Two days done in the stage race, and it’s starting to get interesting.
Due to the usual attrition, we’re down to 197 finishers from 212, but that’s not what I mean. Yesterday on Raccoon Mountain, Scott Williams was running in 2nd place, but managed to get off course and dropped back to 11th. Today, however, it was Johnny Clemons who lost his way for a couple of minutes, relinquishing a 4-minute lead while Williams powered through for the win. This sets up a great race for tomorrow: Clemons retains the overall lead, but Alex Poulsen is right behind him after consecutive second-place finishes, and third is up for grabs.
The top three women’s finishers finished in the exact same order as yesterday; those on the outside looking in will need a strong top-3 finish in order to find the overall podium, like Daniel Hamilton in 2011.
The Signal Mountain stage is easily the toughest, with some monster climbs and very technical terrain… so just about anything can happen tomorrow morning. We can’t want to see how it unfolds!
Here are top finishers from today’s Lookout Mountain stage:
Men:
Scott Williams (Asheville, NC) – 2:23:11
Alex Poulsen (Kalamazoo, MI) – 2:25:15
Josh Bart (San Antonio, TX) – 2:25:51
Women:
Mandy Meyer (Asheville, NC) – 2:50:14
Meghan Lederer (Johnson City, TN) – 2:55:52
Nancyanne Hickman (Memphis, TN) – 2:58:39
Stage 2 results for all 197 finishers can be found here.
We’ve also uploaded some photos, as follows:
Photos by Jeff Bartlett
Photos by Katharina Handwerker
Photos by Mark McKnight (coming soon)
“Only” one more day of racing to go; do your legs have enough left for tomorrow’s Signal Mountain stage? See you in the AM to find out.
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