Category: Racing

The seesaw battle for the lead in the Race Across America finally landed in Dani Wyss's favor Thursday evening as defending champion Jure Robic had to stop to serve 60 minutes of penalties just 55 miles from the finish line in Annapolis, Maryland.

Instead of serving his time at the Mt. Airy, Maryland, time station, however, Robic and his crew decided to quit. Wyss, who is recorded as arriving at that time station at the same time, proceeded down the road to victory in Annapolis.

Robic's action is explained on his website:

“Jure was the fastest cyclist on this years RAAM. On the last time check TS51, he came few minutes before Dani Wyss. Because of the penalties, issued controversially, because of the rules not aplied always in the same manner and because of not issuing penalties to others, Jure and his crew decided not to finish the race as 2nd, but step out of it on TS51.

“Today it was written the history of RAAM. Jure and Dani staged the toughest fight ever and on the end the fastest didn't won.

“Expect more in next days when we will be relaxing before traveling back home.”

It's a shame that the closest and possibly greatest RAAM ever had to end on a sour note. It's amazing to consider that a 3,100-mile race could come down to just minutes separating these two endurance athletes until one of them bailed out ….

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Update: The leading solo men in the Race Across America plowed across Ohio on Wednesday at times within sight of each other as they prepared to enter mountainous West Virginia.

After Jure Robic and Dani Wyss passed through the Chillicothe time station at the same time, a punctured tire briefly sidelined Robic who was passed by Wyss. According to the time station splits in Athens, Robic arrived 3 minutes ahead of Wyss.

With Robic's 60 minutes of accumulated penalities, however, the Slovenian is actually in second place with less than 450 miles to go …

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After 2,100 miles, Slovenian wonder-cyclist Jure Robic maintained his lead in the grueling Race Across America as he was first to pull into the Effingham, Illinois, time station Tuesday morning.

But something is different at this point in the race as four-time RAAM champion Robic defends his title; a 39-year-old cyclist named Daniel Wyss followed him into the time station by only 81 minutes. 

It's probably one of the few times that anyone has been this close to Robic this late in the race during his wins in 2004, 2005, 2007 and 2008.

Wyss, a 39-year-old cyclist from Switzerland, won the race in 2006. He might just be waiting for a chance to slip ahead of Robic during a sleep break or wrong turn over the last 1,000 miles. ..

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Four-time Race Across America winner Jure Robic, left, of Slovenia took off from Oceanside, California, on his bicycle at noon Wednesday to defend his title against 23 other men entered in the solo division of the 3,022-mile cross-country race.

He's expected to finish sometime on Friday, June 26, when he pulls into City Dock in Annapolis, Maryland.

This is the 28th running of RAAM, the amazing uber-endurance bicycle race that's the longest, and probably the most difficult, bicycle race in the world.

Four solo women and one man over 60 started their trans-America uber-endurance bike race at noon Tuesday; the 2-person, 4-person and 8-person teams will leave Oceanside on Saturday …

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