The Trans Am is something special. Roughly 6750km and over 50,000 meters of climbing puts it in the megalithic category of unsupported ultra-racing. In 2019 the night before the race I was anxiously sitting in my hotel room watching Anthony Joshua fight Andy Ruiz Jr for the heavy weight boxing title of the world. The race was in less than 12 hours and I was completely riddled with doubt. Despite the fact that I had prepared for almost a year I couldn’t contain my angst. I had put my bike in a separate room just so I wouldn’t look at it because it made me feel sick staring at it. That night I could hardly sleep and after what felt like the longest night, I was lined up on the start line.

The first few days of the Trans Am is a drag race for the lead pack. A common tactic is to ride hard for a day or two until a small front pack forms and then attempt to form some sort of sleep schedule. Attempt is the key word. Despite the Fatigue during the first week of the Trans Am the riders are spoilt to with some of the most beautiful terrain in the world. It literally feels like you're staring into a beautiful Italian fresco that Michael Angelo painted. Often times I would find myself staring into snowcapped peaks whilst an American eagle would fly over me whilst simultaneously eating Lollie's. Suddenly I would be overcome with diarrhea so I would stop to go to the toilet on the side of the road. Besides the vicious diarrhea I also had the great fortune of running into two bears. One of them being a grizzly bear with its cubs whilst I was on the phone to my mum back home. I told her I would call her back... 
One week into the race and it looks like us dot watchers are in for a real treat. The top three riders are all within striking distance of each other. Currently the third-place rider Edward Tapp is 100 miles behind the leader Kraig Pauli which seems like a big gap but I have seen gaps bigger than that get closed down later in a bike race. Notably last year Evan Deutsch was significantly behind Kraig Pauli (2021 winner) at times but towards the tail end of the race he almost caught him. Key point is that anything can happen. I had moments on the race where if it wasn’t for divine intervention my lead would have evaporated to nothing. 

It's hard to know what will take place as we are in the early stages of the race but Kraig Pauli and Ben Davies are both on track to break the record. Kraig is a previous winner and has completed the race multiple times which is an advantage when it comes to experience and course knowledge but I question whether or not it would get easier the more times you do the race. I had somewhat of a blissful ignorance. I had committed the whole course pretty much to memory but I still had times where the town I was planning on sleeping in didn’t exist and I was forced to ride a extra 100 kilometers to the next town or I would plan to ride 500 kilometers to my next sleep which would end up taking me 24+ hours due to the difficulty of the climbs. 

Kraig doesn’t seem to sleep much whilst Ben has a pretty consistent sleep schedule. It looks like he has stopped a total of 10 hours more than Kraig. Honestly who knows what will happen. I guess that’s what's great for us dot watchers. We can make our predictions and assume one strategy is better or more sustainable than the other but at the end of the day time will tell.  
I wish all the riders the best of luck and safe travels along their journey. It truly is an unforgettable experience that goes by faster than the blink of an eye.  

Abdullah's Update

At 6,735km long, the Trans Am Bike Race (TABR) is the longest ultra-distance bike race out there. Traversing the USA from Astoria, Oregon, to Yorktown, Virginia, the route covers the Rockies, the plains of the Mid-West, and the Appalachians, on its cross-continental path. A true test of stamina, and a calendar highlight for riders and dotwatchers alike.

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