We just reached the Eldorado, Kansas time cut-off point - with 11 hours to spare. On my leg from TS 27 to Eldorado this morning I passed the half-way point of this year's race.

We were riding hard through the night - first to shake the persistent Team Beat Cancer for 5th place and then to chase Team Donate Life for fourth position. Two time stations ago we figured they were about two hours ahead. As we did an exchange just before TS 28, we saw that Donate Life had pulled into the station just an hour and a bit earlier. When we got to the station, the Donate Life RV was parked there and their rider was just rolling away (having taken an hour off) - at which very point Christopher flew by the station and overtook to put us in 4th.

Speaking to the Donate Life crew we learned that one of their riders ran into the very same problem in the desert as did Christopher. Interestingly they made the opposite decision than we did - they put their man down on an IV in the RV - and forged on for a day and a half with one rider.

2nd and 3rd positions are only three time stations ahead of us now - and very close together. We are moving significantly faster and the race is only half over.