Race Across AMerica : Boyer Still Leads, but Fog, Rain Holds Him Up

As of 7:40 p.m. PDT Sunday, leader Jonathon Boyer of Pebble Beach had been held up by rain and fog in Roanoke, Va., with 483 miles to go in the Race Across AMerica bicycle competition.

Boyer had a 92-mile lead over Michael Secrest of Flint, Mich. Secrest is in Brinegar Cabin, 21 miles south of the Virginia state line. Micheal Shermer of Hollywood is in third place, 122 miles behind Secrest and 122 miles in front of Shelby Hayden-Clifton of Greensboro, N.C., the top women’s rider in the competition.

Susan Notorangelo of St. Louis is in fifth and closing in. Notorangelo is 20 miles behind Hayden-Clifton. Kye Waltermeire, of Brazil, Ind., who is in his first year of ultra-marathon cycling, is in sixth, 36 miles behind Notorangelo.

Elaine Mariolle, of Berkeley, the third woman rider in the race, is in seventh, 30 miles behind Waltermeire.

Other California riders include Rob Templin of San Diego, who is in eighth place, seven miles behind Mariolle, Jim Penseyres of San Juan Capistrano, who is 11th, and Dennis Bock of Costa Mesa, who is 14th.

Eighteen of 25 riders remain in the competition. James McKinney of Fresno, Ohio, dropped out at the 1,635-mile mark in Charleston, Ark. at 5:08 p.m. PDT Saturday. Wyatt Wood of Kensington, Calif., dropped out after 1,612 miles in Midway, Ark. at 1:30 p.m. PDT Sunday. He had never fully recovered from heat prostration suffered through New Mexico.

Barring delays by rain and fog through the Blue Ridge Parkway, the riders stand a good chance of setting men’s and women’s transcontinental records in addition to the RAAM mark. They are averaging 1 m.p.h. better than last year’s pace.

Peter Penseyres, the brother of Jim Penseyres, won the 1984 race on shorter course (3,047 miles as opposed to this year’s 3,120.2-mile course) in a record 9 days, 13 hours and 13 minutes.

The first man and woman to reach the finish at the Golden Nugget Casino on the Atlantic City Boardwalk will receive $5,000.

Wayne Phillips of Richmond, B.C., who was struck by a hit-and-run vehicle in New Mexico on Thursday morning is improving, but still in serious but stable condition at a Texas hospital. Phillips, who was riding unsupported, suffered broken ribs, a ruptured spleen and partially collapsed lungs. Doctors also pinned together several fractured vertebra.