2008 RAAM Team

For 2008, the Making Cancer History team will take the ultimate extreme cycling step and enter the most challenging division – the Solo division.  The 2008 team will consist of 2 sub teams supporting 2 cyclists riding by themselves for the entire 3,000 miles.  Kirk Gentle and Daniel Rudge, both returning RAAM cyclists, will each compete in the Solo division with their race crews. 

Cyclists

Kirk Gentle #127
Kirk has competed in Race Across America since 2005, when Team Making Cancer History won the four-person mixed team division. Kirk returned to RAAM in 2006 on a two-man team that finished in 8 days and 8 hours, and in 2007 on an 8-person team that finished in 6 days and 6 hours. In 24 years of racing endurance events, Kirk has also completed more than a hundred short-course triathlons, 12 marathons and 6 Ironman triathlons. He qualified for the Boston Marathon 6 times and the Ironman World Championship 3 times, and was runner up in the Spenco 500 mile bike race across Texas. Kirk graduated cum laude from Texas A&M University and owns and insurance agency in Houston. He and his wife, Meg, have four children.

Kirk’s Crew: 
There are 11 people responsible for getting Kirk across America, including three of his children and his wife.  The first week will have 8 crew and the second week will have 7 (there is a switch-a-roo in Witchita).  Johnny Gentle, Kirk’s son, is a senior at Texas A&M and has crewed for Kirk in every RAAM since 2005.  Possibly the most excited is Sam Gentle, today almost 6 years old, who remembers RAAM 2006 when he went with the crew and asked, “Mom, can we live on this trip?”  Returning from past RAAMs are Charles Parker (pedal partner Emily Parker’s father), Leslie Christison (head nurse at MD Anderson Cancer Center’s Children’s Hospital), Chris Shaw (cycling teammate in RAAM 2005 and 2006), and Daniel Sanchez (crew member for Shana Armstrong).  Joining the team for the first time is Brett Savant, who is a bike mechanic for Bike Barn in Clear Lake, Texas, Leah Wagner, a pre-school teacher and gymnastics coach in Houston, Texas, and Kathryn Gentle, who is Kirk’s daughter and will be joining the nursing staff at MD Anderson in July. 

Daniel Rudge, #142
Daniel has been racing in multiple endurance sports at a representative level for almost 30 years and qualified for Solo RAAM in his first season of ultra-distance riding and first RAAM qualification race. Daniel joined Team Making Cancer History in 2007 on the 8 person Corporate Challenge team.  He is a Chartered Civil Engineer (U.K.) and holds a S.M. in Ocean Engineering from Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a B.Eng. in Offshore (Civil) Engineering from Heriot-Watt University (U.K.) and is employed by Shell International Exploration and Production Inc. in Houston. Daniel and his wife Pauline have two daughters.

Daniel’s Crew 
Daniel's multi-national crew reflects in many ways the field of Solo racers in RAAM as it comprizes family and friends from both sides of the Atlantic. Daniel will have a 7 person crew for the first week and a 6 person crew for the second week of RAAM.  Among his crew are 2 Houston area ultra-cyclists, a massage therapist, and his wife, Pauline.