The raceflow plot is a good way to see lead changes, riding together, splitting up, etc, that is less prone to old data or differing update cycles.  It's still a little hard to tell, but sure seems like Mike is very slowly pulling ahead.

The best way to find out who is in front is to zoom in on two riders spot points.  Find a spot point from each rider that were taken in the same geographical location.  These points will have a time stamp, so you can see who passed through that location first.  The example below clearly shows that Mike is riding at least 7 minutes ahead of Craig at the intersection of the trail and Red Creek Road.  

Looking at the tracker it looks like Hall is 1+ miles ahead.  I guess there is a difference in when the tracker updates its position. 

I shudder to think at the pace these two will set if they are trying to put distance on each other. 

Looks like Mike might have pulled over for the night around 10:30pm, after an incredible 200+ miles day.  Starting about 40 miles back he closed to within 6 miles of the leader.  Stappler continues to ride into the night.  

Wow, great competition.  Mike and Craig are really taking turns at putting on the pressure.  Looks like Mike had a great day, took shorter breaks, and got within an hour of Craig, but went to bed earlier at 9pm.  Craig took longer breaks but continues into the dark at 11 pm.  Jesse is keeping up with the leaders, but still has nearly 100 miles to make up.  Man it must be tough to keep looking over your shoulder!

Looks like Craig's off the front by about 9 miles.  Maybe riding half an hour in front of Mike?  Looks like he broke away up the climbs out of Eureka.  Both racers are around 4 hours ahead of the JP's time. 

Thanks!  I think it's a fun way to compare the records to everyone.  We're loving it here at TL HQ.  I just changed the record icons to quoteboxes to make them stand out a little more on the map.

Kristen Arnold has 19 days listed for her EST finish time (record pace).  Currently she is behind the ZOOOM EH dot, though.

No tent icon for Stappy and Hall -- that's a bold move for the start of a grand tour.  They have a solid lead on JP's dot -- stationary for now since he didn't log a point for a while to the border.

I also added a dropdown by the raceflow to show different plots per category.  Look at our 3 Triple Crown racers -- all very close!

A really nice addition, Thanks.

Any chance of having the miles travelled as part of the pop up for the past record times?

Stoked for the ride again this year, watching from the sidelines.  Hope it goes well for everyone.

A final update on Craig deciphered from his Spot location:

He appears to be in Tucson, either napping under the West Congress overpass, or having something called a "The Amazing Grilled Cheese and Bacon Six Dollar Burger" at Carl's Jr. 

Nice work Craig, great finish.  Glad you're not stuck in a laundromat somewhere in New Mexico!

I can't figure out if Craigs spot isn't tracking or he stopped.  I went on to Google Streets (yes, they actually have this town mapped out ) and I see he stopped at the laundromat, but only for maybe a few minutes and then went across the street but I just see what appears to be a house.  My guess is he's still moving but he could be sleeping for a few since he only slept 3 hours last night.  In the mean time GP and KS are closing in...less than 20 miles.

if you look at Google Earth he appears to be stopped at a sign on the road for the "Bear Creek Motel", 30 m north of the Laundromat.  I kinda wish he'd get going!

Looks like Craig might be having a nap at the Bear Creek Motel in Pinos Altos.  Don't sleep too long!

That stretch of blue dots across 5 states (7 if you include the ITTs) is pretty cool to watch!

Looks like the difference between Ollie and the current lanterne rouge is something like 1,800 miles. Pretty amazing!

And congrats to Ollie: beating the record by this much while having a reasonable sleep every single night is nothing short of of spectacular! I didn't think it could be done.      

A very consistent effort by Ollie, with 5-6 hours of sleep every night and steadily riding all day, every day.  His workman like ethic every day for 2+ weeks really made the difference.  Hope you enjoyed it Ollie and Congratulations!

Looks like 2nd is going to come down to who wants to sleep less tonight.  Going to be a long one for the riders.  Looks like Craig hasn't stopped for the past 9 hours!  Garrett and Kurt are keeping pace, just an hour behind after a rest stop.  Good luck.

Looks like Kurt caught up to Garry and Craig and was the first to leave Pie Town.  

I think we need to have a helicopter fly by to keep us up to date on the battle for 2nd and 3rd!

I have been following Giovanni and Danilo from the beginning of the race.  Most of the time they are separated by significant distance, at times they are close.  As a rider i know that at 5-7mph on a hill at 7500ft elevation drafting is not a benefit.  They may support each other emotionally not unlike other rides who are together.  They pushed the rule of completely "solo", so do many other at times. They are of course fiends who came over together for this epic event..  

As this races gains in popularity, friends, spouses riding together will be more frequent.    Isn't the spirit of the race still intact.  What will blow it a part is the advent of sponsors and $$$... coming to a TD soon

I knew it, those Italian fiends!!!

There's going to be a showdown in Pie Town at high noon!

Now we have 3 guys within 9 miles of each other all racing nearly 3oo miles for second.  That's gonna be a race!

This theory makes sense. If you're already pressed up against the bleeding edge, any setback is going to feel like a huge blow. Maybe he feels like he doesn't have the steam to chase Ollie, and at this point he'd rather just wait for better options. Ah, armchair speculation.

As far as switching from clipless to platforms being uncomfortable, I don't disagree, but if platforms are an option I don't understand why anyone would reject them when there aren't other options. In 2009 I broke my saddle a little north of Grants. Actually what happened is a huge chunk of foam fell off, so every time I tried to lean forward into my aero bars, I slipped off the foam into the hard edge of the nose. That was uncomfortable. But I didn't consider it enough of a problem to bother waiting out other options. I think if you're intent on forward motion, minor discomforts become less of a concern.

As for flagging someone down and offering to buy a pedal, or even knocking on random doors and asking —  that seems like a gray area as far as rules go. They emphasize relying on commercial services, but make no specific mention of bartering. Still, I'd be leery of trying it because of the "no private resupply" wording. Buying from private citizens may fall into this stipulation.

This could easily be overcome by having a third party business act as a go between.

there must be someone in Grants that can weld aluminum a rig up something?

Although at4:30pm on a Friday he might have to go to the local tavern to find somebody.

What the heck is Craig doing?  It looks like he's backtracking.  Now this is going to get even more interesting.  Ollie's got 40 miles on him at the moment...that's not an insignificant distance.

Looks like he's at Handy Andy's getting some supplies.  

Good thing I'm not anywhere near there as I feel like yelling at him to get going!