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Starts in about half an hour. I'll be watching for Alex Watts aka Tea Boy. Rides for Team JMC. First timer. Anyone else to watch for?
Yeah, watching Alex too. Good luck to all.
Dave Barter is doing it this year.
http://trackleaders.com/tourdivide19
https://bikepacking.com/bikes/tour-divide-rigs-2019/
Josh Ibbett is also a rookie, but I expect him to be fast. He won the transcontinental race in 2015 amongst plenty of other impressive achievements on the bike.
Watch out for Tim Roberts, he rides with us.....for a while we usually can't keep up. He's riding a frame built by smithy bikes
They're not doing the mass start, because school, but I believe both Rich and Mini Pips are riding the Tour Divide this summer.
Not sure how it compares to previous editions but there are four riders with a target time of 14 days, 6 for 15 days and 8 for 16 days. The fourteen day group includes both Josh Kato and Lael Wilcox who's stated that she wants to win it outright AND beat Mike Hall's record. Lael actually put "as fast as I can" but Trackleaders has turned this into 14 days.
Supposedly there's been a lot of snow still lying around so that might have an effect on some of the higher passes and slow things down a bit. I'm not sure when TL start showing it but there's usually two extra rider icons, one for each of the male and female records, so you can see how the riders compare to those. The male record usually has a green icon, can't remember the colour of the female record.
Im not sure LW attempt is in the spirit of it all. She is being filmed and followed by journos, one if whom is her partner. That following safety net and seeing a significant nurturing other during the race seems to offer quite a lot of support.
Im not sure i agree with her actions, but sponsors want a lot for their money
I agree with breninbeener. Not really in the spirit of the race imo. Still can’t get my head around how any of the competitors can ride that far solo( ish!!).
there’s usually two extra rider icons, one for each of the male and female records, so you can see how the riders compare to those. The male record usually has a green icon, can’t remember the colour of the female record.
The route's changed since those records were set, it's now slower/harder going around the Elkford area I think. Later in day one for the faster riders. The record dots aren't up yet, maybe that's why?
So a few riders aiming at 14 days, ie near-on record pace with the addition of a section that adds a good few hours, from what was described online last year.
RE Lael Wilcox being filmed, I'll wait to see the film, should be good but it does seem to close to visitation. Maybe she'll be filmed from a distance and interviewed at each end, commentate on the footage later etc. Matt Lee was said to be OK with whatever they're planning.
@jameso - I think the record dots only appear after a day or two once the field has spread out a bit more. It's always hard comparing year on year not only because of the weather but the route does change, often because of fires especially further south and when the Yanks say "route closed" they mean it!
@teamslug - the spots look close but they are actually spread over quite a distance - at time of writing 180 or so riders are spread out over 60 miles, some will be riding in proximity but quite a few will be out of sight of everyone else except at stops.
Apparently LW's film crew/journos are also carrying SPOT trackers so presumably Matt Lee will be checking they aren't intruding.
when the Yanks say “route closed” they mean it!
No sh-- : ) Mike Hall tried to get access in 2013 when a fire closure shut the route but no go, meant he didn't get an official record - yet he did 14.5 days on a route that ended up at 2860 miles, >100 more than usual. It does vary a fair bit over the years, the Basin section is meant to be quite different now as well I think.
Josh Ibbett is also a rookie, but I expect him to be fast. He won the transcontinental race in 2015 amongst plenty of other impressive achievements on the bike.
been stopped nigh on 8 hours now,
His SPOT might be playing up or he's not restarted it this morning. There's quite a few not updating for a few hours here and there.
Anyway, here's Lael Wilcox with her bike and kit - https://bikepacking.com/plan/lael-wilcox-2019-tour-divide-gear-list/
Does anybody have a link to the us forum that usually accompanies the TD (where folks upload photos of the racers as they pass through, etc.)?
