John Nobile has won the 2008 Great Divide Race, having arrived in Antelope Wells, New Mexico on Saturday afternoon and thus completing the 2,490 mile US section of the Great Divide MTB Route in fifteen days, one hour and 26 minutes. That’s just under three hours faster than the record set in 2007 by Jay Petervary. It’s an impressive achievement given that Nobile was running behind Petervary’s pace for much of the route – he put in a pretty much continuous effort over the last 48 hours to break the record.

Also finished is Brit Carl Hutchings, who rolled in to Antelope Wells late on Monday night for a finishing time of 17 days, 10 hours and 41 minutes. Rainer Klaus finished on Tuesday afternoon after 18 days, one hour and 26 minutes.

Among the competitors still out there is Jenn Hopkins, who’s been stuck in Abiquiu (600 miles from the border) since Sunday, having fallen ill on Friday. She’s apparently contracted giardia (probably from some iffy water), but is taking anitbiotics and hopefully will recover enough to carry on. While the singlespeed and women’s records are starting to look safe from the Hopkins onslaught, she’s still got plenty of time to finish within the 24-day cutoff, which would make her the first female singlespeed rider ever to finish. And with stuff like this, finishing is what counts…

Great Divide Race updates are at greatdividerace.blogspot.com, Tour Divide updates are at www.tourdivide.org.