I had asked here if changing gears on a SS was permitted. But, yeah, she gutted it out on the big climbs and chased down her record.

She is just an amazing cyclist.

Moving average speed on a loaded single speed of 8.3mph while climbing 117K feet on dirt and gravel. I couldn't do that on an empty bike on pavement.

Alexandra is about to set a new women's SS record.

Congrats to her for terrific strategy and perseverance!

One of the things that the top 2 had in common was the willingness to go so long without sleep. Ulrich didn't sleep until the 4th night! I don't know how they could function like that.

Alexandra is continuing to add to the lead on her record. Fingers crossed that everything keeps going well and she blows it out!

A few more days and then I have to figure out how to entertain myself for the next 50 weeks.

I've enjoyed dot watching with you all. Thanks.

If my math is correct, his finish is less than 6 hours behind Mike's record! Unbelievable!

Ulrich has won!

STATUS: Finished in 14d03h23m

I keep reading about people getting sick with stomach issues.

I know that Lael and Alexandra don't filter water. I just don't get people willing to put their health at risk by drinking water out of streams that can contain all sorts of bacteria or parasites. I know it takes time, and for my slow pace it doesn't effect me. But it is such a huge risk.

I can't get over Ulrich. Forced to stop for 12hours and he's still THIS close to the record. Incredible.

Looks like Alexandra is starting to build up a lead on her record pace.

...and Andrew is out of the gate flying.  260+ miles as of this morning.  His bike is set to "boogie"!!

I looked him up on Strava. Dude puts down miles!! A couple of weeks ago he did 300+ mile ride!

I feel that I'm way less likely to snap a cable than I am to have battery issues.  In fact, I don't think I've ever broken a shifter cable.

I've only broken the one, and I'm convinced that happened because I dropped the bike onto the drive side on Lava Mountain. DOH!

What makes Justinas' run even more impressive is that his electronic derailleur has stopped working. He is having to manually operate it to change gears.

I'm still not convinced on these e-shifters. I've seen a lot of issues with them this year. OTOH, I snapped a cable last year, but was lucky it happened right as I was entering Butte.

There was an IG post by Ulrich showing he had to put a crank back on. Josh Ibbet made a good observation that his rear tire is pretty much bald now.

That 12 hours stuck in the basin is going to be almost impossible to overcome. I doubt it was very restful.

I guess that gamble on a bigger gear is paying off.

Is there a rule about changing out gears on a single speed?

Alexandra has made up for the slower pace in the North and has now passed her record pace dot.

Any news on Jens Van Roost? He's really been moving slow today. Looks like he's only covered about 40 miles today.