Re Lael, I’m a total fanboi so all you haterz can just **** off... 😉
It’s a race, wow, a racer has shown up. Surprise.
If the organiser(s) are happy with the arrangements then it’s within the rulz. We’re way too far down the ‘sponsored’ road to turn back the clock. Where do you stop?
Love the custom frame job (thanks for the link bob), would love to see her take the overall!
Cheers for the link. I tried looking for the forums off the main page(s) but (obvs) failed miserably... 😜
ETA: bikepacking.net =/= bikepacking.com
That explains it
Sophiane Sehili has been gaining on Mike Hall's record pace marker all morning and has just passed it. I don't think anyone's got ahead of Mike's marker before? Incredible ride so far. 470 miles in 45hrs and he's not stopped yet. Almost looks as if he's studied Mike's stage-post method from his record run.
^ Looking at Mike's record run as a comparison he'd had ~2.5hrs kip by this point.
Surely Sehili will have to stop soon? I’d imagine 45hrs straight is pretty much the limit of what you can do without a break.
You'd think so, he has a bit over 40 miles on Josh Ibbet at the moment so he could sleep 3hrs and stay ahead, just. Like 3hrs is much.. Gets interesting once their sleep patterns are all out of synch and they start gaining and losing.
I wonder if there's any advantage of doing huge stints like that at the start or are you going to put yourself on the back foot for the rest of the race?
Only time will tell I suppose.
I was reading a piece about the three peaks CX and Paul Oldham (I think) made the comment that you tend to get blocks where the same person wins it for a few years until someone else works out a strategy to beat them. That person then wins for a few years until ...
The block strategy is fine if you can keep it together through the night and the terrain you are moving over isn't too technical. You are of course relying on your block of sleep not being too long that it negates pushing through. I.e. after 44hrs riding you shouldn't have more than 4hrs sleep otherwise you might be better doing 20hrs riding, 2hrs sleep, 20hrs riding, 2hrs sleep as you are likely to move faster during the second 20hrs.
Is Brant sponsoring current race leader Sofiane Sehili? He is racing in a Planet X jersey.
Alex ( tea boy ) is going well. 400 miles done. Keep going fella
Josh missed a turn ??
Josh missed a turn ??
Looks like it. Apparently the turn is easy to miss as you are on a big fireroad and heading downhill.
Josh Kato is now about ten miles behind Sofiane Sehili who himself is pretty much on Mike Hall's record pace. Sofiane had a five hour stop in Helena, after 60 hours of riding!!
Lael Wilcox is about 30 miles ahead of her own record pace. She also stopped for a good while last night, apparently there's a cabin in that vicinity.
Another one here rooting for Tea Boy.
So how's that going to work then .
Is it the same as the ht550 send the trace over ?
He's back on track but theres a fair bit missing
If you zoom in (lots) to where he went wrong then you can see that the track loops back to the official line. Whether he took that or backtracked to the missed junction is only something that currently he knows.
Comparing JI's and Kai Edel's timestamps just before the turn-off and at the only point after where they currently have a matching ping, before the mistake Josh was about 1hr20 ahead, afterwards he was 40mins ahead so a 40min loss. Again impossible to tell if he backtracked or figured out to carry on.
AFAIK it's an honour system and it's up to each rider to police themselves. If they do something wrong then they are meant to let Matt Lee know but not all the route has mobile reception so it might take a while to do that.
I think they have to submit a real GPS track, and I guess they probably take 2 GPS?
Spot tracker is just 1 read out every 10 minutes, and for emergency etc. Although, so long as it pings one can often see enough points showing them going the wrong way.
Still curious to know what happened to that other guy that took a totally different scenic route over a river, round a mountain before the border. And a couple missed out a bit section after the US border.
Hopefully JI realised and backtracked, rather than rejoining further on. Unless it was a closed route and was instructed by authorities?
Out of curiosity and being a bit of a weight weenie what kind of weight will the bikes with kit weigh? I realise this will vary a lot on how quickly they intend to complete.
