Belated congratulations on the arrival at Antelope Wells of first Eric Nelson and then, only a couple of hours later, Forest Baker. Forest’s call-in from the finish provides an entertaining summary of the race and the toll it took to reach it that far – and the sense of enormous satisfaction to have made it to the end.
Now, the Lonely Highway is once again failing to live up to its name with a battle for 7th place involving four riders. It looks as though Marshal Bird is in pole position – do you think he’d mind the nickname ‘tough ol’? It’s intended as a compliment. He is, after all, 54 years young and, as far as I can make out, set to become the oldest official finisher of the Tour Divide – and a fast finish at that, with a sub 22 day result on the cards.
Not that age appears to be a major obstacle in this race. Endurance is as important as outright speed: Matthew Lee is 39, Erik Lobeck 38, while Blaine Nester just describes himself as ‘old’, which I have it on good authority as meaning in his late forties. Then there’s 47 year old John Foster, who is now a couple of hours behind Marshal and who called in to say he’d finally made it out of the Gila where he’d suffered from a ‘classic bonk’ complete with ‘that feeling of impending doom’. We’ve all been there.
In between John and Marshal are Matthew Arnold – a mere 29 – and Mike Prochaska, who was 37 on June 19th – happy belated birthday. I’m sure making it to the finish in the early hours this morning, which seems likely, will be a fine present. It’s nearly 2am local time and Marshal, Matthew and Mike are, according to their SPOTS – still riding. Read more »
