Race Report: Day 18

As the leaders get close to the border, the weather is not letting up.  After pushing through peanut butter mud near Mimbres, Matthew made it to left Silver City this afternoon. It looks like he may take a brief night there before making the last pull through the desert and down the lonely highway in the morning. Kurt Reffsnider is a mere 13 hours behind and as of Pie Town, the love shack was in 3rd only 4 hours behind Kurt. Chris Plesko (who actually scored pie in pie town!) continues to chase Jay and Tracey (only a couple hours back) on his singlespeed – which seems to be doing him very well in this weather.

With 2nd through 4th places expected to get to Antelope Wells within a day of Matthew, the next follow group, that seems to have gathered about 8 guys, is just about 2 days behind having just gone through Abiquiu this evening. That group includes Steve Wilkinson, Blaine Nester, Erik Lobeck, Joe Meiser, Canon Shockley, John Fettis, Leightwon White and Alan Goldsmith.

Coming into El Rito (having just made it through the infamous dog alley of Vallecitos) is Eric Bruntjen with Dario Valsesia about a day behind him and Jill Homer another day back.

Weather and Terrain:
The ground that the leaders are covering in New Mexico is a beautiful red and sometimes black clay through the Gilas. As Matthew described, it’s a peanut butter like consistency when it’s wet and builds on your tires to a point where you lose all tread and hopefully you have good tire clearance! The Gila Wilderness is a very remote area and like many of the landscapes along the divide – larger than life and not something to be taken lightly.

The Sweep Crew:
Bringing up the rear of the race, Deanna called this evening as she and Brad Mattingly made it to Rawlins and met up with Martin Rendl. Listen to tonight's MTBCast here.