Every morning, Strasser quickly falls asleep under his coach’s hypnosis. To keep up the pace, he even consumes only liquid food for necessary sustenance
Introduction: In the world of cycling, endurance races involving nearly non-stop cycling are rarely known to the public, but the Race Across America — the world’s longest bicycle endurance race — still attracts considerable attention. And indeed, the event has proven to have its own unique charm.
After completing a 4,811-km ride across 12 U.S. states, 28-year-old Austrian cyclist Christoph Strasser was the first to cross the finish line of the 2011 Race Across America in New York.
“This feeling is absolutely wonderful!” Facing the cheers of enthusiastic fans who had stayed up all night at the finish line, Strasser’s joy was beyond words. “I felt I could keep riding, but now, I’d rather stop and rest…”
Just nine days earlier, Christoph Strasser had been standing at the starting point in Santa Monica, California. Now, he had arrived in New York, returning as a hero. And this journey was completed entirely by bicycle. Strasser’s final time was 8 days, 8 hours and 6 minutes, with an average speed of 24 km/h, ranking third in the speed records of the Race Across America. Even more astonishingly, throughout the race, Strasser slept for a total of just 7.5 hours. To save time, he consumed only liquid food for necessary sustenance. Every morning, Strasser would fall asleep quickly under his coach’s hypnosis for a 70-minute rest. Despite this, severe sleep deprivation caused him to hallucinate. “On the sixth day, I was almost going crazy. When I woke up, I asked the team why we were still riding and where we were going.”
This is one of the reasons why the Race Across America is called the “Superman Cycling Race.” In road cycling, the Tour de France is widely considered the toughest race, but at least at the end of each stage, cyclists can get ample rest, enjoy a nutritious dinner, then lie in bed and sleep well, striving to be in the best condition for the next stage. But in the Race Across America, such a scenario is nothing but a luxury. The 4,811 km must be completed in 12 days, and to finish the race, you simply have to ride through the night.
In fact, two years ago, the then 26-year-old Christoph Strasser had already taken part in this race. “Two years ago, in the early stages of the race, I rode very fast. I maintained excellent form for the first three full days. However, when I reached the Rocky Mountains in Colorado, I began to run into trouble. I came down with pneumonia and had to withdraw from the race.” He then spent four days in the intensive care unit of a hospital. It was this experience that gave Christoph Strasser extra motivation for the 2011 race. “This time, I will definitely reach the finish line!”
Strasser has a natural passion for various challenging sports. As a teenager, he was active on the soccer field. At 18, Strasser fell in love with cycling and began doing some mountain biking. In 2002, he participated in his first 24-hour endurance cycling race. In 2005, 22-year-old Christoph Strasser successfully completed the “Alps Crossing Bicycle Race,” becoming the youngest finisher in the event’s history. In the following years, the increasingly mature Strasser not only won multiple 24-hour endurance race championships but also set a new national 24-hour endurance record at 950 km in 2007, becoming the youngest “UltraMarathon Cycling World Champion.”
Once, the Race Across America was a mountain Christoph Strasser found hard to conquer. But now, he has achieved his goal, and what’s even more exciting is that he didn’t just reach the finish line — he did so in first place. On June 24, 2011, Christoph Strasser became the third Austrian cyclist to win the Race Across America, after Franz Spilauer and Wolfgang Fasching.
In the world of cycling, endurance races involving nearly non-stop cycling are rarely known to the public, but the Race Across America — the world’s longest bicycle endurance race — still attracts considerable attention. And indeed, the event has proven to have its own unique charm. As one of the most well-known bicycle transcontinental races today, the Race Across America has a 30-year history since its inception in 1982, initially named the “Great American Bike Race.”
The Race Across America was originally organized by a cyclist named John Marino. In 1982, Marino and three competitors — John Howard, Michael Shermer, and Lon Haldeman — embarked on the first coast-to-coast bike ride across America, starting in Santa Monica on the U.S. West Coast and finishing at the Empire State Building in New York. In the end, 24-year-old Lon Haldeman won the four-person race, becoming the first champion in the history of the Race Across America and the youngest winner to date. The following year, Haldeman won the race again.
Despite having successful experiences, the development speed of the Race Across America still surprised its founder, John Marino. More and more people began to pay attention to this seemingly crazy new race on the North American continent, with increasing numbers participating, and the scale of the event grew year by year. In 1986, ABC’s sports channel broadcast the Race Across America on television for the first time.
In the early days of the Race Across America, the competition was initially open only to American cyclists. However, as the race’s influence grew, many highly skilled foreign riders were deeply attracted to the event and wanted to compete. A rule change became urgent. Organizers soon realized this and quickly lifted the nationality restrictions on participants. The race was then officially renamed to what we now know as the “Race Across America.”
In 1989, the Race Across America underwent a major rule change. Aerodynamically superior streamlined bicycles were allowed in the race, and the existing race time records were soon broken. Additionally, a team race category was introduced, where teams of four riders complete the course together. During the race, the four riders can choose to ride simultaneously or use a relay system to maintain high speeds and allow for better rest. In 2006, the format changed again, introducing a special individual endurance race category. In this version of the individual endurance race, riders can take a total of 40 hours of rest at designated points, which are deducted from their overall time. This undoubtedly improved the safety of the race and helped reduce fatigue. However, this format did not gain widespread acceptance, and the individual endurance race we see today remains a traditional extreme challenge.
Unlike multi-day cycling races like the Tour de France, the Race Across America does not have any official stages during the competition, nor are there strict regulations on daily riding distances. To this day, there is no specific time allocated for rest or meals. The total race time is calculated from the moment of departure until reaching the finish line, including all stoppage times. This is precisely what makes the Race Across America so remarkable. To become the ultimate winner, one must not only have strong cycling ability but also extraordinary fatigue resistance. In the Race Across America, individual endurance race champions typically spend around 22 hours a day on their bikes, often taking 8 to 9 days to complete the course. As mentioned earlier, relying on just over an hour of sleep per day to recover is almost unimaginable. Team race finish times range from 6 to 7 days. Throughout the race, each rider has a support crew providing food, water, mechanical assistance, and medical aid, and during nighttime riding, vehicles with flashing lights follow behind to ensure safety.
After the Race Across America became an international event, Americans dominated the competition throughout the 1990s, winning seven championships. But entering the 21st century, Slovenian cyclist Jure Robič broke the American monopoly and ushered in his own era. Robič is a legend of the Race Across America, having won the championship five times — the most in the event’s history. However, this master of long-distance cycling tragically died in a training accident in September 2010, just shortly after winning his fifth individual endurance championship.
In competitive sports, tragic accidents inevitably cast a shadow over the events themselves. The history of the Race Across America has also seen two serious crashes. In 2003, a team race participant named Brett Malin was killed by an 18-wheeler truck while riding in New Mexico. Two years later, in 2005, another tragedy occurred when Bob Breedlove collided with an oncoming car during an individual endurance race. However, since Breedlove was riding alone on the highway with his support crew miles behind, the driver of the car involved became the only witness, leaving the details of the accident unclear. In response, Outside magazine published an analysis of the incident in its November 2006 issue.
Time flies, and before we know it, the Race Across America has entered its 31st year. Although we have come to appreciate some of the race’s allure, deep down, we still can’t truly equate it with traditional cycling. Perhaps our initial assumption was wrong — it doesn’t really belong to conventional cycling, but is instead an extraordinary feat accomplished on a bicycle.