CTR 2011: Race Updates & Results

[mtbcast]

Steve Lacey called in from below 10mi. And Doug Johnson called in from Copper with another report of the trail closing.

You can get the audio here, via RSS,  or on iTunes!

I'm working late tonight so i'm able to get these up. Since I'll be heading to bed shortly, some morning calls may get posted a little later in the morning tomorrow.

[kuvcol]

<wild spectator speculation on>

Jeff Kerkove was at the front of the race all the way to the beginning of the Georgia pass climb.  Something changed abruptly, and he has ascended at walking speed.

Something broken on his bike, drivetrain related?  Major bummer, I am rooting for him big time.

So let's say you do have a catastrophic bike issue on top of Georgia pass at 6pm.  Do you:

1.  Bomb straight into Breckendridge via the road in the hopes of getting a repair before everything closes up, knowing you have to climb back up to the pass afterwards?

2.  Stay the course, walking the ups and coasting the downs (assuming coasting is doable), hitting hwy 9 about midnight, sleep till morning and get your bike fixed?

3. Same as 2, but since you can't ride much of 10 mile anyway, just keep hoofing all the way to copper mtn and hope you can find a bike shop in the morning that can fix you up?

I hope that isn't his conundrum, but it doesn't look good.

<wild spectator speculation off>

Holy shit Eszter has wings!!!

Any word on the staus of Jeff K? Sonya sounds like she's doing great in her first CTR!

[ckerkove]

Jeff Kerkove had to drop out.....became very ill.   

[kuvcol]

Jeff Kerkove had to drop out.....became very I'll. 

Wow...such a bummer for Jeff :-( he put in a ton of effort into prepping for this years CTR event but one never knows when illness hits! Heal well Jeff!!!

[galacticpilot]

How come the tracker shows Ethan Passant in a tent outside Boulder? Would love to see where he's at in this whole deal. Jesse J is crushing. Go Eszter and Chris!

[NedCOJo]

Sending a good morning to Todd Johnson. Eli and Leo are very proud and can't wait to join you someday. Enjoy the 10 mile range. Those mountains are home in my heart. And that descent into Copper...better than any cup of coffee in the morning!

Very impressed with all of the riders, but 17 years old???!!!!  VERY impressive.  Good for you, mom, for being so supportive.

[kuvcol]

Any word on Sonya's status? I listened to her audio report from last night about the confusion with the trail closure markings.

[cb jeff]

Ethan is going without a tracker this year but he said he was going to call in along the way. I can only assume that he is somewhere close to Jesse as he said he was going to go the first 24 non stop. So we'll see. I think he can almost feel his fingers again after the divide race!

[ScottM]

Sorry to hear about Jeff K -- I know he threw everything he had at this.  Fortunately there's always the ITT option -- I wouldn't be surprised to see him heal up and head out again.

Jesse logged a split time for Wurtz Ditch over 2 hours faster than Owen Murphy's record -- and he is quickly distancing himself from the pack.  Though Ethan may be right in there too.  Eric Lobeck was also an early front runner who has not been tracking for ~14 hours, and could be up there.

Kevin Thomas is on a singlespeed and riding super strong in second place in his first bikepacking race.  CTR vet Doug Johnson is near Jon Fulton, riding in 3rd and 4th among the SPOT tracked riders.  Jon moved up into the top five by not stopping last night, from the look of it.

Eszter Horanyi rounds out the top five, and is well ahead of her own record pace.  Cat Morrison follows her as 2nd place in the women, already heading up towards Searle/Kokomo passes, and ahead of her best time on the route.

This race is getting good,

One tracker note: I fixed the facebook comment feature -- sorry if you were getting error messages before.  FB stopped supporting the old style of comment widget, I guess, so I upgraded to the new one and it seems to be working.  It also allows for nested comments.  Go cheer on your favorite riders on their pages...

[ETURK]

Hey All! Enjoying a coffee at Avalanche Cafe (highly recommend, REAL BURRITOS), in Silverton. And taking the day off - getting stronger - in prep for the nasties of sections. I am heading out 2 am tomorrow morning to climb up stoney pass road to begin my high altitude attack to safety. And thats my concern, safety. Its been 90% cloudy since I left junction creak, with a drizzle here an there, and very fogy, but luckily no lightning or thunder, but concerned still enough. Notced that Chris Kampsnider is now not at altitude? Anyway I want to be able to see those trail markers at altitude, although the GPS seems to be doing a fine job. The trail is a sog, everything got wet here to Silverton.  eturk

[doumall]

He said there are detour signs telling people to rejoin there (I think), so that you still ride the last switchbacks down to HWY9.  But it appears some people aren't getting that message.  Too bad they chose to today to start the closure.  Bad timing.

Sorry, should have mentioned right after I finished on Sunday but I was in fall on couch mode.  When I rode through there on Saturday the 31st the signs where up but no logging going on around 8am-9am.  They had already completed quite a bit of work based on all the downed trees.  The trail was clear and I just cruised through, along with a few other bikers/hikers. Hope it doesnt confuse the results 

[ETURK]

Wow - now that I got time to poke around on the computer just noticed there are a lot of racers this year! I am amazed that divide racers are doing the CTR! Go Ethan! What an inspiration. Sorry to hear about Jeff K as well, but have no doubt he WILL be back. I had to depart from riding with Ryan Field and Tony Vails early at the start because they were not altitude ready, sea level lungs. Yet have no doubt in Ryan continuing on (the Ramstrong award last year) because he is the bull! See you in Denver Ryan (I'll pick u up)!

