The Tour Divide 2016 thread

Superb effort Rob!!

Well done Rob Colliver!!

20 days 23 hours and 17 mins – not bad for an old boy!

Rich!

..and well under his target.
Top work from a man with a plan,and just gets on with it. 🙂

Well done Rob!

Brilliant stuff!

Err. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-36670145

So I was checking on my friend Jim’s location last night and saw he and Tom were in Glacier National Park. And this morning I saw this: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-36670145

Aaarghhh! Not one of them but very sad for the ranger who died.

Jackie Bernardi looks like she’s about to become the first female finisher with about 30 miles to go. Her target was 22 days so she should beat that by about a day.

Greg May is about 4 miles from the finish.

Ashley Benns finished overnight, inside his 21 day target. Another Brit home and another storming ride.

One mile to go.

That was a long mile.

Well done.

And we have a bouncing dot!!! Well done Greg!

And he’s finished! Nice one Greg.

That’s good news

🙂

Nice one Greg!

Good work Greg 😀

Well done Greg

Next Brit is Ian MacNab (also from Hebden Bridge), currently 50 miles away from Silver City, at mile 2536.

Funny how just under 200 miles doesn’t seem that far in an event like this, but when I think about it I realise it would knacker me. 🙂

John Russell is currently at Beaverhead Ranch, leaving him another 200 odd miles.

Funny how just under 200 miles doesn’t seem that far in an event like this, but when I think about it I realise it would knacker me.

I guess the plus side of this is that when you get tired, beds only a bike fall away!

qwerty – Member
…I guess the plus side of this is that when you get tired, beds only a bike fall away!

You’re right. Sounds dead easy now… 🙂

Where are all the tour reports from the STW members brave enough to endure the ride? shirley they must be back in the country now and sufficiently recovered enough to link up some pics and some words?
awww go awn you know you want to. 🙂

From what I saw last night on FB, John Russell should be finishing today.

gregs having a holiday according to twitter…. well deserved me thinks .

jekkyl – Member
Where are all the tour reports from the STW members brave enough to endure the ride? shirley they must be back in the country now and sufficiently recovered enough to link up some pics and some words?…

Probably haven’t recovered the feeling in their hands yet. 🙂

It would be a great thread – only the reports of the ride.

perhaps we’ll get just a terse comment or two from greg and then a full write up for some magazine or other.
Holiday?? does that mean two weeks riding a bike across the USA is classed as work then!? 😉 if only.

Just checked up on track leaders to see how everyone is still getting along and there’s a chap called Connor O’Leary popped up. His stats say he’s aiming for 14 days and his average at just over 800 miles is 206.9 miles per day. This could be interesting to watch.

Decompressing.

Give me a while.

That was a darn good race.

Congratulations Rob!
Awesome effort!

Newcomer Connor O’Brien has been stopped for about 20 hours now, anyone know what might be going on with him as he was flying? Too fast a start perhaps? Sounds an odd thing to call 1100 miles a start.

Finally getting some time to sit down and read – brain has not wanted to interact with real world for a while – hence taking two weeks extra in the US to travel and get some hiking in. Also, i can’t type good, quite a lot of hand issues going on. I’ll write up a post about my race at some point this week, for now, just comments. I’ll also have an article in issue 009 of Grit I believe.

First off – thank you all, really appreciated the posts, and found the “insights” some of you made quite humerous. But wholly understandable from outside.

This run was a reccy for me – i’d wanted to cruise down under 20 days, enjoy the route week one and sleep a decent bit, race a bit hard in the second week, then see what happened week three – mainly as I was frankly scared about the heat (I’ve DNF’d from 24hr races with heat stroke twice). The plan has always been to go back for a fast run, with the info you get from being a vet – i reckon this is worth a day minimum – i suspect a much faster time is possible (i’m also accounting for losing at least 24, if not 36hrs, due to the mechanical I had). It’ll be at least 2 years until I go back – CTR is next years aim.

Not going to comment on the whole Guy thing – but I hope he got what he wanted from his route.

Mikes ride was stunning – when we heard about his finish time in Horca we did a double take. Stunning. I can get my head around a 17 day finish on the route easily enough – <14….no, i don’t get how. Not without an immense amount of discomfort and suffering. Chapeau Mike.

