After 24 days of this totally absorbing battle, about 6.6% into the year, it's impossible to tell how each rider is doing. Clearly Tarzan is capable of riding huge distances, as is Steve. At the moment Steve is restricted by the weather and the short daylight hours, but in a couple of months we will be past the equinox and his daily output will increase. As he said, he will start attacking Tarzan.
Both are obviously very determined and for Tarzan to maintain his advantage he will have to be able to respond to Steve's challenge. I honestly believe that one of them will "blow up" physically as the daily average approaches, and exceeds, 250 miles. It's almost unimaginable that they will both be able to churn that sort of distance, day in, day out, for about 120 days, without some sort of physical problem. If I'm right, it will be vital that the one still riding has enough in reserve to keep ahead of Tommy, as well as the other. If I'm wrong, and both keep at it for the duration, I reckon that the target distance will exceed 90,000 miles.
I know buggerall about enormous tests of physical and mental* endurance. Are there any precedents which come close to what we are witnessing here?
*The 48-game Karpov v Kasparov World Chess Championship Final apart, for the mental side. The rule was the first to 6 wins, draws not counting. Karpov went 5 - 0 up but then there were many draws. The match was controversially abandoned just as Karpov was beginning to crack - Kasparov won games 47 & 48 to bring the score back to 5 - 3. Karpov, the Soviet Golden Boy, had lost two stone in weight during the match, and there wasn't a great deal of him in the first place.