At current pace, Robic well on way to RAAM victory

Scott Nuzum/Herald-Tribune-- Race Across America leader Jure Robic gets assistance from his support team as he checked in at the Fort Scott time station Friday morning. Robic enjoyed a lead of about 11 hours when he checked in and is more than halfway to becoming the first person to win this race four times.

FORT SCOTT, Kan. -- Jure Robic's lead in the Solo Male division of the Race Across America (RAAM) is so large that he was practically the entirety of Friday's action at the time station located at the junction of U.S. 54 and Old Highway 69.

While Robic, who hails from Slovenia, was passing through Fort Scott at 10:45 Friday morning (and passed through Nevada about three hours later), he stopped for a hot chocolate, a front tire change and a discussion of the upcoming portion of the route from this time station to the next one at Collins, Mo.

The second-place solo rider checked in at Pratt, Kan., at 8:20 a.m., meaning that he was about 200 miles -- roughly 11 hours -- behind Robic.

The only other RAAM entrant that passed through Fort Scott as of the Herald-Tribune's deadline was the Gran Fondo Fixies two-man team. They had special permission to depart the race's starting point at Oceanside, Calif., with the solo riders -- all other teams started Wednesday --because it was assumed that they would be slower than the other teams because of their fixed gears. Instead, RAAM officials were having trouble keeping up with them as they passed through Fort Scott at 6:55 Friday morning.

"They didn't think these fixies would end up going as fast as they have been," RAAM race official Johnny Boswell said as he waited along with partner Phil Phillpotts for Robic to come through town.

Boswell also looked at race projections and said that the first of the team riders should come through Fort Scott this afternoon. Fort Scott is a time station -- one of 53 required check-in points on the route. The riders pass through Nevada, but do not have to stop there. The finish line is in Annapolis, Md.

"Saturday and Sunday are going to be the most active days (in Fort Scott)," Boswell said.

Robic has won the Solo Male division of RAAM three of the last four years, including last year. The only time during this run that he did not win, 2006, he was stopped by pneumonia in the mountains of Colorado and wasn't able to finish. If he wins again this year -- and it may take an act of God to prevent him from doing so at his current pace -- he would become the first four-time winner of this event in any division.

Robic is a soldier in the Slovenian Army and most of his support team is made up of Slovenian soldiers, according to Phillpots. The Slovenian Army has sports programs -- similar to the U.S. military academies -- and supporting Robic is part of their assignment.

According to Matjaz Planinsek, a civilian air traffic controller in Slovenia who is part of the support team, Robic's large lead can be attributed to an intense training regimen.

"All year, he trains eight, nine hours a day," Planinsek said. "He takes maybe one day of rest every two, three weeks. He's pushing himself so hard, nothing can surprise him.

"In just two hours sleep, Jure will be more refreshed than any other cyclist. He's also capable of denying the pain."

And with a bit of strategy, Robic was able to avoid the worst of Friday morning's thunderstorms and keep up his pace of about 15 miles per hour that he's been averaging over the 1737 miles he'd already traveled when he made his brief stop here Friday morning.

"We saw something was coming," Planinsek said. "It was a storm like I have not seen because we don't have the flat lands (in Slovenia). We decided to go as far as we could and get sleep at the station in Colwich. We were still in rain all night and most of the morning. But it could have been much worse, I think.

David Haase of the United States was the second-place Solo Male rider, expected to come through Fort Scott about midnight. He is followed by Julio Sanz Garcia of Spain, who is expected to be the first rider in a wave of about 50 riders that will pass through in the following three days. Garcia is projected to arrive at 9 a.m. this morning.

The first Solo Female division rider, American Janet Christiansen, is projected to arrive about 10:40 a.m. The first team, BMC Cycling, should arrive around 8:40 p.m.

Readers interested in keeping up with RAAM after it passes through can check the progress of the riders, read blogs and see video reports at www.raceacrossamerica.org.