RTL: What will be the gap between first and last?



T

tholub

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Question: What will be the cumulative time gap between the first and
last-place RTL finishers?


- Less than 4 hours
- 4-6 hours
- 6-8 hours
- 8-10 hours
- 10-12 hours
- 12-14 hours
- 14-16 hours
- 16-18 hours
- 18-20 hours
- 20+ hours
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In the poll on 'the gap between first and second place'
(http://www.unicyclist.com/forums/showthread.php?t=70248), most people
think RTL will be pretty competitive for the top spot, although some
believe there will be a pretty significant gap between first and
second. It would be fun if the race were competitive up to the finish
line, but my feeling is that someone is likely to have an
insurmountable lead by the time day 5 rolls around. It will be
interesting to see how it plays out.

Now we turn our attention to the other end of the standings. The teams
competing in RTL are extremely diverse in terms of strength and skill
levels; we will have most of the world-class big wheel riders, but
we'll also have folks who are just along for the ride. A sizable
portion of the racers had never done a 40-mile ride before they decided
to qualify for RTL.

So, what will be the gap between the winner and the last-place
finishing team?

For the purposes of this thread, let's consider only teams which
actually ride all five days; if you quit the race early, you're not
included. The course will be open 12 hours on the four distance days;
let's call that the maximum time for any given day. (Teams which don't
finish in 12 hours will be given a time penalty, but we'll ignore the
penalty for this thread).

You might wish to review the thread on 'the speed which will win RTL'
(http://www.unicyclist.com/forums/showthread.php?t=70118).


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tholub
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Of course, last place isn't as interesting as first place; not a lot of
action on this thread.

It seems clear to me that the slowest teams will be averaging 10mph or
less in total elapsed time, so I think they'll be hitting the time
limit every day. That puts them in at 48 hours, plus whatever it takes
them to do the time trial and criterium.

My guess for the fastest time was 25km/hr average, which means the
fastest team wlil be putting 4 hours into the slowest for the four
riding days. The final gap will then be somewhere around 17 hours.

That's a lot of hours on the road, for the slow folks.


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tholub
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I think last place will be 12 hours x 4, plus times for the Wednesday
races. Comparing that to my estimated speeds from your earlier
(pointless :) ) thread, that suggests a gap in the 14-16 hour range.
IMHO.


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johnfoss

John Foss
Email: "jfoss" at "unicycling.com" -- www.unicycling.com
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Man with broken collar bone say: "Have you checked your shoelaces
lately?"
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It looks like 16 hours, 17 minutes difference in on-road time between
the German Speeders and the Nova Scotia High Rollers. Nova Scotia, to
their credit, kept smiling the whole time.


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tholub
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