It looks like a lot of riders are in their rest bonus, but probably should be mostly moving tin the next several hours.
This comment by Ignacio is important to note for the armchair rallyists watching this unfold.
Typically (as in when I rode in 2011 and 2013). They would include an 8 hour rest bonus worth alot of points halfway through each leg. And it would tend to work out that the rest bonus would occur on the 2nd or 3rd to last night. It looks like to me (and feel free to correct me if someone knows the actual answer) that the rest bonus basically occurred on Thursday night.
That said, when most riders wakes up Thursday morning and they have 24 hours to get back they are not going to run, get a hotel, then ride again for the last few hours to the 9am checkpoint in NM. Nope, this is the last day, What little adrenaline they can muster is kicking in for the run to get back to the barn. At this point riders are now running non-stop until the end. All those little irritants they've been having to deal with are starting to be simply ignored and dealt with as a matter of fact. They can see the finish line off in the distance and come hell or high water they've come this far and they ARE GOING TO FINISH!!!!
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When I finished my first IBR in 2011 I rode into the hotel at around 3am in the morning. I was both spent, frazzeled and completely wound up all at the same time. It took me a moment to get the bike parked, off the bike. Helmet and earplugs out. Hanging around was a couple other riders who had finished a few minutes before and were sitting on the ground just decompressing. A small gaggle of other people were all crowding around to welcome the riders in.
This always means a lot to the riders. Having someone there, even a complete stranger, welcome you back. In my case the very first person to walk up and congratulate me was Jim Owen. 'Nuff said.
- Colin
