Sarah Caylor and Kent McDonald rode through the night for a 05:45 finish this morning. Well done and great effort at the end to knock it off in one haul to get to A.W. in under 23 days.

Anyone know anything about Lorenzo? No Spot movement in like 14 hours!

Listening to his MTBCast report, he had no health or gear issues at Cuba, so perhaps he simply forgot to turn his SPOT on this morning or the batteries died. I'd assume he is riding with Geof Blance.

So will Jefe's time be the second fastest ever for the complete route?  Couldn't find 2011 and 2012 times anywhere to compare those years.  SO impressive to be out front for so long, pushing alone and digging deep.

 Ollie Whalley won in 2012 with a time of 16:02:46 and he rode with Craig Stappler for most of the way to Grants, where Craig's pedal disintergrated. Here is a clip of them from Eddie Clark:

Tour Divide with Craig Stappler and Ollie Whalley on Vimeo

Looks like Jefe will just beat that time by a handful of minutes, and he did it solo and without any close competition after Alex dropped out.

Chapeau Jefe.
 

Trackleaders replay function seems to have a bug in it. It plays until 01:32 a.m. on the 28th and then stops.

Nebulous and poorly-defined concepts

Toby, you write very eloquently and your blog is great. Having read all the posts here (and 2013 and 2012) it is clear that there is an ongoing discussion on the "rules" of ultra-racing (and in the comments on your blog). After reading all points of view posted and the written rules, it would seem that the "What would (or did) Matt/John/Craig/Ollie/Eszter/Jefe/Kurt/Jay do" is the litmus test of anything which is in a grey area.

To have a rule book cover everything would be impractical (i.e. even most government legislation fails in this task), so one must rely on the racers keeping to the spirit of the event when in doubt. The written rules are sufficiently clear to establish this spirit of the event and the TD won out over the GDMBR partially due to its intelligent take on appropriate rules.

I have not seen any evidence of a "growing number of racers" using TM as an excuse. Look at the Tour Divide movie and you'll see at least 12.50% of the finishing riders in 2008 breaking the simple, no interpretation, written rules. In the absence of evidence to the contrary, it seems that a greater percentage of racers are actually becoming more compliant with the rules than in the past.

Leading by example is usually the best way to ensure compliance with any set of rules, and when looking at all the racers (from GC winners to 30+ day battlers) in the current and past years I see consistent compliance with the spirit of the the race being "self supported".

Looking at the pace out there Calvin Decker has been flying since a long layover in Ovando and is now in clear second place. He seems to be matching Jefe's pace as he was 2:10:34 behind at Lincoln and is only 2:02:14 behind at Salida. Maybe the good cheer from Angler at Ovando motivated him to go for it. Given how many people he's overtaken since Ovando whatever he is doing is working out very well.

Angler - do you know if CD had a gear issue, or was he on a start slow and then lift the pace strategy?

It's great to see Jefe's amazing ride play out having been able to follow his blog at http://jwookieone.wordpress.com/ . The training, preparation and commitment that Jefe  put into racing the TD are clear to see.

Regardless of whether he beats JayP's "ITT record" of 15:16:14, he seems destined to be close to beating the "Grand Depart record" of 16:02:46 of Ollie Whalley. The current projection on Trackleaders is for 16:11:35, so it could be a tight finish there.

Looks like Matthew has already reinstated the modification.  Although it only refers to mechanicals, I believe it is also valid for medical emergencies as well.  In the spirit of the race, it SHOULD probably not apply to poor planning (like running out of food, etc):

In my experience most mechanical and medical emergencies are also the result of "poor planning". e.g. Medical: riding too fast; too long; too tired; poor visibility; choosing a poor riding line (I've scars for that error) etc. Mechanical: equipment choice; equipment maintenance; riding line; speed etc.

Steve Watson is have a tough day with navigation - currently he's on his second detour doing extra miles on day 3. He missed the turn of Flathead Valley Rd, and now has a second issue and is heading north instead of south.

Does anyone know what he is using for navigation? Would this not show on the GPS as being off-track?

Hi all, been a silent observer for a while but will be at the GD in Banff.

Haven't seen any postings in relation to being picked up in Antelope Wells upon completion, I recall from last year there were some (semi) locals prepared to shuttle riders back to civilisation for a fee - anyone aware if they are offering their services this year / got contact details.

Enjoy your taper folks and see you in a few weeks

Ta muchly

Tony

For shuttles into/out of Antelope Wells, someone posted this link last year on the TD '13 Race topic:

http://www.adventurecycling.org/default/assets/File/Routes_Maps/pdf/GD_shuttle.pdf

A number of people seemed to have used Lloyd Payne from Lordsburg and had good things to say about him.

Has anyone tried the shoes from shimano?
I am considering these http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/au/en/shimano-mt71-mtb-spd-shoes-2014/rp-prod55381, but thoughts on the older versions would be good.
I know all shoes are a compromise, but besides cycling and walking, I would like the shoes to look like a pair of hiking shoes, not cycling shoes, so I can wear them out and about when I hit a town.

Macr

I've been using the MT91 (boot version) for 3 years doing in the Alps and they are very comfortable biking and hiking with no grip issues on rocks. I'm also looking at getting the MT71 shoe due to it's lighter weight (and better cooling in warm climates). Size it +1 as I ride a 40 in my Specialized (MTB and road) and a 41 in the MT91.