Route 66: Not all start lines are equal

Not all ultra-cycling start lines are created equal…

Over the years I’ve watched Joe prepare for many of them. And while there’s a common thread that runs through every ultra-cycling start line, each carries a different energy.

Some start lines fulfil a basic need

Joe has a fundamental drive to race. It’s inbuilt. It’s been there since he was fifteen years old. You’d think it might wane with time, but it hasn’t… at least not yet.

He races, to race. To stay connected to something deeply intrinsic. I often liken it to an artist continuing to create.

Some start lines are stepping stones to a greater horizon

Take our first race of 2026, the Florida 500. It’s the right distance, on the right terrain, in the right climate, at the right time of year. While it stands alone, it also serves a much bigger picture.

You could call it a training race, except that would imply Joe doesn’t go there to podium. And the podium is always, always the goal.

Some start lines sit squarely in the ultra-cycling lexicon

Race Across America (RAAM) is one of them. Prestigious. Heavy with history. All the greats have passed over those roads. As the pinnacle of the sport, it carries enormous gravity. It’s where riders write their own stories.

Some make it. Some don’t. Some do it just once and move on. Others apprentice themselves to understanding and performing within the vastness of the RAAM experience.

Some start lines exist to teach skills

And yes – losing, or failing to finish, is a skill most ultra-cyclists must learn. The greatest lessons come to those willing to examine themselves unflinchingly when the race wins.

Joe and I are painfully good at this.

But then there are the rare ones

The ones that arrive with a particular aura.

In all my time with Joe, I’ve only seen and felt this twice.
The first was Race Around Ireland in 2018.
The second is Route 66, 2026.

What is this ultra-cycling aura?

It’s easier to say what it isn’t.

It isn’t about delivering something special on the day. If it was, I’d have to include that end-to-end record in 2020. No, a race aura exists independent of outcome.

It isn’t manufactured. It isn’t predictable. It doesn’t arrive on the back of a sponsor’s wish.

It simply appears.

And when it does, it fuels Joe differently. He’s driven by something that comes from another part of him entirely. If Maslow had an ultra-cycling hierarchy of needs, this would sit firmly at the level of self-actualisation.

I’ll admit something.

When Joe mooted the idea of the first ultra-cycling Guinness World Record on Route 66, I wasn’t bowled over. I didn’t get it.

But then the aura doesn’t come for me.

And it didn’t come for Joe immediately either. It was present at the inception, but like every big project, once the ideation phase passes, reality bites. These multi-day efforts are extraordinarily hard to bring to life.

While I may not understand the aura

I do understand this. When life offers you something special – when you recognise it, pick it up, own it, and apply yourself without reserve, great things happen.

I’ve had two moments like that in my own life. And I’m different because I seized them.

Because of that, I can recognise what’s unfolding between Joe and Route 66.

I’m all in because he’s all in, and he’s all in because Route 66 is all in.

What does it mean? 

I guess we’ll all find out. The race starts on June 2nd on the Santa Monica pier.

And for the record – in 2018, at the age of 59 years old, Joe won Race Around Ireland for the second time, beating the time he set ten years earlier. It was a race for the ages.

Me thinks this is about to get very, very interesting.

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