For me though, Chris Plesko’s finish time is the more impressive. Myself and NewRetroTom were talking a lot about SSing the route, as we’d both considered doing so but opted for gears. Pleskos time is mindboggling when you consider how much sitting and spinning there is on the route – places where a SS costs you time, or the long descents where I could spin out a 42*12 and SSers have to coast/spin/coast/spin for hours on end.

Mechanical was “race” ending but thankfully not ride ending, lost about 36hours due to it. Short version – Hope Pro4 hub decided it wanted to be a fixed drive. I didn’t notice as I was spinning along, went to coast, got a fixie knee jerk – then the rear mech snapped at the pully bolts, twisted the cages, bent the cassette, twisted the chain, _then_ ripped the mech hanger off (mech hanger on CT is too stiff- and of course i had a spare, i’m not an idiot. Just not a spare spare.) it then broke a few drive side spokes.
Result was a 40km walk out with not enough food or water and an unplanned overnight up high. Managed to bodge a fix with cableties, Sugru and luck to get me to a point where I could coast on the flat with very, very light pedalling while the epoxy cured. I had i think 6 gears that sort of worked.
When I rolled into Cuba (shithole) i was 100% certain I was done ride wise, and had planned to ride to Grants, limp to Pietown then chill in the Toasterhouse for a few days until my wife was able to come and get me. Suffice to say, without me planning it, other people had plans and I got to ABQ to the shop Two Wheel Drive (Salsa dealer) who stripped a stock bike for the bits I needed, then gave me free access to their workshop to do whatever i needed to my bike+hub to get it going. It was those guys, and the burritos they recommended, that were the only reason I could keep riding. I owe them a lot. Trying to figure out how I can send them beer in the USA.

Overall, it was an experience, not quite settled in yet TBH, not sure how long it will take.

Constant Motion by Greg.May[/url], on Flickr

Sounds like an “experience” – which every trip should be! Cheers for the update, and very well done.

I can’t quite rival Greg’s tales of Mechanical woes but I did have my sp hub develop chronic bearing play which led to me deciding to ride over Richmond rather than camp at the bottom. As it rained/snowed/hailed along the singletrack with a sheer drop to one side I did question my plan to ride it with a 150 lumen light (no dynamo, no lights!)

I also managed to tear a hole in my sidewall on a sketchy descent between Wamsutter and Brush Mountain leading to another late night push to shelter as I could see the mother of all storms chasing me.

As I approached pie town I met a father/daughter from Canterbury going Nobo on Fargos. As others had done at that point, and also not having seen hide nor hair of a bear I wished them luck and have them my bearspray that I’d pointlessly lugged 2500 miles to that point.

The very next day turning a blind corner on the Sapillo alternate I encountered a black bear up a tree at about my head height. Luckily my instant reaction to swear profusely and loudly scared it and it ran off…..who needs bear spray?!

Only other time I could have needed it was passing through Pueblo Pintado when three dogs ran out of a house by the high school. Somehow found some energy to sprint then!

Like Greg I’m also experiencing numbness/ Pins and needles in my hands and feet. I couldn’t get my flight brought forward so I’m renting a Dodge Challenger and going to Vegas along Route 66. 😉

I’m pleased to say that the memories are all good of the event, my limited vocabulary just can’t describe how remote, empty, wild and beautiful the scenery was. Also, every last person I met in the USA while on the ride has been wonderful. Only hint of negativity was a bottle thrown at me while riding through the reservation, not that long before the dogs in fact…..

Also interesting just how clean the roads and trails were, nothing compared to the UK’s McDonald’s wrapper filled roadsides (oh the irony).

Only hint of negativity was a bottle thrown at me while riding through the reservation, not that long before the dogs in fact…..

I had some dogs set on me before Peunto Peublo in the res – as with you, the only negativity i had all ride.

I got the impression that negativity in the Res wasn’t wholly because of the bike….

Agree.

jekkyl – Member

Where are all the tour reports from the STW members brave enough to endure the ride? shirley they must be back in the country now and sufficiently recovered enough to link up some pics and some words?
awww go awn you know you want to.

You rang?

Not fully written up yet, but have done Canada and Montana. Working on the rest.

newretrotom.blogspot.co.uk

I’m renting a Dodge Challenger and going to Vegas along Route 66.

Saw the pic on BBB .. great use of time : )