Excellent write-up.  Perfect thing for me to read as I contemplate when I'm going to tackle this route.

5 a.m. I sit at my computer 12 miles from waterton canyon and listen to the rain, it's a cold wet night for the racers near the end. 

Justin Dubois looks like he's probably in a bivy on segment 3. 

John Griffiths and Chris Kampsnider are still moving and are nearing the end of the Tarryall detour. 

Stay stron fellas, finishing order is not set in stone, and neither is finishing at all this year.

Someone needs to get Greg an Etrex for his birthday.  Looks like hes off course again 

LOL, true, or who knows, maybe he just needs batteries.

Justin, Max and Brad are all locked up in a battle for third and they all stopped at the Stagestop Saloon.  If Dana bypasses the stagestop he could leapfrog them all.

Congrats to Seth on the official finish, nice steady effort throughout the entire course.

Seth is at the stage stop saloon now, if he is feeling good and pushes it he may just eek out sub-5 day.

Still wonder where the stealth JB is right now.

Sometimes when you have a snack attack there is no way to resist!  Bummer it looks like the trail took another victim  
Speaking of that, anyone have an update on Jonathan?  It's so hard to pull in all the info now with the Instatwitter and FaceSpace diluting the forums!   

Seth now has an open shot at first place!  If things go really well its possible for him to get in as early as 2am but sometime after dawn would be more realistic.  Keep it going, 110 miles to go!

I was looking at Seth's pace and it seems similar to mine in 2015 during this section.  I think if he doesn't sleep he'll finish around 8 am tomorrow, but I think he didn't sleep last night, so who knows.  Not everyone is as fast as you Jesse .

Looking at Chris' spot history, it looks like at some point on the descent he slowed way down.  Crash?  Bike mechanical?

Comparing to Seth, he took over twice as long to descend to the bail out road from Georgia Pass.  It also looks like Seth passed him a little before the pass, so if something happened to Chris on the descent Seth wouldn't have known.

Anyways, enough speculation, back to work now.

OH MAN.... I hope it's just for a burger, not much else in Jefferson.

Would have to be a burger emergency, since the Stagestop Saloon is only a few hours past Kenosha Pass

Hey Race Fans!
I rode up to Searle Pass from Hwy 91 last night in hopes of catching the Top 3 racers. I must have just missed Plesko while I was parking at Copper.

I caught Jonathon about 5 miles up and we chatted for a bit. He was tired with swollen legs and mentioned his throat was hurting so bad he could barely get food down. He knew the gas station at Hwy 91 & I70 closed at 7 and was a little worried about a resupply between there and the finish. I hope to see him moving again soon!

I ran into Seth at the top of Searle Pass and rode back down to Hwy 91 with him. He seems in really good spirits and is riding incredibly well! He was audibly groaning at every little uphill in the trail and seemed content to just walk them instead of spending the energy to ride.

Just before we hit Hwy 91 I saw a headlamp up on Tenmile, sure enough it was Plesko.

This sure has been fun to watch. I wish all these maniacs the best!

Always nice to get a few details that the blue dots can't tell us.  How was the weather up there during your ride?  Was the trail dry?

Mother nature has been a factor this year, it looks like going sub-5 days will be pretty tough this year.

Looks like a large contingent is around Leadville right now, but man the race is spread out a lot this year.

Anyone know anything about Meghan Newlin?  Her spot has been down for a while, hoping she out there still leading the women's race!

Kinda easy to miss, and it used to not be a part of the route.  Hopefully they aren't on an old GPS track.

That said, staying on hwy 24 is considerably easier, I remember that little section being more tedious than expected.

Looks like Dana and Justin have now both backtracked and got back on to the route, no worries for them now.

Looks like Plesko is getting a quick meal at Mount Princeton Hot Springs.  Nothing like pulling up to a fancy restaurant smelling like days on the CT.

