Gulf Coast Interstate Relay - Cycle

Very fun day. We had a 5 person team and we rotated throughout the day. My longest segment was 16.80 miles. 1 riding a bike, 1 driving the van, and the rest of us navigating and strategizing. What a crazy day. From New Orleans to just outside of Mobile was pretty straightforward, but once we got to Mobile, the directions were challenging. We started at 6AM, some started at 4 and we passed people throughout the day. We had a rider get lost in Mobile and that probably cost 20 minutes. We also made an error in Fairhope in the van, cost us 5 minutes. 1 guy flatted, add another 10 minutes. My stages very pretty straight forward. A couple of tough spots of traffic, no bike lane in a couple places, but otherwise pretty cool. By the time we got to Gulf Shores it was raining and I was happy I didn't have any stages left to ride in the dark. We had a great team and the bus ride was really fun and exciting. We were 2nd overall finisher, behind only a soloist who happened to be a recent, North American Winner at the Race Across America.

If my wife lets me do this again, these are things we can do better. Take the early start time. The dark ride was very light traffic and decent roads. Actually drive the parts of the route in Mobile to get bearings right. Otherwise, we nailed it.

Finish line was pretty lame.


Weather and wind, but I am happy.


The race is a great concept. It was really designed for running, but they added the bike race to increase the revenue. The routes had several places where it just wasn't safe to bike. Most of this could have been addressed if any bikers had been consulted. All that said, it was so fun.