be at the centre. In time people will forget what time I achieved – the centre of the wheel is the achievement of dreams for individuals in the team, inspiring  others and, I hope, the difference this makes to some of the children’s lives in Ghana.

DID YOU EVER WANT TO GIVE UP?

Never.  I had to dig much deeper than I had expected, it was much harder than I had anticipated, but I never wanted to give up.

 CAN YOU SUM UP YOUR RAAM EXPERIENCE IN ONE SENTENCE?

 A physical and emotional rollercoaster, tactical racing, flying up the climbs, toiling through the long nights, tears of suffering for so long alone in the saddle versus the deep warmth of seeing the team flourish and have the time of their lives.