Huh, this seems to indicate it's open to bikes and horses as well:

https://www.albertaparks.ca/parks/kananaskis/kananaskis-country/advisories-public-safety/trail-reports/spray-valley/spray-road-west/

I am not so sure.  I do see the purple line in the map you linked.

Either way she is past it now.  <shrug>

Spray Lakes road is closed to bikes - that wasn't a good choice

Oh, I didn't realize that.  To be honest I have not tracked the reasons for all the changes to the route on the Canadian side.  That does sound familiar though. 

Wait, the route was moved to the west side of the Spray River / Lake in 2016, which is the route MH rode:

"TD 2016 v2 update (5/20/16) - Added High Rockies Trail-North, west side of the Spray River"

Is that what you are referring to?

As to Leal Wilcox's ITT. Why is she on the old TD route? (Prior Koko)

She wanted to directly challenge the overall record (Mike Hall 2016) so is essentially doing the route he was on.

There was not much cohesion in the route choices this year, so it seemed like a good idea to me.

I've got a pair of PI shoes with the boa system that I tried for a couple months but decided I really didn't like the way the boa worked.  They are in good shape (see pic).

Happy to ship to anyone here that wants to throw down 10 or 15 bucks for shipping.

Free to the lowest bidder!

Heck ya Parent Trap -- current projection is for a sub 10 day finish, which would be incredible.  They crossed HW 50 and at least on paper, it's easier from there.  That's the way Chris explained it to me, anyway.  Certainly it's overall more rideable on the 2nd half of the route.

Congrats to Neil -- one of the fastest times period and a stellar performance!

Will is in too and Jefe on the homestretch.  Yeeaah!

Will Bodewes is really throwing down a heck of a ride.

For sure, fantastic rookie run and an youngin'.  He signed up the evening before the start. 

Neil is saving time on the Leadville bypass.  He reminded me to add it to the map, which I just did.  

The CT must be hard, hard, hard on a tandem. Has anyone ever completed the CTR on one? The Petervarys?

I don't think it's been done on a tandem.  

Weather is looking pretty darn good considering the still available monsoonal moisture.  Very good news for the bulk of the pack going across 22/23.

Good to see veterans Jefe and Jeff K battling it out for 2nd right now.  Jefe may have as many finishes as Jeff has scratches (!).  I believe Jeff said this is his 7th attempt, the previous 6 being scratches.  Hope he can pull it off this year, and it looks like it'll be a quick one, to boot.

Yeah Jarral, it's a hot race for 2nd in the men.  Could go to any of them.

The weather never came today!  Shows you what a 99% chance of rain can be sometimes.  It did rain hard for 20-30 min, I should say, so it hasn't been without incident.  But the route heading east on the high and exposed country of Segs 22/23 has looked quite clear all afternoon and there have been very few rumbles of thunder.  That's remarkable and quite good for the bulk of the racers having to traverse it today.

A number of folks are still reeling from yesterday's storm though, thus the milling in town and milling over options.  I'm surprised there haven't been a bit more scratches.

I ran into the Pleskos on the tandem while out for a day ride today... they seemed good and determined to finish.  But they were feeling very wet so were getting a room to dry out and regroup for the seg 22/23 push early tomorrow.  Can't wait to see how that goes for them!  They are my heroes right now.

[Ned]

Ha! Great pics.

 "As of 5:45 p.m. Sunday, Jason Kiefer of Leadville and Ned Bachanko of Icculus were competing for the lead, having completed about 78 miles of the course."

Yep, good old Ned from Icculus.

Rain has started in Silverton (1pm).  Nothing serious yet but there's a lot of moisture available in the atmosphere.  In the morning the sun was shining bright and warm enough to lift everyone's spirits and fully dry most gear out.

We have an excellent women's race this year.  Any one of them could take it as pacing has been similar among the top 4 or 5.  That's exciting to see.  In the men it's a race for 2nd barring disaster for Nedly.

....

Nice report Evdog!  Thanks for the photos and for warming the route up for everyone.

