Race Report: Day 14

The racers are spread from Matthew coming into New Mexico all the way up to Bruce Giroux coming into Idaho.

Matthew called from Del Norte at 10am after stopping at 10pm last night on the way to Carnero Pass. The road up Carnero is a little spooky at night as there are cattle all over and they snort at you and all you see are their eyes in your dim LED headlights – but there’s good primitive camping there amongst tall trees.

Sounds like Matthew had a bit of rain on Carnero and Cochetopa Passes. Then, this afternoon he busted up and over Indiana Pass, the highest pass of the route, which is a grueling 25 mile climb that takes about 4 hours getting pretty steep in places at the same time as washboard and tiny gravel.

Indiana Pass

He’s now in Platoro, where hit looks like he'll bed down for the night.

Summitville

Kurt seems to have broken away from Chris and Jay and Tracy and has a good gap now. If he rides late tonight, he may get into Del Norte. If he does, it puts him only about 12 hours behind Matthew, who got there just before noon today. Kurt’s just gotta keep up the short nights to make any ground on him – that’s what Matthew does better than anyone on the route – runs on empty.

Jay and Tracy are about 6 hours behind Kurt and Chris another 6 hours behind them. The chase pack seems to have each gone on their own as the going gets tough and they get closer to New Mexico.

The 2nd chase group is still about a day behind Chris. We’ll see when and if this group decides to each take their own true paces probably soon. They should be getting into Salida around mid-day tomorrow.

Joe, John, and Leighton aren’t too far behind the 2nd chase group and may stop at Salida tomorrow, depending on how much of a refuel they need.

Jill Homer got out of Rawlins until Noon today after waiting for the bike shop to do some minor repairs on her bike. Sounds like she wasn’t unhappy about the 17 hour break, according to her call-in from Rawlins today. This has given her a boost, though, coming out of Rawlins fresh. This also still keeps her ahead of the female course record and a day and a half ahead of Cricket Butler, who is coming into Atlantic City (just before the basin) at about mid-day tomorrow. Deanna is still a couple of days behind Cricket, as she heads into Flagg Ranch tomorrow.

Coming Up:
After getting over Indiana Pass – which is quite grueling, the road into Summitville, an old mining town, is beautiful and fast (just watch out for huge nails from the mines!)

Then, with many little climbs ahead, the race will head into a beautiful lush green canyon where they will pass through Platoro. It’s more of a campground than a town – with one store that has limited hours. Then, they will parallel the Conejos river and descend through this valley with spectacular views to Horca.

Conejo River Valley

Horca also has one little store and if you go through on a Sunday, they’re having church at the store, but stay to the right and the 12 year old will sell you ice cream or anything you need – five dollar minimum for credit cards. So if you don’t need much, that’s a lot of candy bars! Racers will want the fuel, though as they start up La Manga Pass.

Beginning of paved climb

It’s a long paved climb with even more spectacular views.

La Manga Views

This route will turn to dirt and get a little tricky in here. When the racers find the long stretch of baby-head sized rocks that they have to hike, they’ll know they’re on track to Brazos Ridge. From the Ridge, they will have some good downhilling through aspens with lots of little tough climbs throughout.