And they appear to be off!

Blue Spot Tracker

What an amazing challenge!

Will be interesting to see what averages are maintained.

Hoping Juliana Buhring and Mike Hall have good rides

Looking forward to the transcontinental next year!

Is this the mtb version of RAAM? epic!

I will be glued. I rode the route in 2011 and loved every mile of it. Hope the guys have tailwinds in Montana, Wyoming, Colorado and Kansas. There are some long, remote and exposed roads with nowhere to hide from the heat and wind.

ah I see, its RAAM, but unsupported and a different route, epic!

Mike Hall seems a very long way back, has he had some issues?

Are some of them riding blindfolded?
Three wrong turns so far, only a couple hours in.

MH now into 4th over the last hour or so, tracker possibly not updating regularly until now.
JB off route?

A short, smooth ride for Billy Rice this summer.. he did the TDR double last year.

check out the Elevation Plot on there. stunning!

Brit in the lead, young ‘un too!

Once they are over the Coastal Range things will get a bit easier through the Willamette Valley and along the MacKenzie River, then there’s a twenty mile climb over the MacKenzie Pass to Sisters.

http://www.bikepacking.net/forum/index.php?topic=10563.0

Call ins etc over here. Mentions of duff GPX file and a few wrong turns.

Mike Hall looks to be closing the gap to the leading 3 pretty fast now. Maybe the wise 1st day move of a marked man.

Ahhhh, I miss Oregon

Mike Hall’s spot tracker looks to be playing up.

The Brits are (should be when Mike’s tracker kicks in) in 1st and 4th place on day one

It is – after a couple of hours you can see it’s only updating now and then. Was 4th not that long ago when there were recent updates on all the top 4.

Mike is flying. There are four decent sized passes between Prineville and Baker City. The climb out of Hells Canyon after crossing the Snake River into Idaho is a beast. It’s like a furnace down there.

Here are some pics of our Oregon leg of the TransAmerica Trail. We rode east to west. It gives some indication of what they are riding through.

https://picasaweb.google.com/113038090087066024057/TransAmerica2011Oregon?noredirect=1#

daft mileage for such so early on – reconsidering my strategy for next years crossing of Europe!

Having an easy day today after doing the Snow Roads Audax yesterday (300K)
That’s the most I have done in a day.
I quite literally ‘feel their pain’ and can’t imagine ever doing those daily mileages.

Jason Lane – 450 odd miles in 36 hours.

slow coach!

Their pace is amazing given the terrain. I noticed there was a big forest fire north of Bend. I hope it doesn’t cause problems for the riders further back.

That’s Mike just about into Idaho. There’s a big climb out of Hells Canyon, then a few rollers followed by about seventy miles of descending so his average speed should pick up. After White Bird there’s another steep climb then a longer long descent to the bottom of the Lolo Pass. That leaves a 100 mile climb up to the Montana State line.

https://picasaweb.google.com/113038090087066024057/TransAmerica2011MontanaIdaho?noredirect=1

70 miles of descending??!! I’d like a piece of that!

Mike Hall is almost at 700 miles in two days. Holy Moses.

this is fascinating to pop in and out of every day or so.
avg speeds and distances traveled are incredible.
Would also like a 70 mile descent! probably not followed by a 100 mile climb tho 😕

Looks like Mike had a bit of a sleep and is moving again – flying along 🙂

Would also like a 70 mile descent! probably not followed by a 100 mile climb tho

The roads follow rivers, sometimes they are steep, sometimes ‘river grade’. The roads in the west are better engineered than those in the east. By the time they were building big roads out west they had to accommodate truck traffic in winter so they as generally easier gradients. The 100 mile climb over the Lolo Pass into Montana only really gets steep in the last ten miles from the summit. There are long climbs up into the Montana passes soon afterwards. They are more exposed with no tree cover so the wind can be a killer.

Another few days will see them into Continental Divide crossings.

McM, what are the road surfaces like on that route generally, pretty good or closer to UK roads?

Cheers McM good to get a bit of background as it helps the imagination when looking at the maps.
Mike Halls blog and website is good, as are a few of the other competitors, real insight into proper endurance racing.