Sounds like Alex Watts has had a bit of a scare with a bear but he’s ok!!!.
Cor - just seen the post - charged by a bear!!! Blimey. Stay bearproof Tea Boy!
Out of curiosity and being a bit of a weight weenie what kind of weight will the bikes with kit weigh?
The second link in @billoddie's post (the third one in the thread) shows about half the bikes in use, some list weights, others don't. The usual thing is to quote weights without food and water since that varies from day to day - some take 4 litre bladders in their frame bags to cope with sections like the Great Basin so might have a total of 6 litres of water at the start of that. A lot are using Salsa Cutthroats (well it was designed with the TDR in mind) which is 10kg. Bags and kit would be anything from 6kg upwards depending on how tough you felt! James has done the ride so is better placed to comment.
Once you've got kit for an overnighter or a long weekend there's not that much extra you'd take on something like the TDR, maybe a few extra brake pads and the like. It's within the rules to post stuff ahead via general delivery to a post office so some send spare chains and the like doing that.
Here's a breakdown of Lael Wilcox's kit for the faster end of the spectrum - https://bikepacking.com/plan/lael-wilcox-2019-tour-divide-gear-list/ Perhaps the biggest challenge is the wide range of weather and temperatures - apparently there's still snow on some of the higher passes further south so likely to be near freezing - and then you've got the desert sections where it can get to 40degs or higher.
Out of curiosity and being a bit of a weight weenie what kind of weight will the bikes with kit weigh?
You could be at about 4-5kg more than a suitable bike for a competitive racer, depending on layers you wore and what was packed that day. 1kg max for sleeping gear, 1kg for things to keep bike and body running, 1kg additional clothing and a 1kg for electronics, GPS and batteries etc. Then add luggage itself and a few bits that always end up in there.
@teamslug - My kit for the HT550 came to 4kg including bags. This was using standard, off-the-shelf items. Very roughly:
Sleeping - 920g
Bags - 680g
Electricals - 740g
Spares/tools - 655g
Clothing - 645g
Sundries - 365g
All items were weighed at home after any mods I'd made and rounded up to the nearest 5g as that was the smallest weight on the kitchen scales!
For the TDR I'd possibly take a bit more clothing but it wouldn't be much more though it would depend on "how" I was doing it. Sundries are things like suncream, etc. I think there'd be a bit more of those. 5Kg would be comfortable.
never really followed this before but looked at the tracker for some of the top riders and seems josh ibbett is moving fastest (of the ones I looked at anyway) but stopped more - presumably more sleep. It will be interesting to see if this is a strategy and, if it is, whether or not it works
Josh Ibbett posted last night that he is no longer going to race i think, but is going to enjoy it more and sleep more
Am I reading the tracker right? Last place has completed 150 miles in 4.5 days? I reckon I could do that!
@charliemort - because of the way that TrackLeaders works you have to be careful with some of the figures like moving time, stopped time, average speed. TL was giving Josh Kato about 2hrs stopped time earlier in the race (as far as Ovando) but he told the store owner there that he'd had seven hours sleep by that point. That's a big margin of error.
There's quite a bit of strategy involved in these events: you need to balance speed, rest and resupply. Then you've got the weather to contend with - a bit of rain and some of the trails turn to "peanut butter" and are basically unrideable - one rider's "luxury item" is a spatula to scrape the mud off! Similarly there's still snow on the higher passes, saw a shot of Togwatee Pass (about mile 1135) from a day or two ago and it's pushing through snow. The route only gets higher as it heads south into Colorado.
Aagh! Can't edit my last post as I get the drunken beardy bloke.
@trailwagger - If you hover the mouse pointer over the dot you get a popup. The last rider, Stefano Tomasello?, is at 158miles but the top figure next to his name is when his tracker last updated which is 4 days 21hrs and 31mins ago. I suspect he's a bit further down the track.
