Tarzan is from Arkansas

Also, Tarzan is an endurance cyclist. Kurt Searvogel is a competitor from Sheridan, AR and is known by his friends and competition as Tarzan.

I first met Kurt several years ago doing adventure races in Arkansas. He liked to go solo and he usually won. He has also competed as a triathlete, mountain biker and I most recently saw him in the Cross Winds Classic in which he passed me from a heat behind like I was sitting on the side of the road selling melons. Being a small business owner who is able to set his own hours gives him time to train. And he trains a lot. Kurt races on the ultra distance cycling circuit traveling all over the country to do races of 200, 300, 500 miles at a time. Back in April he won the Heart of the South 500 riding 517 miles in 32 hours and 4 minutes. That’s averaging over 16 mph for over 32 hours!

So what does a guy like that do next? Right now Kurt is racing across the country. Under the name “Tarzan Rides”, Kurt is competing as a solo rider in the Race Across America (RAAM).

The Race Across America starts in Oceanside, CA and will end approximately  3000 miles later in Annapolis, MD. Kurt just started yesterday. According to the Leaderboard (at this writing) he is in 6th place out of 27 Men’s Solo riders under 50. He’s gone 342.32 miles at an average of 17.81 mph. Cookin’.

I had planned to write about Kurt’s ride before the start but as he said, “Why write about something that I’m going to do, better to write about something I did.” I suppose that is the kind of attitude someone needs to even start something like this.

Arkansas Outside contributor Brent Findlay is on Kurt’s crew following him across the country and keeping us up on how Kurt’s doing. Wish him luck and we’ll have more about his feat when he’s finished.