Forget about my comment on Chris K, he appears to be doing the North to South direction and taking the old CTR route. I assumed he was heading north and bailed up from were I am coming too.

[stephsweb]

Cheering on Steve Lacey and Kurt Ireland!

Have an awesome TOOBSDAY!
From Crew ATX
<a href="http://[color=green]HOLLA![/color]" target="_blank">http://[color=green]HOLLA![/color]</a>

[NedCOJo]

ETURK, I think I met you camping last week. My son was not sharing the bubble maker very well with your son.  For that, I apologize, and for you...we wish you great success on your ride!  

[yetibetinat]

The tracker is showing Sonya Looney scratched....does anyone know if this is true?

[Stefan_G]

Well, a fine mess we have with the route on Segment 6.  Note, the photo taken by DaNM sometime Monday afternoon does not indicate the CT as being closed (see ct_open.jpg attached below).  It is merely a warning that there may be delays.  

The photo taken by Doug Johnson sometime Monday evening shows that the sign has changed and the trail is now closed. (see ct_closed.jpg attached below)

Additionally, the text on the trail closed sign is misleading.  It indicates that the CT is closed between N. Fork of the Swan and the Horseshoe Gulch Trail.  However, the map and further text is in conflict with this statement, indicating that the CT is closed all the way to either Tiger Run RV Resort (text) or Hwy 9. (map).

This official notice was sent out by the forest service and forwarded on to me by Bill Manning, the ever vigilant director of the CTF, but I did not find it in my inbox until this morning after returning to a computer:

The Forest Service has decided to temporarily close a section of the Colorado Trail between the N. Fork of the Swan Road and CO Hwy 9. This is due to safety concerns from the high volume of trail users in and around the work site of a contractor performing hazard tree removal. We expect the work to be done by Friday August 12th. We tried to keep the trail open to traffic, but the volume is too high for the contractor to be able to control his work site. Based on my information, I don’t anticipate ill-effects to any recreation events, but please let me know if I am remiss. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me. You may see/hear about this in the media and I wanted to give you a heads-up.

I want to be clear that whether the detour was made only to Horseshoe Gulch, or all the way to Hwy. 9, all racers are still in the race and legit.  We may have to do some timing shenanigans, but it's a looooong way to Durango still, and riders that played leapfrog because of this detour are highly likely to sort themselves out over the next 370 miles...  I would estimate the detour to be 1 to 3 hours faster depending on the rider.  The CT climbs another 1200' or so, while the detour is all downhill on a dirt road.

Additionally, I am keenly aware of the fact that the 3 simple CTR rules were briefly self-conflicting.  I was unable to post an "official" CTR Route change sign until after 8pm, and my note may or may not make it through a future rain shower.  So, racers that rode the closed trail were adhering to Rule 1 "... along the entire CTR route" while racers that chose the detour were adhering to Rule 2 "Don't break the law."  In light of these unforseen circumstances, either choice will be deemed acceptable for the 2011 CTR.

[Stefan_G]

And fresh off the presses this morning, further down in my inbox, another message from the Forest Service forwarded to me by Bill Manning:

Subject: RE: Temporary Closure on CT, Summit Cty.

Thanks for getting the word out and thanks for the info. on the CTR, Mike. The signs went up last night and the press release went out last night as well. I did see some CTR riders out last night--I was unaware of the race until I talked with some of the riders. We hope the work on the section between the N. Fork of the Swan and Horseshoe Gulch will be completed by tomorrow, so that section will open back up and we will just keep the Horseshoe Gulch to Tiger Run RV closed until they finish.

Thanks again for getting the word out and let me know if you have questions,

Aubrey.


-------------------------------------------------------------------
Aubrey Miller
Bark Beetle Safety and Communications
Dillon Ranger District, White River National Forest
970.274.8329 (Cell) **Please note the new phone #s**
970.262.3491 (Office)
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[DaveH]

The tracker is showing Sonya Looney scratched....does anyone know if this is true?

Sadly, it is true - she has posted so on Facebook.

[Stefan_G]

Sorry to hear about Jeff K -- I know he threw everything he had at this.  Fortunately there's always the ITT option -- I wouldn't be surprised to see him heal up and head out again.

Dang, bummer Jeff.  Chris Neumann also just PM'd me indicating he came down with something too and is out.

Jesse logged a split time for Wurtz Ditch over 2 hours faster than Owen Murphy's record -- and he is quickly distancing himself from the pack.  Though Ethan may be right in there too. 

Indeed, Jesse is killing it.  While 2 hours faster than Owen's record pace, astute observers will also remember than Owen slept 4 hours prior to Wurtz Ditch, while it doesn't look like Jesse has slept a wink.  Also, Ethan rolled through the Gold Hill TH about 10-15 minutes after Jesse.  I missed Jesse by about 1 minute, but was able to snap a quick photo of Ethan.

[mtbcast]

This morning: Steve Lacey called in from near Copper! Erik Lobeck called in to say he’s out. Ethan Passant called in from Leadville. And Michael Chavez called in from Copper.

You can get the audio here, via RSS,  or on iTunes!