ive been following aidens preparation progress on his blog – anyone know any of the other brit contenders ? simon temple , heather dawe or christina domecq

best of luck to all if your reading this ! look forward to following your spots

no one ?

just noticed thats 47 riders on the start line – what will the drop out be this year ? currently at 65% for the cumulative total for previous years !

christina domecq
http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/technology/article6735993.ece
Blimey!

nice – one to watch then ! thats a serious resume !

trail_rat do you have the url for Aidans blog please?

stuart

http://iamnotasinglespeeder.blogspot.com/

and noted the tag above – aidan not aiden – blame my mates son for me spelling it with an e – thats his name 😀

Good luck to everyone doing the Great Divide this year. We are doing it this summer at a slightly slower pace but we have still only got 39 possible riding days to complete nearly 3000 miles!! Yikes.

Been gradually building up the distances and are doing a 2 day 150km ride this weekend. Next weekend is the Polaris (ridden for our first time ever as a mixed team rather than both solo). Fingers crossed we don't end up getting a divorce.

I'll let everyone know if we get round to doing a blog, but we will have our SPOT tracking system working for the BIG trip in the summer so you should all be able to see our progress.

Just put some Ergon GC3 grips on my bike will give them a trial this weekend to see if they really are more comfortable.

For anyone who's interested, check out the Ride the Divide movie. I've got the blu-ray on order, looks great. I really like the idea of this event and determined to do it one day. Have been chatting to one of the rookies this year & will be following with great interest. I wonder if I can become superhumanly fit before June 2012. hmmm…

got the dvd on order.

Ive been doing back to back long distance audaxes to get a feel for the kinda milages in question

any updates on when ride the divide is to be shipped ? its going to my parents as im in the middle of moving house !

I've not heard anything other than "early June". The public viewings seem to be going down a storm by all accounts.

just noticed thats 47 riders on the start line

Getting a bit popular compared to a few years ago !!!!! It's on my list of things to do but I'll have to work on my mental toughness first….

finished paul howards "2 wheels on my wagon" last week – for any potential competitors (i use that term loosely-i dont think you can be called that until the 2nd or third time really – although there is always the odd exception.) it is a good insight im sure.

on that im surprised matt lee needs a map these days !

Cheers for the link, will take a look later.

Stuart

trail rat the dvd is late as the originals were sent back to the manufacturer because of poor sound quality.
At least the quality control is good , I'm waiting for mine too.

I think I might just do that. Need to save a few pennies first though.

also read Pauls book.Was a bit disappointed to be honest.I really struggled to see it through to the end.

i think reading steve wilkinsons story on bikepacking.net is more interesting.

aye the story of eight is really good i agree carl – but i guess its written from a different perspective. Steve was riding it and knew he could finish he knew what it took – he had done in the past. Paul seemed to be on rocky ground from the start havnt not ridden an mtb till he decided he wanted to do the event.

perhaps something mere mortals can relate to ?

Hello!

I looked through the other brits a while back and don't know any of them. I'm sure we'll get to know each other a bit in Banff anyhow. I'm feeling as good about it as I can at this point. Building up the same kind of confidence as I had for the Ultrasport: I know I'm going to be able to give it a decent shot. There are things I can't control that could stop me from finishing, but I've got the things I can control nailed down.

Hats off to Steve Wilkinson, his story is good and he dropped me a line to see if he could offer me any advice. At the moment he's among the people I owe an email! More early mornings sorting stuff before work, then!

I'm leaving on Sunday, then riding from Calgary to Banff for the start with another racer. To say it's exciting is an understatement!

Edit: Oh, yeah… there's a new blog post about my Welsh end-to-end just published now.

Best of luck Aidan. I for one will be following the Spot updates as the race progresses. May the wind be at your back!

Appears that Christina Domecq rode RAAM last year – http://blog.spinvox.com/2009/06/29/the-race-across-america-they-did-it.

She's probably had plenty of training time since Spinvox was swept up last year.

best of luck aidan. Good news your running well ! give em hell !

i look forward to reading about happy trails when you return !

Hi Aidan,

Are you riding to Calgary on Sunday or Monday? I arrive in Calgary on Sunday afternoon and it would be good to ride to Banff with a couple of other TDers if possible.

Cheers,
Heather

heather_dawe [at] hotmail dot com

Just finished reading that Story of Eight, highly recommended.
Good luck Heather all those TransWales/Polaris events should stand you in good stead.

After my Divide trip this summer I might weigh up the Tour Divide race one year. Unfortunately as I am a teacher it would require me to hand in my notice and I quite like my job and the evil headmaster is not the type to let me have extra time off, even if unpaid.

dvds shipped today ….. woop

woop woop

Excellent. Did you receive some kind of shipping notification? Nothing here yet, although I ordered the Blu-ray so might be on a different schedule.

yeah blu-ray is later in month

i got an email saying it shipped – i have dvd – will have to get a dvd player i suspect …. ours packed up months ago and i aint replaced it yet !

lol, probably a good idea 8)

Just noticed that Ben Fogle and James Cracknell are listed as ITT starters in August. Does this mean a TV programme to follow?

at least that will give me a bench mark to aim for 😉

Just noticed that Ben Fogle and James Cracknell are listed as ITT starters in August

Are the rules for the ITT the same as the divide – as in you must be self sufficient? Interesting to see how they do it, both ride together for moral support? camera crew along the way?

From the Tour Divide ITT page

Abide by TD Rules, carry a SPOT GPS tracker or other brand of GPS logger/tracker, and finish in no more than twice the standing course record (17days x 2) to be eligible for the same Divide racing General Classification that ranks group racers.

Good luck to the racers, another waiting for the dvd to land, emails sent out saying they are on there way.

Intending to ride it next year starting a few days before the race to give a bit of encouragement as I get passed by the tough guys.