Records are made to be broken, but try as they might, no one has been able to cross the country on a bicycle faster than Pete Penseyres did almost 20 years ago.
Penseyres set the solo transcontinental speed record of 15.40 mph in the 1986 Race Across AMerica.
He’s also held a share of the transcontinental tandem record for 18 years – a time of 7 days, 14 hours and 55 minutes, with an average speed of 15.97 mph – set with Lon Haldeman in 1987.
For these feats, and many others, RAAM 2003 was dedicated to Penseyres and he was inducted into the Ultra Cycling Hall of Fame.
A cyclist since the early ’70s, it was a 1978 article by John Marino that sparked Penseyres interest in the ultra world. The article told of the triumphs and trials of Marino’s record transcontinental crossing.