Atlas Mountain Race

Skinny had a couple of hours so he should be good to chase to the finish

I don't see Skinny stopping now. Hes had much better rest and Sofiane will be slowing not speeding up which will motivate him. Could be close

Looks like SoHo Bikes BITD.

I'm not sure, skinny is better rested and it can be an advantage to be the chaser. Rooting for both, what a race.

Btw. What happened to Christian Meyer? Was way out front in the beginning but withdrew.

Let's hope these guys are alert enough to navigate the downhills,
and the last strech with traffic akin to chaos.
I wish them daylight.

Scratched. Saddle sores.

saddle sores and shermers, apparently.

Shame for him, but on one level, a bit satisfying for us amateurs to see that an ex-pro can't automatically win an ultra.

Scratched Saddle sores.

That does sound painful

He only lasted a couple of days too. That's barely even starting to get juicy. Hold my beer, pro bro.

I was going to put a comma in there for effect. But I see there was no need.

Meier posted this in instagram

Unfortunately my @atlasmountainrace attempt has come to an end.
Suffering from a saddle/chamois/butt connection problem means every
bump became painful, not ideal in a gravel race. I hoped a sleep and
some plasters from the pharmacy could help but after a couple of hours
into the ride today it was pretty evident it wasn’t going to work. I
came into the event really not knowing what to expect and with no
multi day ultra experience and damn did I learn a lot in just two
days. All the best to those still out there and thanks to everyone’s
encouragements during the race. .

https://www.instagram.com/p/B8qtAEfoa6K/

Wonder if Sofiane is hallucinating or anything funky out there. Will be interesting to hear his post race report. I hope he does it, but also hope Skinny has something left like he often has.

I'd have thought that there's some paranoia that starts to set in too from so little sleep?

Some visions are likely and increased paranoia for sure. Depends how much he's trained in sleep dep to know how much impact they will have.

I don't know about him, but I just become slow and at some point it's just hard to stay awake. When I set the record across Finland I took a 30 min nap at about 45 hours in, then felt great again, but there was a brief moment about 10 hours later when I had to just focus on staying sharp and couldn't really put much effort in pedaling. But that passed soon, without stopping, and I could carry on to the finish in 62 hours and didn't feel too tired when I got there, found the camping area and got a shower. If a moment like that comes to Sofiane and if it last for longer than a while though, James will catch him.

He only lasted a couple of days too. That's barely even starting to get juicy. Hold my beer, pro bro.

Not so easy without your soigneur, eh? etc, etc. As frank noted, it's good for the sport that an ex-pro can't just pitch up and waltz it.

Still about 4 hours gap!

Yeah, the gap between Sofiane and Skinny has held fairly consistently so far today:
09:20 | 61km
11:50 | 63km
13:30 | 67km

Looks like both riders are going to switch to descent at a similar time to one another

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Yeah this is why these events are so enjoyable to follow. Theres way more to winning than just being the fittest in the field

Yes, but best to look at it in time rather than distance (although the fact that they are both going to turn down at the same time means it doesn't make so much difference!)

Skinny looks to have gone a bit slower than Sofiane along that 'flat' bit at the top. Probably only lost a few minutes but essentially Sofiane is going fast enough that he doesn't look like being caught - as long as he can keep going.

I love this! Looking at the profile it would looks very hard for skinny to catch sofiane if he can keep moving... but the sleep deficit has to bite sooner or later. Sofiane looks to have it for now but we just need to see whose strategy over the past 1000km prevails.

Rooting for skinny but hoping that sofiane stays safe.

the fittest in the field

Mind, he retired 4y ago to become a coffee entrepreneur, probably not the fittest

but hoping that sofiane stays safe.

Definite focus on this. They are pushing the limits. Be nice to have some races where everyone gets round happy and safe.

Tweedledum and Tweedledee didn't last long...

Got to keep an eye on Klaus in third, he has good pace and rested pretty short, perhaps indicating freshness?