The exhausted, bleary-eyed riders of the 2008 Race Across America will not be stopping to check in at Georgetown, in southern Lancaster County, before make their last, final push to the Atlantic City finish line.
Race organizers announced Tuesday that Annapolis, Maryland will be host the finish of the coast-to-nearly-coast bicycle race next June. As a result, the Georgetown time station is being shifted to Mount Airy, Maryland.
For at least five years, the last manned time station has been at Whitelock & Woerth, a heating oil dealership on Route 896 in Bart Township.
For several years, that time station was operated by the Dream Ride Cycle Smart youth team. This year, Dream Ride director Mike Ridgeway, became Lancaster County’s first RAAM participant as part of a four-man team based in Harrisburg. Ridgeway plans to compete again in 2008 with a Lancaster-based mixed four-person team.
With the change in route, the last Pennsylvania time station will be in Hanover, just north of Maryland, before the course again drops south of the Mason-Dixon line. From Mt. Airy, the racers will continue east, going south of Baltimore to Annapolis. The racers will have completed 3,008 miles.
Where the previous course went from Pacific Ocean boardwalk to Atlantic Ocean boardwalk, next year it will end at the Chesapeake Bay, about 75 miles from the ocean.
