One summer after competing in the Race Across America, a pair of local bicyclists recently completed the Race Across the West. 

Harry Harisberger and Alan Kimbel recently completed the Race Across the West, a 930 mile race that begins in Oceanside, California, and ends in Boulder Colorado. Harisberger and Kimbel completed the Race Across the West in 65 hours and 20 minutes, less than three hours under the time limit of 68 hours for teams. They competed as a two-person team after competing in Race Across America in a four-person team. 

“This is a race of a lot of small bites,” Kimbel said. “Because we were doing it as a relay team, the two of us, it’s bite chew, bite chew, bite chew. But after that chew, you get to rest. It would be a different experience if we had done it as solo riders. But mentally, it’s not that tough because you get on the bike and say ok, I’m just going to be on here for 30 minutes and then Harry’s going to take over.”

Harisberger said in training for the race, he focused on his speed rather than pure endurance. The 43-year-old felt his endurance level was already where it needed to be. 

Kimbel did not focus as much on speed as Harisberger did during training. The 62-year-old said he competed in an eight-day endurance race in Colombia between last year’s Race Across America and this year’s Race Across the West. 

“It was a different format than this and there were a lot of hills because we were cycling in the Andes,” Kimbel said. “But I looked at that as a training experience but also because there’s a lot of climbing in this race. I thought it would mesh well with the training for this.”

Both Harisberger and Kimbel cited the last stretch of the race as the most challenging. Kimbel cited a 90-mile segment that was canceled due to forest fires. The team calculated they had plenty of time to finish until it was relayed they would have a seven hour penalty since they did not compete in that stretch of the race. The team was later given credit for pedaling 10 miles of the stretch. 

“What I did and this is more of a mental aspect for me is kind of like ok, this is 100 miles,” Harisberger said. “I really only have to ride 50 (miles) which is an easy training ride around the house. I can push hard. And then I even broke it more down. I was like ok, I only have a five mile push which is about that half hour. I can do this. And I got a little bit of rest. Just kind of mentally challenge myself to go harder than I would have done if I had known I had to go another 5,000 miles.”

Kimbel added it was a priority to not let themselves or their crew down by not finishing the race at or below the 68-hour mark. 

After completing a pair of long distance races in America the past two summers, Harisberger’s plans next year include competing in a mountain bike race in Europe over five days. Harisberger grew up in Europe. 

“The mountains are calling again for me,” Harisberger said. “Especially the high mountains that I kind of neglected a little bit. So there’s definitely more in the general adventure sports things coming.”