I’ve just had a recap of some of the call-ins I’ve missed and made some entertaining discoveries – the sort of colour that makes the race so vibrant. For example, Marshal Bird succumbed to his regular mid-morning urge for an early siesta on top of Togwotee Pass.
Nothing unusual in that, you might think, but he didn’t just lie down at the side of the road for his 20 winks – he climbed into the open cab of a backhoe loader, where he said it was nice and warm and out of the wind. I should point out he said it was Sunday and the machine wasn’t being used at the time.
Also, the irrepressible Stephen Huddle confessed to skinny dipping in a Montana stream. All I can do is apologise on his behalf if he had any other racers with him, and point out that it was a desire he managed to suppress during last year’s race.
Stephen and Cricket Butler called in from Togwotee Mountain Lodge (two thirds up the climb) last night and gave the impression the weather has been good, which is good news for all. They said they had been riding on and off with Brad Perry, David Tremblay, Jon Billman and Nicolas Senie (sorry, still can’t do the accents) and expected some of them to stay with them, though the leaderboard shows Nicolas and David having gone further while Brad may have stopped sooner.
Kent Peterson and Patrick Tsai are the only active riders further back now, and both are making good progress (Shawn Sheppard’s SPOT is still in Lima but he’s already called in from further down the line, and Devian Gilbert’s SPOT is now in Idaho Falls, which suggests he has stopped racing). You’ll have seen Todd Ison’s excellent pictures of Kent that Jeff Potter posted yesterday. Today it was Patrick’s turn to meet the Todd, as he reports below. Read more »
