Adrian Stingacui

Hello this is Adrian Stingacui again calling back to continue the message. To Kevin Hall, pleasure meeting you and riding with you for a little bit. Sorry to hear that you dropped out of the race and good luck next year. To Reuben Kline, thanks for showing us what a powerful rider you are and good luck next year and all future races. It was a pleasure riding with you. To Matthew Lee, thanks for putting this race together. As well as to Kevin Montgomery, you guys are really awesome. Really giving of yourself and generous. Super. To Dave Nice, hope you’ve recovered from your cold, good luck next year, I am rooting for you all the way and I really hope that you get a fixed record. To Ardie Olson, thanks for making all those nice tracks in the dirt so I could follow along and Sherry Olson, thank you for transcribing the blog. To Leighton White, thanks for the many hours we rode together. To Felix Wong, who is probably right behind us somewhere, always watching my back for you, keep going man, you are almost there. To Karl Wilcox, pleasure riding with you, you will always be an inspiration, thanks for showing the world that you can have a total cholesterol under 100, you are an awesome vegan.

Final thoughts on the race. This has been a really awesome, awesome experience. I hope this continues for many, many years. The concept of self-supported racing with no entry fee and no award at the end is one that I really love. As far as self-supported racing though goes, as much as I love the idea and the concept of it there can be no such thing as a self-supported race. Out here we have had support from everyone we met, we have accepted food, water, sandwiches, everything you can imagine, it has all been graciously welcomed, as well as the power bar I found ….

(recorder time: 2008-07-07 10:57:41 EST)

Hello this is Adrian Stingacui calling in from Antelope Wells, NM at 9:50 AM on July 7th. Just got in here with Alan Goldsmith, Dominik Scherer, and Leighton White. We pulled in together, crossed the line at the same time at around 8:55 this morning which puts us in a tie for 3rd place, all four of us. Which was very nice. It has been a pleasure riding with those guys. It took me about a couple of weeks to catch back up with Alan, Dominik and Leighton. In Abiquiu, I caught up back to them in a hotel. Ever since then we have been riding and camping out together. It has been a wonderful grand tour. It has been a really incredible experience. Really awesome. Wanted to thank everyone for participating, for trying out, for lining up at the start and following their dreams. To all those who made it to the finish line already congratulations, to all those who are still in the race, good luck, to those who dropped out good luck next year and good luck healing. There are no losers in this race. There is no such thing. Only those who did not try can regret that they did not try. Those who lined up are all winners. All of us are. Remember we are the normal ones. To Andy Buchanan, thank you for the sound advice that you gave me early in the race. To Mary Collier, good luck at the 24 hour nationals. It was pleasure riding with you. To Mike Dion, hope you are feeling better, hope your knees are better. Sorry to hear that you dropped out of the race. It was also very nice riding with you. To Stephen Gleasner, I look forward to reading your book, good luck and stay in the race. To my fellow vegetarians in the race, Alan Goldsmith, Dominik Scherer it has been really nice riding with you, you guys are really strong riders.. (recorder time: 2008-07-07 10:53:28 EST)

Hi this Adrian Stingacui calling in from NM, about 43 miles S of Pie Town. There is a thunderstorm brewing. I’m off a dirt road out in the middle of nowhere. I nice family stopped to give me some food, Gatorade and let me borrow their cell phone. Lots of thanks to the ________ family. Really appreciate their help. Alan, Dominik and Leighton stopped in Aragon, they headed off route about 7 miles because they are out of food. The gas station/convenience store at the junction that was suppose to be on Hwy 12 was not there anymore. They had to detour to get some food. There is still another 100 miles to get into the next town. I’m carrying about 7 liters of water for the next stretch. I another ½ liter of Gatorade. I got a big box of Oreos cookies, 3 pop tarts and lb of grapes. Really thankful, really thankful out here and having a great time. Looking forward to finishing up and going home, being with my family, wife and daughter. Love to everyone and lots of hugs out there. (recorder time: 2008-07-05 14:43:41 EST)

Hey everybody, Leighton White here, in Grants, NM. Riding with the United Nations Team. Adrian, Alan, Dominik and I have all met back up again. We are in Grants. Hopefully we will finish one of these days soon. A little hot. Other than that everybody is doing good. Hopefully we’ll see ya’ll soon. Bye. (recorder time: 2008-07-04 14:48:19 EST)

