My friend and fellow Seattle Randonneur Chris Ragsdale is attempting two cycling distance world records on the 31st. Yes, that’s _two_ records! I guess if you’re going for one, you might as well “ride two dolphins at once, like David Hasselhoff” and go for two, no? Check it out and follow along below.
This is what Chris wrote to me in a recent email:
“I will be attempting the 24hr and 1000k road World Records July 31 at 7am. The event will be based out of the Queen of the Valley inn LINK . All are welcome, I would love the support.More info can be found at ragsdaleridesagain.com
Also a Live blog is actually going to be posted to my site so people can see what’s going on real time and add comments. There will be pictures and hopefully video as well.
The goals for the ride are 542 miles in 24hrs to break the existing record set my Orlando Borini, an italian set on my birthday june 23 in 2007. The goal for 1000k is under 29 hours, Currently the fastest 1000k ever (standard bike) was set by an australian Rod Evans on an indoor velodrome who did it in 29:12 minutes.
I will be on 10.839 mile loop almost perfectly flat with probably 9 of the miles on beautifully smooth road about 2 miles of it is maybe a 6 out of 10. Not horrible but ok. No stop signs, all right hand turns with one of the intersections being a stop light that stay’s green the majority of the time in the direction I am coming into and going right. I need to hit 50 laps exactly in 24 hours to break the world record.
There will be 4 officials, and a minimum of 6 crew. rotating out of two vehicles to provide seemless support. They will hand off all bottles from the vehicle and will be relaying both my time splits and there comparison to previous records.
Yes I will stop to pee but hopefully not often and will correlate that with other tasks like bottles, possible wheel changes, stretching etc. My goal is to have less than 5 minutes not rolling. I feel that is very realistic.
The road is open to cars but again I never cross a lane of traffic so hopefully even a little mid day saturday traffic won’t slow me down.
I don’t plan to be a steady eddy, Use it when you got, and recover quickly and efficiently and get back on it! The plan is to ride at 25-28 and hopefully recover at 20-21. Spend more time above it then below it and when it’s all said and done I need to AVG 22.52
I really am viewing this entire thing as a process, It’s going to happen I just am not sure if it’s going to be the first or 8th try. But I have thought about this a while now and really believe it is time to start the process. I feel better than ever on the bike and am excited to have a ton of support
I will be riding a LITESPEED C3 with syntace clip on areo bars with bar end shifters. Many wheels available but will likely run a Tubular Disc and the front will vary from 404 up to 1080 tubular as well. Saddle Fizik Aliante,
Food- Any thing they will give me, current favorites, Chocolate pudding, and Otter pops, and the old standards. Heed, Ensure, Coke, Jelly beans, Bars
Chris”
If you’re in the area on the 31st, swing by to show a little support and cheer Chris on as he busts ass to hopefully break a couple records. That is friggin’ awesome.
Good Luck Chris!