amazing numbers. The first ones really aren't that big. Heck I can do the 544 to get away, and not that far off the 450 for 5 minutes (unfortunaltely I'm also hauling 50 more pounds). However, the 364 for 2 hours and over 300 for the day is pretty incredible. i'm sure there are a number of people on this forum, faster than me, that can do 450 for 5 minutes. However I doubt anybody can approach the numbers over the longer haul.
What these numbers tell you is that the lead riders could have stayed with him initially. But it would have been hard to match the effort he put out over the day, and they were baking on the belief he couldn't do it. And didn't want to crack themselves trying to match him.