Having just made ourselves cry working out that Ben Bardsley must have been averaging sub 50 minute (49mins 40 seconds to be fairly precise) laps for the full 24 hours (food in / food out stops included) we hear news that the 20th RAAM is running at the moment.
Basically a ‘Cannonball run’ style race from Oregon to Florida (Ok so it’s in reverse, and there’s no girls in low cut jumpsuits driving Lambourghini’s) the RAAM covers 3000 miles, and the winners finish in under 9 days.

Yup that’s an average of 350 or so miles a day 1-4 hours sleep a night and a cumulative vertical climb of 25,000 feet in the first 500 miles, going on to 100,000 feet of altitude gained and lost till they hit the Florida coast. Trust the Americans to take everything to extremes.

If that wasn’t sick enough defending champion Danny Chew is determined to rack up 1,000,000 riding miles in his lifetime. “RAAM is 3,000 miles, only one-third of one percent of my overall goal. But they’re fun miles.” “A lot of people can be millionaires, financially,” Chew told Outside magazine. “But few, if any, will be mile-ionares.”

Hopefully he won’t ‘Rollover’ and die before he hits the jackpot!