I'm really curious to watch how Plesko's SS setup influences his splits.  The top two guys are legit and there are still a few folks not far behind their wake but the clock isn't being kind to them.  Based on their current progress and forecast, it's going to be heroic for anyone to beat 5 days to Waterton let alone the sub 4 day target several of the folks were training hard for.  It's not for a lack of effort but Stefan's last two pictures make my heart sink when covering ground is your only objective!

Yeah, I've been speculating how the splits will be different too.  I expected Chris to go up Slumgullion faster than Jonathan, but they were pretty close, with Jonathan being a little faster even maybe.  They are on the La Garita detour, which should favor JB over Chris' singlespeed setup, so it probably will be an uneventful battle for the next several hours.

Overall, times are definitely slower than 2 years ago, weather is playing a big factor.

Wow, looks like it was a soggy start.  This could shape up to be a very interesting race this year.  I'm pulling for Plesko to pull out the victory to keep the Colorado-resident winner streak alive.  If Basham pulls off the victory, then he'll be the first non-Coloradoan to win.  Of course, it's CTR, so there are so many variables that it could still be somebody else entirely, but it's always fun to speculate.

Bob & Adam, thanks for the input, some food for thought. My usual aim is to pick a bike that matches the general character of the route and accept that I might have to walk on the really technical stuff or just go slowly on any pavement that the route follows.

A second question is about nighttime temperatures? I'm a warm sleeper but am undecided between a -1C and a -6C bag/quilt (my only other options are the 5C summer bags and the -30C expedition bag!)

It depends on your sleep strategy.  I try to sleep at lower elevations, but not at valley floors.  This allows for more oxygen during sleep, and avoids the coldest areas at the valley floors and higher elevations.  

I'm a cold sleeper and I still survived with a 40°F (~ +5°C) bag and a bivy sack.  I was chilly a few nights, but that just made it easier for me to get the motivation to get up and going  I also slept with my Montbell UL Down jacket on and something covering my head each night.

I'd lean towards the -1°C or the +5°C for a recommendation.  If you are planning long sleeps (full night), then err on the side of a warmer bag.

I'm curious if folks plan out most of their water refills or if they only plan for long stretches without water. Speaking of long stretches without water...I'd love any beta folks are willing to share.

I never really planned out water resupplies much.  The CT has a pretty good amount of water on the route, the dry areas are not that often.  The only places I consciously make sure I fill up are at tank seven creek (whether going northbound or southbound) and Around cataract lake.  A lot of it depends on timing, if going through at the hottest point in the day, or going to sleep soon will be times I try to get a bit more water on board.  An additional southbound one (not for this year) is the marshall pass spring, it's pretty dry until tank seven creek from there.

I have always run with one bottle and a 100 oz bladder.  When I run the bladder dry then it's bottle time and time to start looking for a water refill, I've never really had a problem of running out except in the Cochetopa Hills/ Mrashall pass/ Sargents Mesa area during a southbound run.

There are a lot of cows around tank seven creek, so make sure you wait the full duration on your purification tablets with that water.

I'm not riding this year, planning on next year for the Southbound/Westbound grand depart.  It's always fun to follow the prep thread though and see what people are freaking out over.  It will also get me pumped to go out and do some shakedown rides of some new setups I've been pondering, that's always one of my favorite parts of the training.

BTW, I'm pretty sure I slept about 100 yards up from that night HAB picture in 2015, lol. 

Actually, is that pre-tank seven creek or post-tank seven creek?

My opinion, don't race the TD this year.

You've seen the route already.  Life is short, and you have a time resource situation we would all kill to have,  pick a different race and do that.

There are too many spectacular races out there to repeat a route.  (that said, I've done CTR twice and want to do it once more, that one is special )

I've been using a Wingnut pack for a long while now, love it.  I have the Three Point Zero, which is 13L, but the Two Point Five is just below 9L and pretty much fits your criteria.

It sits differently on you than a traditional backpack (sits lower), which I like.  It puts less stress on your back and it also allows some access to jersey pockets as well.  The wing pockets and mesh pockets are very easy to access while riding.

Here's a pic of me wearing mine as I finished the CTR so you can see how they sit on you.