Sometime early Tuesday evening, the leader in the Race Across America (RAAM), is projected to pedal through Bloomington, Indiana.
The RAAM is a 3,079-mile west-to-east bicycle race across the United States.
As of 4 p.m. Monday, the overall leader was Nicole Reist, who has solid credentials, as the RAAM’s first woman finisher in 2016 and 2018.
As of 4 p.m. Monday, Reist had 2,045.5 miles behind her, after starting in Oceanside, California six days earlier. That left 337.7 until the Bloomington time stop, and another 1,033.5 miles to go until the finish line in Annapolis, Maryland.
As of 4 p.m. Monday, Reist was about 120 miles ahead of the second-place racer, Allan Jefferson. Reist’s average speed—including time off and on the bike—has slowed from 14.7 mph three days ago to 14 mph more recently. But barring a complete collapse, Reist will likely be in the lead when she cruises through Bloomington.
Reist has been leading the race since La Veta, Colorado, which was the 1,181.9-mile mark. For the six days of the race so far, she has spent just 11 and a half hours off her bike.
If Reist holds on to win, it will be the second time in as many years that a woman has won overall. Last year, Leah Goldstein was the first woman to win the overall RAAM. She was in second place when she passed through Bloomington in the middle of the night, but Mark Pattinson, who led through Bloomington, later dropped out.
Some back-of-the napkin arithmetic by the B Square puts Reist’s Bloomington arrival this year at around 4:45 p.m. Tuesday (June 21). [Updated: June 21 12:24 p.m. Current projections put Reist in Bloomington around 11 p.m.] The checkpoint is a bit east of the intersection of 3rd Street and the SR 45/46 bypass, just before Joella’s Hot Chicken.
Over the next day, to get a more precise idea of when the race leader will be pedaling through Bloomington, monitor RAMM’s Track Leaders webpage.
Interesting that the check-in point in your picture does not match what is shown on the map. Your picture is convincing, though! They must have shifted since the map was finalized.
In 2019 the physical Time Point for Bloomington was out closer to SR446, just before the point indicated on the map. (The map’s Time Point has been the same the last few years.) My recollection is that last year it was closer to Bloomingfoods. The physical point has crept westward a bit, probably because all the actual timing is based on GPS nowadays, so I think convenience and access play a factor in the exact location where locals set it up.