Wide Open Spaces - Go GDR Class of 2007!

Much like the rest of the blogger community, today's blog is dedicated to all the riders who started out on the Great Divide Race at noon. Word on the street is that this is the largest starting field ever at 21 riders. If you want to follow along with the racers make sure to checkout Tom P's coverage at the GDR Blog and also some awesome podcasts from MTBCast. There will also be some notes and commenting available in this thread on the MTBR Endurance Forum.

With that being said I'm going to make special mention of my good friend Dave Nice. He's back again in 2007 after having his bicycle and all his gear stolen on day 2 in 2006. He's been training like a demon and I'm pulling for him to become the first finisher of the GDR on a fixed gear bicycle. Go Dave!

In other news the (known) favorites are Matthew Lee, Jay Petervay (checkout an interview of him at Dave's Blog) and Pete Basinger. I, along with many others, feel that unless the weather is just horrendous Mike Curiak's amazing record of 16 days and 57 minutes may fall this year. Pretty amazing as that's already the equivalent of riding 156 miles off road every day for 16 days straight! Which one of those guys will win and maybe lower the record? It's anybody's ballgame as they're all tough as hell but if I was pressed to pick I'd take Matt Lee based off the experience factor. However Pete B and Jay P already had an epic battle at the Alaska Ultrasport this year with Pete B breaking the course record despite a long detour.

Good luck to everyone on the 2,490 mile road to the finish. Maybe someday...