McM, what are the road surfaces like on that route generally, pretty good or closer to UK roads?

The roads were generally very good with wide shoulders and limited traffic. The worst surfaced bits were across the Great Basin descending from Rawlins. Some states grind a rumble strip into the shoulder inboard of the white line which makes things tricky. The roads were busiest through Yellowstone with tourist traffic. We got up and on the road early to avoid them.

Here’s the link to my blog on the trip, you’ll get a flavour of a tourist’s progress.

http://www.crazyguyonabike.com/doc/mcandaimeegoc2c

Thanks. Trying to imagine being comfortable of a road bike for all those hours, but failing. Like RAAM riders with bits of metal rod and gaffer tape holding their head up as the neck muscles had gone from all the hours on the aero bars.

http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=FcILY6fdAbkC&printsec=frontcover&dq=hell+on+two+wheels&hl=en&sa=X&ei=t9-VU67IF6mN7AaJzYHgBg&ved=0CDsQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=hell%20on%20two%20wheels&f=false

P32-34, a quick read about the legendary Jure Robic and the sleep monsters.

Jameso that is so hardcore.

Mike is over the Lolo Pass and into Montana. There’s another long climb up to the Chief Joseph Pass into the Big Hole Valley GDMBR riders may know then another couple of passes and long valley floor rides before Yellowstone. The wind is fickle there.

nice one McM!

Over 1,000 miles in just over 3 days – Mike is absolutely flying! Pity his tracker is being a bit temperamental as it would be good to get a proper idea of how long he has been stopping.

I wonder if he’s taken one of the new Gen3 SPOTs? I’ve not heard much from their use in the field, but the Gen2 was a bit disappointing from battery life.

Mike is in Ennis about seventy miles from West Yellowstone and a handful more to the Wyoming state line. We rode that stretch the other way with a howling tailwind. I hope the wind gods are with him.

Once into Yellowstone there are a couple of continental divide crossings after Old Faithful. There’s a big climb up the Togowotee Pass after Moran Junction. After Dubois is the Wind River valley. We had one of our worst days climbing up to there against a monster wind.

Jameso didn’t you do the one from canada into america last year?

*looks at Spot trackers*

hustler, yes, met 6th place TransAm-er Billy Rice on his way north near the base of Cabin Pass, he did the TD route both ways in one go! Really cheery guy, hope he has a great ride in the TA this year.
What really amazes me about Billy, Mike Hall and many others is that they have the drive to do this sort of thing yearly for a while. For me it itched a massive itch, it went well and I have no urge to repeat the ride*, for some one ride is also prep for another.
Edit, to race that is – but when I retire I’m going back with ~30-40 days to spare : )

Mike is out past Rawlins on the Interstate shoulder. That’ll be the Great Basin section done 8O.

The terrain becomes less desolate as you approach the Colorado state line.

Togwatee Pass did not seem to difficult to me and I am a rubbish climber.

They were resurfacing the road into Rawlins last summer which was not very pleasant as we had little room. Should be nice for them this year.

Enjoying McM’s updates – nice to have some local knowledge.

Mike is in Kremmling. He’s made a lot of miles this morning. He will have crossed another Continental Divide after Walden so he will have had a long descent to Hot Sulphur Springs.

The route heads from relative wilderness towards the Ski resorts and outlet mall hell of Silverthorne and Breckenridge which are also on the GDMBR. The high point of the whole crossing is the Hoosier Pass (11500ft) ten or fifteen miles past Breckenridge. I remember my teeth tingling at that altitude whilst climbing.

Then there are some long descents and rolling climbs back up tp Guffey which he will probably scoot past as he descends for forty miles or so to Canon City. The last of the climbs he will see for a while are near Florence, a prison city, home of the Unabomber before Pueblo, which is the last major city for many miles.

The half way point of the route is a cattle town called Ordway, there on there’s pretty much a 300 mile straight roads across eastern Colorado into Kansas. Miles and miles of nothingness. Towns are 30 to 40 miles apart. If he gets a tailwind 250+ plus mile days must be possible.

Here’s a link to my blog, you’ll get some idea of the landscape from the pics.
http://www.crazyguyonabike.com/doc/mcandaimeegoc2c