Three nations left at Big's Backyard after Pierlot stops at 101

Three nations are left at the Big's Backyard Ultra World Team Championship. Keith Dunn posted that Julien Pierlot did not start yard 101, and that Christophe Baud will win for France assuming he completes that yard.

Keith

@keithdunn

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And then there were three. Julien Pierlot did not start yard 101; Christophe Baud will win for France assuming he completes this yard.

That is past 100 hours of racing. The field was still four nations deep not long before. After 96 yards, Dunn said, four nations remained with two runners each, and the USA led the team standings with 1,099 yards, ahead of Japan on 1,021, Belgium on 1,002 and France on 880.

What the numbers actually say

Those totals are a team tally, not one runner's count. France sat last of the four on 880 yards at the 96 yard mark and still has the runner Dunn expects to win for his country. So the American lead is a function of how many US runners have been out there racking up yards, and it only grows while Americans are still on the course.

Dunn has not said which nations are the three still standing, or how many runners each of them has left. He also has not said who else stopped between yard 96 and yard 101. All we have from him is the count going from four to three, and Pierlot's name on the runner who did not answer the whistle for 101.

The race has already been messy. Severe weather stopped the Spanish team earlier in the event, when 52 nations were still left in the team championship.

So the shape of the finish is clear enough. One nation's representative is on the verge of being its last runner standing, and the team scoreboard that the USA has been leading can only be settled once there is nobody left to add to it. Until Dunn posts the next update, that is the whole picture.