CTR 2011: Race Updates & Results

[Stefan_G]

The following list of people successfully finished the 2011 CTR!  Please see notes below this result list for more info, and please PM or email me with any corrections.  I'd also be happy to add additional links to any trip reports and/or blogs to the results list here and on the main CTR webpage.


Group Start on 8/1 @ Indian Creek TH (Denver)

• 4d11h54m - Kevin Thomas
• 4d17h58m - Garrett Peltonen
• 4d20h51m - Zach Guy
• 5d05h15m - Jarral Ryter
• 5d05h27m - Eszter Horanyi
• 5d07h40m - Jerry Oliver
• 5d09h00m - John Fulton
• 5d13h28m - Andrew Carney, Steve Carney
• 5d14h40m - Cat Morrison
• 5d14h55m - Joey Ernst, John Ross
• 5d15h44m - Shawn Gregory
• 5d18h14m - Aaron Weinsheimer
• 5d18h19m - Todd Johnson, Chris Miller, Jordan Carr
• 5d23h00m - James Lindenblatt
• 5d23h02m - Steve Wilkinson
• 6d09h59m - Jesse Palmer
• 6d11h26m - John Fettis
• 6d12h07m - Jeremy Noble
• 6d14h36m - Tim Halbakken 
• 7d07h34m - Matt Porembski, Pete Schuster
• 7d17h02m - Jill Hueckman
• 8d02h24m - Jonathan Edwards, Andy Heading, Steve Heading
• 8d05h16m - Bart Spedden
• 8d09h27m - Brett Ebben
• 9d10h16m - Clark Davidson
• 9d11h42m - Marco Capote, Zach Allen
• 9d14h00m - Chuck Janecek
• 10d13h09m - Fred Grinnan
• 10d12h50m - Josh Enck

ITT

• 6d23h21m - Dan Hickstein (NE ---> SW)
• 7d14h14m - Ian Altman    (NE ---> SW)
• 9d03h09m - Joe Brannan  (SW ---> NE)
• 10d16h59m - Eddie Turkaly (SW ---> NE)

Sometime on the afternoon of the first day of the race, the US Forest Service decided to change the status of a short portion of the trail from "expect delays" to "closed" due to safety concerns of a contract crew removing hazardous trees.  This closure was a surprise to everyone, and the first racers arrived, quite literally, minutes after the closure had been posted.  Riding a closed trail is obviously in violation of the 3rd rule of the CTR: Don't break the law.  However, the 1st rule of the CTR is: Race ... along the entire CTR route. I was able to post an "official" CTR route change sign a few hours after the closure. 

This has been quite a conundrum as the detour is 1-3 hours faster.  I don't feel it is fair to DQ riders that rode the closed trail because they were concerned about not having an "official" time in the CTR due to a course deviation.  However, I also don't feel it is fair to give a time penalty to racers that rode the detour since it became the official CTR route shortly after the trail closure. 

Unfortunately there doesn't appear to be a perfect solution here.  While I know it will aggravate both sides, particularly racers that may have been leapfrogged, I have simply let the finish times stand.  Hopefully this will set the precedent for future CTRs about decision making mid-race.  As I said from my "soapbox" at the start of the race, or something similar anyway, "Imagine every racer making the same decision as you.  What is the impact?  Now imagine there are 1000 racers making the same decision.  Choose wisely!"

[Unckle Rob]

We will be cheering you on from here in Va!

Keep safe and have a fun time!

[sanjuanrider]

Ride Hard Toby!  Best of luck to you and all the other riders.  Attached is a picture of Toby at the start this morning on an upgraded Full suspension CTR bike.

[sanjuanrider]

AND They are off!  Good luck to all you guys and gals doing one bad-a?* race.  Great group of riders at the start this morning. Time to sit back at the computer and spend time spot tracking this large group of kick butt mountain bikepacker racers.

[ScottM]

Thanks Stefan!



What a crew out there!  Awesome.

[FranB]

Wish i was racing  glad to see JJ hammering from the go! it is a race eh..... after all?
well back to work 

[ScottM]

Looks like the middle of the pack is getting hit by a storm cell already.  Check the radar overlay.

The leaders are in the clear so far, and speaking of leaders, Jesse is blazing.

[NedCOJo]

Sending our support to all of the racers, but especially Todd Johnson..

GO TJ!!!!! We are tracking you and you are doing awesome!

[DaveH]

The leaders are in the clear so far, and speaking of leaders, Jesse is blazing.

I chatted with Jesse a bit before the race.  One of the things he was going to do differently this was to start slower.  He has historically been the master of pace control (the only guy with a huge engine that I know of to pull off that feat), and I really doubt he would go beyond his planned pace...he's a patient racer. 

If this is Jesse holding back the rest of the field may be chasing a long gone ghost! 

Exciting stuff.  Wish I was there, but watching is not a bad 2nd option.

[mtbcast]

Forest Baker called in from Bailey!

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

[cyn]

Breck Epic dude just posted this on FB:

ATTN CTR RIDERS: From the USFS in my inbox today: 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 (Breck area). 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. BE CAREFUL (and nice).

[ScottM]

Hmm, the leaders will be getting there any minute.  Way too late to get a message to anyone.  We'll see what their SPOTs do.

Bummer if they can't get through -- that descent down to HWY9 is one of my favorites!

[DaveH]

<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!!!

[ScottM]

Jesse moved right on past the North Fork of the Swan road.  Kevin Thomas also.  Jesse did take a break at the beginning of the steep climb after the road, I hope not contemplating whether to keep going.  Who knows how it is signed on the ground.  If the email went out today it may not be signed yet.  Hopefully they are at least done working for the day.

[DaveH]

2 big wildcards out there:  Ethan Passant hasn't shown a point yet, and Jefe stopped spotting over 8 hours ago.

Both are previous event winners...and both are also coming off superhuman Tour Divide efforts.

Anyone have any beta on these mystery guys?  Stefan, was Ethan at the start?

[velocipede jockey]

Cheering on all the riders out there but especially MICHAEL CHAVEZ!!! His wife and 10 month old son have been glued to the computer checking in on him throughout the day. Still getting used to looking at the GPS...can anyone tell me what the "waypoint" is? Also, if current speed is 0.1 mph, could that mean he is walking??

[ScottM]

2 big wildcards out there:  Ethan Passant hasn't shown a point yet, and Jefe stopped spotting over 8 hours ago.

Ethan declined his SPOT, but did start.  Jefe just isn't tracking, so he's an unknown.  I'm sure he'll figure it out sometime in the next 24 hrs -- assuming he stops long enough to take his pack off in the next 24!

[ScottM]

Cheering on all the riders out there but especially MICHAEL CHAVEZ!!! His wife and 10 month old son have been glued to the computer checking in on him throughout the day. Still getting used to looking at the GPS...can anyone tell me what the "waypoint" is? Also, if current speed is 0.1 mph, could that mean he is walking??

Waypoints = time splits = just invisible time checks that we have used as benchmarks since 2009's CTR.  There is nothing special about those places other than that.  0.1mph could be walking, or more likely, a brief stop.

I just added the men and women's record splits to the leaderboard for comparison.  Eszter is already 2 hours ahead of her 2009 pace.  Awesome.

I also wanted to note that I finally got late show Dylan Friedman all set up -- he's gotta be the youngest CTR racer ever -- not even 18 yet!  Go Dylan!

[ScottM]

Oh no, some riders are taking the road instead of the supposed closed trail.  It must be signed, or they somehow else got the word about the closure.

[DaveH]

It's a cluster!  I think a few riders out there have their eye on record times and will not be denied that chance to achieve it asterisk free.