22 HOURS AT ALTITUDE


The title of this blog sounds like a lead into one I used to do with our teams on Everest. 

Dave reached Pine Dale, Wyoming an elevation of 7175ft/2187m.  He’s almost at the half way mark with one of the extreme challenges ahead of him. The Great Basin in Colorado where he will cycle for 100 miles without access to water. 

I was catching up on the three leaders. Things start to hit the wall at this point. Some who went too hard too early are starting to suffer the consequences. It was interesting to learn that leader Ulrich who was the front runner for most of the race early on, was suffering from swollen ankles. This is what happened to Tim as well as his butt. We were trying to figure out what was wrong. As it was painful and looked worrisome to me. Apparently from sitting in the saddle too long in cold and wet, your Achilles starts to tighten over time. Ulrich is nursing this condition by lowering his seat a bit and now in the dryer weather it will hopefully help. 

STRICT RULES- the three leaders:

Justinas- Ulrich-Jens 

Apparently Jens lost his sleeping bag and Ulrich who was behind him found it and rode it to him. But Jen's didn't feel this was right to receive the bag as it was considered support. So he wrote to the race directors with a proposal to ask if he took time off route to ride to a store and back to pretend to buy a bag,  to put in the time to do so, would it be okay for him to accept the bag? They agreed.  


Our favourite besides Dave is Justinas because we met him so we’ve been following him  He lost sleep because he has back issues from pushing hard to catch up because he had charging repair issues to keep his electronics working for his sponsors and tracking updated. However that cost him in loss of sleep because he had to push harder to get back in the run and strained his back. However, this morning he's back out front. So happy to see that. 

Dave!!!!!!!!  He had a big one yesterday. It looks like 22 hours of riding from his track pins and beta from our helper Doug Thompson in McKenzie, B.C. has been dialled into Dave's every move. Gotta love his info sheet. I told you this was addictive to watch this race. The good thing for Dave is his current position and time coming into the basin after all the rain. Hopefully it will start to dry out. The leaders had to contend with peanut butter mud so Dave can push in closer.  It looks like the weather and his timing might be spot on. 

Stay tuned!  We have RV brake issues with all these mountains and high passes and we aren't even in a race. Just our chasing dreams one. 

Follow Dave

http://trackleaders.com/tourdivide23i.php?name=Dave_Rutledge


Please donate and pass it on.  

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