@trailwagger – If you hover the mouse pointer over the dot you get a popup. The last rider, Stefano Tomasello?, is at 158miles but the top figure next to his name is when his tracker last updated which is 4 days 21hrs and 31mins ago. I suspect he’s a bit further down the track.
Why would the tracker not be updating for 4 days?
They can be temperamental (Josh Kato's SPOT seems to be playing up a lot for example) or he's an older SPOT which needs turning off and back on every 24hrs and he hasn't restarted it properly. I've done that, if you are tired or aren't used to the devices it's one of those things that gets left undone. You think you've set it going because there's lights blinking away but it's not actually pinging your position.
Basically, the system is good but it's not that good and it's not foolproof.
There's a write up of the first part of the race at https://theradavist.com/2019/06/2019-tour-divide-race-part-1/ and https://www.do****cher.cc/race/tour-divide-2019 has integrated tracking and social media posts nicely.
Sofiane Sehili seems to be going the wrong way/backtracking now slipped to 5th/6th
top 7 only split by 30 miles, so close after 8 days!
This is an update from Sofiane:
It's all right. I got lost at the top of the col in the middle of the night. Can't find the way in the snow. I had to turn around because the temperature fell under the-5 degrees and that I'm not equipped to face these temperatures."
Apparently there's been 19" of snow in the last day or two!
Lael Wilcox seems to have disappeared off the map?
Lael Wilcox seems to have disappeared off the map?
There's a dozen or so riders all at the same point so her marker is hidden behind some others. If you hover your cursor over her name on the riders list, her marker will start bouncing.
Some pretty bad conditions over there it seems. Just seen this:
News from Lael that Kato carried on up a pass to find some shelter, found a cave and went to use it to find a cougar resting there 😯
Lael and a host of other riders are ensconced at a place called Bruce Mountain Lodge. Apparently the trails have turned to peanut butter type mud. Local time there is 8am so there has to be a good reason for racers like those not to be moving.
Billy just posted a video from BML - its snowing massive wet flakes right now; he says the trail is grim, and does a good explanation as to why the riders can't move yet. I've ridden that trail twice; its over 9000 feet and is tough even during a warm dry sunny day.
The Armistice is holding for now.
conditions look grim++ type2 but some smiling and some dropping out...good update about an hour ago
Day 10 https://www.do****cher.cc/post/4uEPvQaUyN3RJeq3EvLAZk
https://www.do****cher.cc/race/tour-divide-2019 - day 11.
Seems the hold-up at Brush Mountain Lodge has been dealt with once a northbound rider came through with only 3-4 hrs hike-a-bike. Lael out.
Looks like Josh Kato is out.
"I don’t normally log into Facebook while racing my ultras. However, this Divide is turning more into a survival march for me.
Last night I awoke vomiting, shaking and coughing uncontrollably.
I was able to point my bike to Del Norte. Feels like my body is on auto-pilot right now. Can’t really make it do what I want it just does what it knows it should. Not 100% sure what is wrong. Feels like multiple things at play. Perhaps I pushed too hard and found my limits or maybe something simple as bad food. Who knows, I’ll see how the Del Norte hospital rates things. (Nurse humor: it will be sort of fun to walk in and tell them I feel like I might die)
This race tests you in ways you can’t imagine.
Before I set out this year I had two objectives. Chase and catch the Mike Hall record flag (just for a bit) and to complete the race as fast as I could in memory of a friend who can’t be here now.
I intend to honor my promises. I don’t know at what speed my legs will now carry me but I shall continue forward. We can do more than we think we can and we can be better than we are. Sometimes unexpected stuff happens and we have to figure it out. Believe me, you are tougher and more resilient than you think! We can all be better and we can all do more."
And then:
"Well folks, this is a bit more serious. I will remain in hospital tonight and transport somewhere else. Won’t say much now as I need to contact my family. I want to say this-
Remember, if you can be out there do it! Don’t waste time thinking of doing things. Get out there now! Chase your dreams!"