I think everyone who knows anything about the race knows that there will be friends and a vibe at Brush Mtn.  It's essentially a 'town' with all services there, as well. 

Sometimes the support/friends and vibe there does seem to be at odds with the purely self-support vibe of the event but it's been accepted as a bit of a special case for many years.

Here's the Herald article with a few nice photos, including one of our hero and RD.

https://www.durangoherald.com/articles/526-mile-durango-to-denver-mountain-bike-race-underway/

He hasn't led the race (yet) otherwise the article is good!

There is a rider in front of Neil, whose name is Ned?

No, it's a psuedonym.

The evening was quite miserable ... tough timing with heavy rain picking up before sunset and continuing to 10pm.  No one wanted to leave Silverton but Ned, and it paid off for him with a big lead.

Eszter shot photos of folks up on Indian Trail Ridge.  I'll see if I can get her to post some here.  I think a Herald article is coming as well as bikepacking.com.

The race is back on with a beautiful sunny morning.  Riders will do well to get as far *east* as possible, as far out of the monsoon SW flow as they can.  It's looking like 100% chance rain here in Silverton this afternoon, probably heavy.  It's looking like one of those years where it pays to be fast, or pays to not sleep night 1.  We shall see!

After a quiet and dry afternoon the monsoons finally kicked in around 6pm and I think just about everyone is now getting soaked.  Welcome to CTR!

Ned is setting a nice pace but he was not leading for some time.  Scott Simmons (not tracking, despite my best efforts) was setting the pace and was a few minutes ahead of Ned/Neil as of Indian Trail Ridge. 

I happened to run into Ned while scouting for campsites here in Silverton and he said the trail was a "soupy, loamy mess."  And that was before it started raining.  He's in the lead now though.  He let Scott go not wanting to "burn matches early."

Really looking forward to watching this one play out.  Lot's of veterans in the mix and quite a few interesting rookies as well. And... a tandem!

Hope everyone is staying warm out there!

Its on!

http://trackleaders.com/ctr21

Durango to Denver this year.

Finally I'll get to cross the one off my lists of things I have to do a least once and get addicted to.

Yeah!  It's going to be a really fun year to watch.

Can't wait to get the party started.

Wx is looking classically monsoony -- and I can attest that here in Silverton it's rained nearly every day for some time. 

Looks like a fire reroute.

https://kdvr.com/news/local/live-updates-muddy-slide-fire-near-kremmling-burning-over-1000-acres/amp/

Yep, fire reroute.  You can click on the lines on the tracker and they usually have a name: Muddy Fire Detour in this case.

Glad to see the leaders on the dirt south of Cuba!

He has no choice.  He signed up for the Classic route and rode that route so far, so can't change now.

and based on spot time stamp, Brendan may be ahead and first to decide, but he too signed up for the Classic route

I think Jay will take the dirt, and likely Brendan, too.  But it's not technically required per the rules on the 'tourdivideupdates' site, just strongly encouraged.

It will be interesting to see how the strategies play out. Will JP's late nights bag him the win?!
Too bad we haven't had many photos of the racers on the forum this year.

Big question here: will JP take the dirt after Cuba as he's been admonishing everyone to?  That could be a game changer if one of them goes one way and one the other!

#TDGDC21 - Days 8 and 9 of the Tour Divide Border-to-Border and the Great Divide Classic! We true-up your calls for the last 2 days as Brendan and Jay Petervary duke it out for the men?s lead and Lauren Brownlee is maintaining a small gap on Sarah Swallow! Also Rick Ashton takes a spill and is recovering but still in it!

http://mtbcast.com/site2/category/podcasts/

Thanks Joe!  You rock.  Love having the call ins.

Anyone know the story behind Peter Puenner (NB)?  He was shown as Scratched a couple days ago but looks like he back on the route. 

Yep he unscratched after some rest.  He said he stayed self-supported the whole time after riding back to Cuba.  So he's still in for an official finish.  Gotta love the unscratch!  It's rarely seen.