Well I can't add much to the last 3 posts!
Meanwhile, here's the scores-on-the-doors, stolen from Dogtrousers@cyclechat:
Steve's stats as at 21 Jan 18
Days: 324, 88.8% of year, 41 days remaining
Dist: 106,357 km / 66,087 mi / 2.65 times circumference of earth
Total elevation: 413,681 m / 1,357,222 ft / 46.8 Everests
Avg daily dist: 328.3 km / 204.0 mi (Last 7 days: 323.8 km / 201.2 mi per day)
Avg daily elevation (Strava): 1,277 m / 4,189 ft (Last 7 days: 1848 m / 6063 ft per day)
Moving speed (Strava): 25.4 km/h / 15.8 mi/h (Last 7 days: 22.5 km/h / 14.0 mi/h)
Hours per day riding (Strava): 15.2 (Last 7 days: 16.1)
Projected total at overall daily rate: 119,816 km / 74,450 mi (328.3 km / 204.0 miles per day)
Projected total at 7 day rate : 119,631 km / 74,335 mi (327.8 km / 203.7 miles per day)
Required rates for various records
René Menzies (1937) 61,561 miles. Completed Dec 26.
Ossie Nicholson (1937) 62,657 miles. Completed Jan 02.
Steve Abraham (2015) 63,609 miles. Completed Jan 07.
Bernard Bennett (1939) 65,127 miles. Completed Jan 16.
219.0 miles/day required for Tommy Godwin (1939) 75,065 miles.
243.6 miles/day required for Kurt Searvogel (2015) 76,076 miles.
499.7 miles/day required for Amanda Coker (2016) 86,573 miles.
As billy says, Steve knew about the weather in Jan/Feb when he started this ... but it's still going to hinder him, and he would rather have a 10mpd buffer now than being 10mpd down on schedule [made-up figures to illustrate the general picture!]
The Tommy & Kurt figures are both very difficult now, but not impossible. The one thing we can't estimate easily is how far he can go in the last week-or-so. The unique thing about the year record is sleep; a rider can't improve their moving speed much late in the ride, but they _can_ borrow a lot of sleep from the bank for a short period. So if he's healthy, with his randoneuring experience that could give him a sprint finish. I don't think any other rider has tested that "tactic" yet.
Or of course he could just be far too knackered for any such shenanigans!
Forza Steve