And
Hi bikepack family. Was just reading through this as it seems I have time sitting in a hospital room with a direct view of the Old Woman Trail that comes into Del Norte. Thanks for the well wishes. Unfortunately I will not be able to continue forward. My problem would likely not be survivable before the end. I will be seeking treatment and hopefully return to this race I love so much. I seriously thought about getting back on my bike after finding the source of my problem as dying on the Divide would be preferable to anywhere else at this moment. That would be unfair to the Divide. It would also be unfair to all of you and my family. So thank you all. Keep the TD the TD. The best race on earth and the most honorable of sporting pursuits. Love you all.
Wowsers.... not idea.
👎
that escalated quickly.
I hope he is ok both body and mind, Thats pretty strong language.
Note that JK is an ITU/ICU nurse so likely to ask the "right" questions and understand the answers and their implications.
Bloody Hell! He's clearly made the right decision to scratch.
On a completely seperate matter:
From Kim Raeymaekers post you can hear that they were relying on hearsay and someone doing a reconnaissance ride on Lael's film crew's electric bike:
That doesn't seem right to me...
Also in things that don't seem right and probably shouldn't happen:
Lael Wilcox has also scratched after falling off her own record pace - but she will apparently keep riding, which unfortunately creates an issue for other racers (such as Evan) on the visitation rules as she is no longer a fellow racer so Lael's continued presence clearly breaches the written rules on "no visitation".
From the Radavist i think they said that Lael and her girlfriend were holed up in the mountain lodge. Her partner was staying in her room to avoid breaching the visitation rules but as Lael was clearly now unable to beat her record pace she decided to scratch (as did her partner) so her partner wouldn't have to sit in her room alone and will now just ride the rest of the course to complete it rather than race it. Or something to that effect.
Visitation: Divide racing is not intended to be a spectator sport! (what about dot watching!!!!) However, route-town locals only may interact with (i.e. visit briefly, cheer on) thru-racers as they pass through their locale. Out-of-town visitation to the GDMBR mid-race from challengers' family or friends—even if only a 'loosely-planned', remote possibility for rider rendezvous—is prohibited.
There's an FAQ on this at http://tourdivide.org/td_rule_2_faqs#comment-5316
Not sure about the second quoted block by @BillOddie, Lael and her partner are now just riding the TDR, so long as they don't provide assistance to those in the race then it's fine (By my interpretation of "the rules"). Other riders who've scratched or been relegated to touring don't fall foul of this. Is it just that it's Lael's partner that's the problem?
Edit: If it was me scratching but continuing to ride I'd try and avoid too much interaction with those still racing. Obviously if someone's got you in their sights and using you to drag themselves along there's not much you can do about it other than make extended stops.
My new favourite name.... Bear Stillwagon
Awesome!
Some great shots in a couple of bikepacking.com articles including how to do so without effectively being a sag wagon:
https://bikepacking.com/plog/2019-tour-divide-recap-1/
https://bikepacking.com/plog/2019-tour-divide-recap-2/
Also the second Brit, Les Brown, has finished in just over 19days 👍
so salsa have dropped Jay Petervary for getting to involved in the whole Lael/team/visitation issue
one side here
so salsa have dropped Jay Petervary for getting to involved in the whole Lael/team/visitation issue
Good
Are you going to post "good" every time it's mentioned ?
I'm sure he's quaking in his boots with your seething hatred with which the word good was repeatedly typed.
ITI LEGEND Mike Curiak has a long standing dislike of Jay Petervary due to JPs many alleged rule bending/braking instances over several years.If even some of them are true it's a wonder that Salsa have hung onto him for as long as they have.
It's not like a bike firm to keep supporting an unpleasant rider when they're winning. 😉
Allegations of cheating to one side. Here's JP setting a TD ITT record, and err, being followed by a film crew....