Bacchetta Recumbents Power John Foote To A RAAM Qualification!
John Foote overcomes extreme adversity at Sebring 2006 to qualify for RAAM.
On Sunday morning, 2/19/06, at 6:30 AM 48 year old John Foote, an Ultra Marathon Cycling Association (UMCA) member from Troy, Ohio crossed the timing pad at Sebring International Raceway for the final time. The Bike Sebring 12/24 Hour Race, in Sebring, FL had ended and John had recorded 437 miles over the 24 hour period, thus exceeding the 425 miles required to qualifying for the Race Across AMerica (RAAM) solo division. But, that’s only a small portion of the story. The larger portion of the story is what he went through to get there, and the role his Bacchetta played. Here’s John’s story:
It was in the early to mid 1980’s when I found, at that time, a rather obscure sport called Ultra cycling. And you guessed it; I discovered it by watching Lon, Susan, Pete and Michael on ABC’s Wide World of Sports, battling each other to win the Race Across America (RAAM). So I thought, wouldn’t that be a cool thing to do? Of course I hadn’t ridden a bike since I was 14 or 15, but like they say, you never forget how to ride a bike. The dream chase was on.
The training began on my new Reynolds 531c road bike with Campy components, a 6-speed friction shift drive train, and of course, that comfy Brooks Pro saddle, well it got that way, sort of. Wow, such a long time ago. Hour after hour the miles began to click off into the thousands. Soon there were 24-hour races, The Michigan National 24 Hr, The Wolverine 200, Bicycle Marathon of Columbus, and one of the grand daddies at the time, Bicycle Across Missouri (BAM). After logging a 10,000-mile season in 1986, I entered BAM, a 549 mile timed adventure from St. Louis to Kansas City and back. Oh, did you know there are hills in Missouri? I think every hill in the state was on that ride. I did pretty well, if I remember right, finishing in the 37-hour range.
Unfortunately, my body didn’t handle the hills as well as my mind. The lingering physical affects of the race stayed with me for weeks, and never did go away. The problem turned out to be a re-occurrence of a disc herniation in my lumbar spine that I had surgery on 6 years prior. In addition, there was a new disc rupture at the level below this one. The surgery was done and after an extended recovery period, I resumed cycling.
It just wasn’t to be though, the dream was over. After months and months and months of rehab, cycling was just too painful. I could no longer ride for more than an hour. I would grimace in extreme pain from the formerly impinged nerves that run to my right leg. The whole affair had left me an emotional cripple as I gave up cycling. It’s hard to break an addiction like that. Over the next 20 years, four more surgeries would be required to repair the spine, with the 5th and final surgery being a cervical fusion in March of 2005.
The only cycling during this period was in the summer of 2003 when my wife Cindy, not a cyclist at the time, suggested we try a recumbent tandem. She felt that a recumbent position may make it possible for me to ride again, and if so, she wanted to be a part of it. Wow, Cindy, you couldn’t have been more right. We were off and riding, the more I rode, the more I thought it would be possible, you know, ”that dream”. There were however two problems, the tandem had some severe speed limitations, and the stoker wasn’t interested in ultra distances.
These were problems I hoped to find answers to as I went to Calvin’s Challenge 12 hour bike race near Springfield, Ohio, not far from my home to meet a guy named Larry Graham. Larry was putting in some unbelievable mileage performances riding a recumbent at UMCA events and I wanted to find out why. He introduced me to the Bacchetta Ti Aero and I was so impressed with the machine that I didn’t stay to watch the race. Sorry Larry, but I was on the phone trying to find a floor model to test ride. Within an hour, my riding buddy Jim Miller and I were on our way to the “candy store” in Indiana to test ride two Aeros that they had in stock. We both bought Aeros on the spot that day. I must be crazy, three months after cervical fusion surgery, “I’m buying a bike”?
I took delivery of my Aero even before I was released to ride by the doctor, I did sneak a ride or two in though, how could anybody resist? The first couple of rides were a little shaky, but only the first couple. My first impression of the Aero was one of an extremely stable and fast machine with minimal road vibration to rattle my spine. After about a week, I felt like I had years of riding experience on it and I began reaping the benefits of such a wonderfully engineered machine. I would often comment that riding the Aero almost felt like cheating it was so easy, at least compared to what I remember about that road bike.
Between mid-June and early November 2005, I put in the base miles for the race in Sebring that I didn’t yet know I was going to do. In July I rode the Tin Butt 12 hour in 107-degree heat in Oklahoma for a total of 135 miles. Then it was the UMCA Championships in Iowa for a 207 mile performance and a first place overall in the recumbent division. I felt really good about that ride, because it was on a hilly course. Total mileage for this period was right around 3500 miles. It was now time to take the training indoors and to also begin planning a schedule for the 2006 season.
By late November, I decided to do Sebring. It was time to try a 24-hour race, and I felt that if I was going to do a 24, it might as well be a RAAM qualifier. The Ohio winter weather drove the training indoors and from late November up to two weeks prior to the race I put in 168 hours on the Cyclops in the garage. I also found out that my cycling partner Jim had also decided to bring his Aero to Florida to race a 12 hr, something he’d never done before. It sounded great, and the crew and I were ready for some sunny Florida weather, which is the bonus in doing a February 24 hr in Florida.
Two days prior to leaving for Sebring, we learned that Jim was diagnosed with bone cancer. We were all shocked with the news. My riding with Jim goes back 20 years and I was extremely devastated as we had more recently galvanized our cycling friendship with the purchase of twin Aeros and riding every week. At first, I no longer wanted to go, the excitement was snuffed out by Jim’s news, and rightly so until I spoke with Jim on the phone. He made it clear that he wanted me to go by saying, “You’re going to have to pedal for both of us down there.”
So that’s what I did. With my crew supplying me with my liquid nutrition, I spent no more than 5 minutes off of the Aero during the entire 24 hours. Not once in the first 12 hours did I look at the odometer. I just kept an eye on my heart rate, current speed, average speed, and total elapsed time, which gave me the most important numbers that I used to crunch in my head for hours and hours.
After the race I had absolutely no neck or back pain. I also had remarkably less fatigue that I could remember having from events I had done in the past. I attribute most of this to the Aeros ability to dampen the road bumps and vibrations while still having the stiffness to maximize energy output. Bacchetta has produced one heck of a superior product with the Aero. Thanks to everybody at Bacchetta.
After all that has happened, the fact is that I trained for 8 months following a 20-year layoff, and Qualified for RAAM. Much of how I accomplished this has to do with the bike, the Aero is unequivocally a great design that worked great for me to accentuate my ability as well as keep my physical faults in check. I hope that others try it and discover their lost dreams as well.
I would like to thank my great crew; my wife Cindy, my mechanic Dave Curtis, and crewmember Adele Siegel, you all kept me on the bike. You guys are great!
Jim is currently receiving radiation therapy and the doctors say his recovery looks good. All of our prayers are with him.
THANK YOU, BACCHETTA
John Foote
RAAM Qualified
Bacchetta Ti Aero