2009 CTR Update Thread

[mtbcast]

Calls this morning: David Harris called in from Copper Mtn with some comments on the new sections. Andrew Carney called in from Copper Mtn. waiting for Quizno’s to open! And Cat Morrison’s family calls to wish her well!

Alex Platt’s wife calls to wish him good luck and wonders if he’s resting enough. David Goldberg’s sister checks in to wish him well too!

[Pivvay]

The new section must be tough (as if there was doubt!) but Owen is on a mission so far. He's over Searle Pass and likely in leadville for breakfast as we speak. I predicted this to a few people but am still shocked to see him pull it off, incredible riding. The chasers hopefully got some sleep as well, it seems Owen was down for a few hours around midnight. From Leadville the riding is good for a bit and they'll hit Buena Vista sometime today most likely, Owen maybe for early dinner. There are some tough climbs mixed in but this is one of the most rideable and fast sections of the race outside of the first 6 miles. It's really fun too with the almost Fruita like turns near Twin Lakes. For those on top of Searle right now, at least the descent is blazing. 3000 feet in some 7 miles or so down to Camp Hale with Leadville not too far away.

[Mathewsen]

Calls this morning: David Harris called in from Copper Mtn with some comments on the new sections.

re. dave's call-in, i thought burritos and yogurt *are* cooking with gas. he is certainly one of the hard men of the peloton so his mood only affirms the mile-for-mile, unrivaled difficulty of CTR.

yep, looks like owen is enjoying a leadville breakfast--if he's keeping himself awake. no doubt, his chasers will be ordering "whatever owen had" as they contemplate his 4 hour gap.

edit: pivvay, you called it on the leadville breakfast. mindboggling. at what price, though? BV will be serving up plenty of redbull and doubleshots this evening.

damage assessment: racers are littered across nearly 100mi of the course after little more than 24hrs! as owen tempos to keep his breakfast down while pushing across the lower slopes of mt elbert, lanternes rouge (some 16hrs in arrears) yearn for a fatty breck lunch as GA pass further forces their slumming.

and to think they haven't even hit the mountain stages yet!    

[sherpaxc]

It is beyond me how quick these guys are moving on such difficult trail.  Where do they keep the 3rd (and seemingly 4th) lung?  I need to get one of those!

[Pivvay]

Having so many guys pushing the pace is helping. Owen is on a solo break but I'm amazed at the gap he pulled without going all night! This is no GDMBR though, the miles are HARD and last year I was lucky to average 110 mi/day. The other tough thing is that the course is only going to get more brutal and with zero services once these guys pass by the Mt.Princeton hot springs tonight or tomorrow. Then they'll be entering the black hole and I hope they will have provisioned adequately.

[UtahRedRocks]

Scott, we are all watchin' ya!  Parents, siblings, even Uncle Joel.  Have a great race!   Good luck!

[mtbcast]

Dan Joseph calls in from Kenosha Pass. He's with Nick Thelen. And Chris Neumann calls in from Breckenridge!

Chuck Ray calls in from Copper Mtn. saying he just LOVED 10mi! NOT!

[Pivvay]

While Owen begins a solid climb on the far side of Twin Lakes, the rest of the leaders will be pulling into Leadville soon. No doubt they'll be fueling up, perhaps at the Burro and leaving quickly to chase Owen's short stop in totwn. After leaving town they'll coast downhill towards a return to dirt. A wide, gradual climb up a dirt road sometimes with giant potholes will bring them back to the CT on the far side of the Mt.Massive wilderness area. The trail will be a steep pusher for the first mile as it shares the terrain with the main Mt.Elbert trail, then splitting and rejoicing in awesome downhilling and roller coaster riding all the way to Twin Lakes. I remember being nearly giddy in this section for the awesome relief of fast miles covered.

The rest of the racers are spread out now between Georgia Pass, the Ten Mile traverse and Searl and Kokomo Passes after Copper mountain. These are big climbs to over 12,300 feet in some cases, followed by giving it all back in a rush back towards the valley only to do it all over again.

[hireland17]

Thanks all for the sweet pics!!!

[mtbcast]

Doug Johnson calls in from Leadville. He and Ethan Passant are headed to Buena Vista!

Jeff Oatley called in and he’s with Tim Stern and Todd Johnson in Copper Mtn.

[Mathewsen]

If anyone knows how to reach Jefe Branham (voicemail or family/SO), please contact info@trackleaders.com.

he needs a quick tutorial on operating his SPOT unit.
thanks

[Stefan_G]

Stefan is taking a lunch break at the Subway in Leadville. He didn't sleep well last night, but was glad to be off the bike for a few hours. One of his original goals was to make it to Buena Vista by 9PM tonight. He thinks he can still make that if he leaves Leadville by 2PM, despite the dark clouds over Mt. Massive.

[ZackR]

If anyone knows how to reach Jefe Branham (voicemail or family/SO), please contact info@trackleaders.com.

he needs a quick tutorial on operating his SPOT unit.
thanks

Jefe knows how to use the Spot unit. I borrowed the one in question a few weeks ago, and I suspect it's blinking merrily away whenever Jefe looks at it. Or maybe he just decided to go stealth.

[Stefan_G]

Hmm.... you might want to keep an eye on Brian Taylor. His girlfriend mentioned that he lost his GPS and camera off the back of his bag at some point yesterday. He rode back a few sections to look for them! Pretty impressive position despite that setback!

[Chad B]

On the Grand Loop, Scott and I ran into Jefe on the Koko. He mentioned his problems with the SPOT he was using, managed to fix it the morning of the race. I think he went so far as to even call the SPOT headquarters for help.

I say that to only conclude that he is well versed in the SPOT, he may just need to pull the batteries out and put them back in.

[Mathewsen]

I say that to only conclude that he is well versed in the SPOT, he may just need to pull the batteries out and put them back in.

ok. cool. i have never heard of an issue that was solved by such but whatever works is good. we hate to see him carrying the dead weight thinking he'll have this nice history track to peek at later. (no points in the past 7 days)

zackR, do you have access to his SPOT login page? maybe creating a new shared page for him will help.

[Mathewsen]

ok. cool. i have never heard of an issue that was solved by such but whatever works is good. we hate to see him carrying the dead weight thinking he'll have this nice history track to peek at later. (no points in the past 7 days)

zackR, do you have access to his SPOT login page? maybe creating a new shared page for him will help.

update: big Thanks to zackR for helping trackleaders get our sleuth on. zack had Jefe's login so i was able to determine he has 4 shared pages on his account. two are active, two are inactive. he provided stefan with one of the inactive ones. I've pulled an active one and sure enough he's got lots `o points and the unit itself appears to be working! looks like he's riding very well, indeed, sitting in the top 5 and having a little grub on 5th st in Leadville as i type. Thanks to his proud mother Kay for contacting us also. Behind every tough wookie is a soft, but firm mother-wookie. Go Jefe!

[ZackR]

Heh heh! He's going to be pretty happy he sent that login to me. I was just using his page (currently inactive), and never used the site login. Anyway, thanks a bunch for getting that sorted out!

These guys and gals are flying! Sure is fun to watch.

[scottyb]

Doug Johnson calls in from Leadville. He and Ethan Passant are headed to Buena Vista!

Jeff Oatley called in and he’s with Tim Stern and Todd Johnson in Copper Mtn.

go doug! everyone in the springs is pulling for you.

[KPut]

Chris, your pictures and description make this look like something I could/would want to do, then I look at teh graph of the route and realize better and enjoy watching others do it.  Thanks for the great job of guiding those of us who haven't ridden the CT before.   

KP