Hello this is Adrian Stingacui. It July 3rd 9:10 pm calling in from Pueblo Pintado on the Chaco Alternate. Last night I caught up with Leighton White, Alan Goldsmith and Dominik Scherer in the motel in Abiquiu. Crashed their party around 10:30 p.m. Dominik had some wheel issues but he got those resolved. We are all rolling out today. We all started at the same time this morning around 5 am and rode a little together then we kind of got split up. then we stopped in Cuba. We regrouped again on the Chaco alternate. We've been riding off into the sunset. Beautiful day today. Several local thunderstorms. Just a really beautiful day. We just stopped to get something to eat and we are going to press on into the night and see if we can finish sometime on Sunday. Who knows we might even all finish together. It has been really nice riding with Alan, Leighton and Dominik. It just makes all of the pain go away. You forget about the mileage, you forget about everything. You are just out here having fun with friends riding your bike. Its what its all about. Its just really nice riding together and we've become really good friends out here. Good night everyone. All my love to family and friends back home. (recorder time: 2008-07-03 22:13:33 EST)

Hi this is Adrian Stingacui calling in from Horca, CO, July 2nd, 6:42 am. Feel really really happy. Yesterday was a really good day. Got caught in a really good size thunderstorm just after coming over Indiana Pass at around 11,000 feet. I'm so happy to be alive. Really great. Emotions out here are really amplified. Its like - I'm laughing hysterically while crying tears of joy at the same time. I'm just really happy. Thank you God, thank you Jesus, thank you Buddha, thank you Krishna, thank you Allah, thank you everybody. Thank you even to the mosquitoes who help me climb a little faster on the uphills. See how far I can get in today. Try to put in another 100 miles, 130 miles maybe. Try to get to Abiquiu, NM. Still have a long way to go at least the names are starting to sound Mexican. Still in CO. Passed through Del Norte yesterday, Platoro, Poncho Springs the day before. Really looking forward to getting into New Mexico and the Mexican Border. Last night I stayed in Conejos campground about 10 miles short of Horca. Slept on a picnic bench. Got up at 5 o’clock in the morning and started riding out in 37 degree weather. Nothing like putting all of your layers on and still have numb fingers and toes while snot icicles are hanging from you nose. (recorder time: 2008-07-02 07:43:42 EST)

Hi this is Adrian Stingacui calling in from Del Norte, CO on Tuesday, July lst, 12:30 pm. Yesterday I spent most of the afternoon suited up in my rain gear trying to stay dry but I never really got wet until I got into camp in the dark. Camped in cow field next to cow patties. Then it started raining right when I started eating and I was starving. Today I rode into town over here and picked up a hitchhiker, a lady friend and gave her a ride for a couple of miles. She was a really beautiful lady bug. Going to head out to Indiana Pass shortly after I grab something to eat. Hopefully it will be safe ride up there for me. Good luck to everyone. Sorry to hear about the guys who dropped out of the race. How they are home and recovered. Take care. (recorder time: 2008-07-01 13:31:04 EST) NOTE: recording was hard to hear. I had to guess at some of this.

Hi this Adrian Super Vegan calling in again from Flagg Ranch, Sunday, June 22nd at 3:54p.m. Couple of things I forgot to mention. The pass coming into Flagg Ranch is snowed out and very, very muddy. I thought it wasn't going to be as bad as the other two snowy passes but mentally it was more taxing. It involved about 10 miles of either walking over snow, or walking through mud, or really, really fun terrain. The mosquitoes are out in full bloom now. So it was quite taxing on the mind to walk through snow and be eaten alive by mosquitoes. Since I'm not using any repellant, they particularly love me. Just got some food from Flagg Ranch. About the only raw food that they have here is 5 oranges, 4 tomatoes and 2 apples. I bought all of those. I'm all about done of them. All of the nuts here are roasted. So I can't eat anything else and I'm going through my food pretty fast. I have a food drop in about a 150 miles or so. Hopefully my food will last until there. Love to everyone, Bye.

(recorder time: 2008-06-22 16:55:11 EST)

This is Andrian Stingacui a/k/a Super Vegan calling in from __ Canada. Had a good long hard ride yesterday to 10:30, slept at campground. Got going again around 6AM. Looks like today, I thought it was going to be an easy day since it is mostly pavement but experiencing a little headwind and so I will take it easy and experience some ... knee ...But other than that I'm doing alright. Oh yeah, this morning I took a spill off a dirt road and.....I went off the road and hit the soft shoulder .... and scraped (or sprained?) my finger. Keep going. Good luck to everybody and be safe. Read more »