(CNN) It's the dead of night, you're cycling through the desert and are so chronically fatigued you think you're seeing goblins. Welcome to Race Across America (RAAM) -- 12 days of hell spent pedalling from the west coast to the east. The route stretches 3,000 miles across 12 states, taking in the Rocky Mountains, the Great Plains, Monument Valley as well as the Mojave and Sonoran Deserts, and demands 170,000 feet worth of vertical climbs. It's a third longer than the Tour de France and has to be completed in half the time, without stopping. "It's a surreal experience if you're out in the desert at 3am," Phil Magnus, a mechanic for British cyclist Shusanah Pillinger in 2014 and 2015, told CNN.Race Across America is one of world's most grueling bike ridesStarts in Oceanside, San Diego and finishes in Annapolis, MarylandFormer support crew member says it is "brutal and very emotional"
"_'s probably not the best cyclist in the world so it's an even greater achievement that there are better cyclists out there than her that have failed. "_ was the only person who knew where it was but you're frightened to ask her because she's been cycling for three days. _'s team gleaned some valuable sleep data from her failed 2014 attempt that helped to power her success a year later.