Thanks, everyone. It was an incredible ride...everything fell into place for a change and I was able to enjoy just about every minute out there! I'll write a bit about it in the next few days, hopefully.

Wow wow wow. This is getting crazy. This after he raced the whiskey 50 two weeks ago! What. A. Stud!

It was way better doing the 300 two weeks after the Whiskey than doing the Whiskey two weeks after the 300 last year! I also had a rather forgettable race at Whiskey this time around, so I was in the mood for something big.

This is my finest moment. Complete satisfaction. I hope any of you thinking of doing this race give it your best shot next year. It is harder than you think, but more meaningful to complete than any other bike race out there. Arizona is the real deal. I am addicted to this place. I will remember this forever

AWESOME, Mark. You never cease to amaze me with your perseverance and grit. Congrats on yet another huge accomplishment! Now relish your finest moment, and then you can look forward to reliving it all again next spring.

Sheila is ~4 switchbacks from the North Rim! That was a LONG day, but she must feel so good having that chasm behind her...

That took some impressively serious motivation to head north out of Flagstaff a second time. Go Sheila!

Are you talking about the Great Divide Mountain Bike Route or the Continental Divide Trail? They are very different routes, the latter of which would be a burly singletrack-heavy undertaking.

This is all driving me crazy, think I have to come down for this next year, just too wild, hard, tempting......thanks for sharing the pictures!

Jefe, come on down for the 300 again next year. I'll race you! We can get Scott, Aaron, and whoever else we can round up. One of us is bound to have good luck and finally get in a clean run. The rest will be envious and have to come back in 2015. How bad of an idea is that?

On a completely different note, Sheila just got the best birthday present I can think of - she finished the dang Highline Trail and found herself in the cool pines above the Mogollon Rim! Happy birthday, Sheila!

YEAH MAX! What a ride!

Then he can come home and keep training for TD.

No, then he can come home and RECOVER for the TD. Don't tell Max he can keep training. He does too much of that as it is! But it's looking like he may have come into this race fresher than usual given the pace he's pushing.

Here's my two cents:

-- Make sure your position is not too aggressive, as you mention. For really long rides, I raise my bars 1.5-2 cm higher than I often have them for regular riding

-- Use grips that dampen vibration. For the Tour Divide, I've used ESI Chunky grips with cork tape over top. For all other riding/racing, I use the Chunky grips alone. Now ESI also has some "extra" Chunky grips that have even more padding. I'm excited to try these.

-- Make sure Ergon grips aren't the problem. I gave them some serious testing a few years ago, and they caused some ulnar nerve problems that no other grips ever have, so the fancy grips just don't work for me.

-- Make sure your gloves do not have padding that increases the pressure on your ulnar nerve. I've had a few pairs in recent years that have gel padding on either side of that nerve, and as the gloves wear, they shifted so that one of the pads was directly over the nerve. Man, that sure was a stupid design for a glove.

Hopefully some combination of those might help!

Full suspension, light gear, and BOMBPROOF tires. I wouldn't ride any tire out there without reinforced sidewalls. Aaron Gulley just won the 300 riding 2.4" Maxxis Ardents with reinforced sidewalls. 

Yeah, Aaron! HUGE CONGRATS! That's the impressive effort at least a few of us knew you were capable of if you got luck on your side.

This has been a fun race to watch so far! And as usual, it sounds like there have been quite a few sliced sidewalls, some dehydration, and some crashes. It's not a particularly friendly course!

It's looking like Aaron Gulley has had a nearly perfect ride up to this point and should shave ~2 hours off Scott's impressive record. That must feel great after all the bad luck he's had over the past few years in this race.

Eszter is on her way to smashing the Lynda W's women's course record. It looks like Eszter could finish by sunset if the rest of the day goes smoothly for her.  

And Pete is having a great ride, too, right now running without his SPOT checking in. If he rode through the night at the pace he was pushing before midnight, he could have made up a lot of ground on Aaron.

And Aaron B is looking like he's pushing a fast but smart pace at the front of the 750 field. He wants the record, and while he's a few hours off pace right now, he should make that up tonight. Hopefully his bike is working better this time around without all last year's bad mud to destroy his drivetrain.

As for ScottM, get your stomach in order and get back out there!

End everyone else...keep chugging!

I'd vote for Tarryall because I absolutely love that dirt road on the east side of the Wilderness, but since I'm most likely not racing the CT this year, my vote probably should not carry much weight.

I've run WTB Nanos, Michelin Wild Rac'r, and Maxxis Ikon tires on that route now. After WTB moved production of the Nanos to China, the durability went way down, and I haven't used them since. Michelin dramatically changed the tread pattern on their tire, so it's nowhere nearly as well-suited for dirt roads any more. The Ikon is great, but Maxxis still seems to be struggling with problems related to sealant degrading the inside of the tire. Small Block 8s have been used on the route without problems, but I just don't trust the tire's paper thin sidewalls. If I was going to ride it again, I'd use Ikons with the EXO sidewall and plan on replacing the tires mid-way through.

Racing Ralphs last about 500 miles for me on the front before the side knobs are about to tear off. On the rear, they last ~250 miles. And that's on an unloaded bike. You could get the "performance" model that supposedly uses a harder rubber compound, but in reality, that tire is far knobbier than you need for the GDMBR.

My suggestion would be Shimano XT. They've proven themselves in my book...I've got 5 pairs of them and have yet to have a single issue with one of them. I switched to XTs after riding Crank Bros Egg Beaters and Candys for years. They seemed to have an average life span of roughly 6 months for me, and then they'd get replaced under warranty. That was fine for 'cross, but not acceptable for anything remote. From what I hear, their reliability has not improved in the past couple years.

1. Possible, but you might have to skip some of the AZT up in the Snowbowl area above Flagstaff depending on snow conditions. Mingus Mtn. Also could be snowy in April.

2. Very unlikely. The Kaibab Plateau usually gets a lot of snow.

3. You might have to skip the AZT section around Snowbowl and the section from the North Rim of the GC to Jacob Lake. I'm not sure if your support car will be able to get through past Jacob Lake. The highway is gated at the south end of Jacob Lake, but locals can get through, so perhaps all it takes is opening the gate.

Awesome. You're going to have some great times with that Spearfish, Mike!

You forgot the added durability of a single-cog setup. In the clay mud, you'd potentially be able to ride much more than anyone with a derailleur without risking having the derailleur sucked into the spokes for whatever mysterious reason that happens in bad mud. That was one of the main reasons we went with a single cog on the tandem this past year.

Also, you technically can't change cog/chainring sizes during the race if you want to be considered as a true SS finisher. That's apparently how the original GDR interpretation was, and it has set the precedent.

Personally, I think SS on that route would be pure hell.

Keep me in the loop Kurt, my only planned rides are AES related. Just need to clear time with the training coordinator.

Will do. See ya Saturday at Black Canyon?