Going to corner 2 in Maine after checkpoint 2, and then especially going to corner 3 (Key West) after checkpoint 3 will be HUGE time suckers. Time that can be spent going for high value capitals. In the end, which is a better srtategy we won't know until the finish. But knowing capital point values for leg 1, and then for leg 2, will give riders at least a decent idea of the trade-off between the two.
Corner 4 in California might not be too hard to get, but what if the capitals of Sacremento, CA, Carson City, NV, and Salt Lake City, UT are worth HUGE points? Most likely, you can't get those capitals AND the fourth corner.
Yeah but... You're making the assumption that the capitols over here on the east will be worth something. What was explained/described was that the values where higher they further away from the base route that they were. Over here, these smaller states, well, at least up in that north east corner. I think all of those capitol values would be quite small in comparison, and if so, spending the time to get that corner might be prudent.
Then again maybe not.
Having to ride far enough north to bag Oregon on leg three is going to be a real bear. The 3 Hyder seekers obviously took that into consideration, however, knowing how spent they may well be on the last night of the rally, that is one big-ass gamble. On the other hand, if Meese and Sinclair have an enormous point cushion because of their phenomenal leg one ride, perhaps they can forego big cap boni and take a more direct shot to OR.
For the 4-Corners, I'm see Key West as the non-Hyder seeker's "Hyder". What I mean by that is that if you hit Key West in the day time, it could be close to as long a ride as a traffic-free run to Hyder was. I'll say this, I rode 12K + miles in the '09. A snafu at the Canadien border and a snafu with a rest bonus impacted my overall point/mileage total, but, did I have another 2K miles in the tank? Hell no! So if the guestimates are close - that a top finisher would be in the 14K mile range with Hyder or the 4-Corners and capital boni, the top 5 will be running on the proverbial fumes when they roll into Ontario. Gotta say, though, this arm chair shit is a major BLAST!!!!!!
BTW, does anyone know what happened to Peek at the crossing?
That 4th corner is only 125 miles away from the finish, which in the grand scheme of things is *nothing*, unless you're running behind.