RAAM, what is this about?
I usually try, as much as possible, to find adventure just next door following Alastair Humphreys' advices, even before reading his book.
Still, RAAM raises an problem, as there's no real equivalent anywhere in the world, nowhere can one find the same course, weather, race rules and competitors.
And for a European, on needs to... fly to the US (and come back) then, once there, have a place to sleep, rent cars.
Concerning logistics, this is what I plan Au niveau logistique, j'envisage le dispositif suivant :
- rider rides about 21 hours per day. Every minute matters, wasted time
is lost forever. 21 hours on the bike implies about 2h of sleep per 24h, it's hard to significantly below that limit.
- one car to follow me, short distance at night, and in leap-frop mode during the day, always ready to help. The race rules make this mandatory.
- one car all purposes logistics, buy stuff, put gas in the tank, tidy things,
do whatever the first car can never do because it's always moving. I tested this in Ireland and this is really useful, this car has almost as many things to do as the former one. This, I learned hands-on, with my friends.
- one car to move ahead and allow a fraction of the team to take some
serious, solid rest. They should be as efficient on day 10 as they were on day 1. We did not have this 3rd card in Irlande, and after 6 days they were exhausted. Not sure we could have kept that rythm for 6 more days.
Crewers should work in shifts, it's not always the same who are just behind the racer, ensure logistics is running smoothly, or rest.
Budget
This is my estimation of the core requirements:
- registration : 2800 €
- plane tickets for 12 : 10 800 €
- cars (rent + gas for 3 vehicles large enough to fit 7 people) : 7 500 €
- hotel at start, finish, 6 nights for 12 : 3 180 €
- hotel during the race, 4 nights for 12 : 2 120 €
- bike parts and gear (GPS, tires, chains, ...) : 1 000 €
- clothes (15 jerseys or equivalent) : 1 500 €
So that's a total of 28 900 €.
I can contribute up to 15 000 €, that's to say, about half of the total amount. For the remaining part, I just need you.
How donations work
Given the figures above, 13 900 € is missing.
I started a campaign on GoFundMe, a crowd-funding platform.
Starting at 1€ : buy miles (well, kilometers)
The course is slightly above 3 000 miles, that's about 4 900 km. Good news, all of them can be bought! Principle is: you buy them on the online platform and this helps me to buy plane tickets, rent cars, etc.
Each euro counts, as a long distance lover, I totally understand how big numbers are made out of small numbers added together.
And of course, you will appear in the list of sponsors .
Starting at 35€ (40 USD): Buy a book
I intend to publish a book , after the race. About RAAM and also about "the reasons which can drive someone to cross the United States on a bike".
Whatever the outcome of the race is, total success or pathetic failure, there will, necessarily, be an interesting story to tell.
By giving 35€ (approx. 40$) you ensure you have a copy of the book as soon as its out (late 2018, likely), with some personal words on it.
That being said, make sure you realize this is going to be in French, so English readers will probably have a hard time reading it, and it's probably just going to take some extra space on your book shelves. Si vous êtes français vous devriez cliquer ici, ce site est traduit ...
Contact me if in doubt.
Starting at 100€ (115 USD) : Buy one (or several) time stations
There are 55 of them, just browse .
55 mandatory checkpoints. For 100 euros (approx. 115 USD), you can "buy" a "TS". This blog will mention it's yours, and we'll ping you and let the world know when we reach it. For instance, let me pick a random one (well, almost), this is the kind of page which will be brought forward with latest news, when I reach the corresponding TS.
You can technically buy several of them, but leave some for the others.
Of course, I can also send you a book if you wish (would be in French, but if you still want one, no problem, I'm your man).
But... what is this useful for? Well, let's say 100€ is no small amount. At that point, I need to remember you and make sure that I do not forget, once on the race, that if I'm there, it's with your help. So having this tangible reminder at the time-station is a bullet-proof guarantee I won't forget your kind donation.
500€ (600 USD) and above : Custom
At that price, you could buy a complete state, it works the same as time-stations, except there are only 12 states (they are bigger, so there are fewer of them, logical). You'd also have your logo on cars, jerseys, web-site.
And then, there are even other possibilities, let's talk, I want to know you, personally.
