Lovely tea and coffee shop in Silverthorne though. The mall does have a Pearl Izumi shop in it if anybody needs new socks.

Juliana Buhring is making good progress, in top ten now. I am also rooting for Joel Martinez (Barcelona)who I finished the last few days of the Tour Divide with. He is about my pace.

Jeez, Mike Hall has passed through Ordway CO, the halfway mark in 6 1/2 days. The eastern half is a lot easier even with the Ozarks and the Appalachian mountains to come. The whole thing looks doable in under a fortnight.

Looks like the lead has come down to 70 miles (As of 21.30 GMT) although mikes tracker hasn’t been updated for half an hour.
This is becoming even more addictive than usual…

Has Mike lost the lead? Or do we reckon we can put it down to tracker issues?

This is fantastic. I’m now addicted to checking progress, what a truly epic race, and i’m glad it’s being done in the style of the tour divide.

Surely Lance will give this a go one day..?

Bikepacking forum says that Mike’s SPOT tracker batteries had run out – he’s still in the lead and should have some new batteries soon.

Mike’s SPOT tracker batteries had run out – he’s still in the lead and should have some new batteries soon.

Confirmed by the man himself on the book of faces…

so much fun to dip in and out of, seems that the gap between the front two has stayed fairly consistent for much of the race, or will Mike have pulled out once his spot tracker has new batteries?
nice blog as well McM’

Looks like his tracker is back on now, gap roughly the same as it was before.

Mike is only a few miles from crossing the Mississippi into Illinois. The rolling hills of the Ozarks are behind him. They are relentless hills, straight up and straight down. It is really hot an humid there too. The route profile on the maps from there to the Appalachain mountains in Virginia is like a fast heart rate print out.

He’ll need to keep his eyes open for random chasing dogs, though I expect they will need to be Greyhounds to catch him.

Lots of the other competitors are on amazing rides too.

Hmm really puts things in perspective when the leaders ‘gap’ to second is just over 100 miles…..

Looks like Mike Hall will finish tomorrow

Crazy race. That’s further than I’ve ridden this year! Well done Mike 🙂

He finished 🙂 4406 miles.

Shorts are looking a bit grubby!

What an effort. Mike’s record could stand for a long time I’d say.

Still nearly 200 miles to go for Jason and over 400 for Ed.

Well done that man,what an effort indeed.

What a feat of endurance, surely this deserves to be a singletrack news item? Nice one Mike!

mike is awesome, love how he can pull these massive rides out after quite a quiet year of riding

A brilliant effort, well done Mike!

Yey! And also yey for Juliana Buhring. Keep checking on her – 5th overall. Inspiring… so fed up with seeing women’s racing being short versions of men’s but they really, really shouldn’t be. Seeing someone doing so brilliantly gives me hope that it will change. 😀

That is an amazing effort. Chapeau. Every state has its own topographical and climatic challenges. Even flat states like Kansas can have unpredictable winds and baking temperatures.

Incredible, when is this guy gonna get some more recognition.