TD Race Updates

Hi, this is Rick calling on the TD. I'm now in Sparwood. Started out yesterday, feeling good. Uh, made it to Bolten Creek, and it started raining. So, I didn't want to try to get up over Elk Pass, and get caught up in a big storm up there.  I heard there was a lot of lightening up there that night.  So, I decided to spend the night there in Bolten Creek.  Stayed with Paul, Cadet, Bruce, and Martin and Jeff.  We all stayed at a campground just down from Bolten Creek.  Put our tents up in the rain, so it was raining.  Everything was wet.  Got up this morning early, went over the Pass, and had lunch in Elford, and we're staying in Sparwood.   We should get on the road early tomorrow to try to make it through the wilderness section, that detour, and make it to Eureka tomorrow.  So far, everything is doing pretty good.  The bike's holding up well.  My body's holding up.  I want to thank Craig Thompson from Tallahassee Chinese Medicine that got me to the starting line of this race.  Everything is doing fine right now.  So, we'll try to call in again tomorrow.

Listen to the latest call from this racer here!

It has been nearly 40 hours since the beginning of the race and the race leaders are already pushing a record-breaking pace.  While we are still awaiting to hear our first call-ins, the SPOT narrative has been telling us an interesting story.  As the racers approached Elkford (mile 109), they were mostly sticking close together, although Matthew Lee (Sobe/Cannondale) appeared to maintain the lead almost the entire time.  Matt also decided to put in some night miles as he pushed into the new route addition in the Flathead Valley.  As many of the other race leaders, such as Kurt Refsnider (AZT 300 record holder) and and John Nobile (current border-to-border record holder) decided to sleepin Sparwood (mile 140), Matt pushed to Corbin.

This morning and afternoon, many racers pushed into and through the Flathead addition.  Unfortunately, Brunello Godio missed the turn toward Cabin Pass and lost a few hours as he approached the now-closed border crossing at North Fork Rd. Read more »

Hey, it's Kurt Refsnider, calling in from Eureka. We just crossed the border - I don't know - 10 miles ago or something like that. Spent most of the day riding with Chris Plesko and Matt Thourot and, uh, some of the time with Jay and Tracy on the tandem and Joe from Minnesota. Umm, but we split up a little bit, there were a couple of sliced sidewalls today, and all around just a pretty hard and challenging section through the new part in Canada, but it was pretty nice. Saw a couple bears, and saw a couple wolves yesterday. So, it's been pretty entertaining. Um, but, feeling good, and Chris and I are heading off toward the Whitefish Divide tonight, and are gonna probably camp up there somewhere, and try to hit through that and ride Meadow Pass in the morning. So hopefully things continue to go well. Alright, later. 

Listen to the latest call from this racer here!