Yeah, I saw that 20D flag with him close this morning. I recently made my way through your excellent TD blog, Dave, and will be using some of your tips for an upcoming GDMBR tour. Racers are now approaching what I believe you deemed an "oasis" -- Red Rock RV Park, 5 mi west of Hwy 20 near Henry's Lake: http://www.redrockrvpark.com/ (Mike Hall has already zipped by it!). Look under the Reservations tab for their "Special Biker's Rate". The folks there obviously have a sense of cyclist humor as well: "Use of coin-operated Washer/Dryers (please, no waiting in the nude)." I didn't realize they were so keen on the TD/GDMBR: http://photos.rvinteractive.com/Public-Galleries/Sports/Bicycling . Blue dot watchers might look for photos popping up there as well.

Hey thanks AB. There are some golden oldies in the Red Rock TD photo gallery! Names that are TD folklore.

Looks like the 25 Day flag has got a spurt on and is only about 5 hours ride behind the 20 Day flag! Steve must have slowed a lot toward the end of last years race. Meanwhile Mike McElveen is still showing as in Helena. I hope he is ok as he was smashing it.

Thanks to Russ Kipp for the photos from MHCL. Great to see how everyone looks after 800 some miles!

Good to see ol' Mike McElveen (60+) doing so well. But he's been on the route before and definitely knows what GDMBR rain and mud looks like:
https://www.crazyguyonabike.com/doc/?doc_id=12850 . His 2013 ride wrap-up with philosophical overview is here and worth a read for both racers and tourers: https://www.crazyguyonabike.com/doc/page/?o=tS&page_id=347845&v=31 .

Go Mike, go!

Hey ABfolder. I was watching Mike as we have been chatting via email for a while now and he was just ahead of the 20D flag out of Helena about 20 minutes ago but it looks like he has turned back and is now in Helena again? I hope he is ok.

BTW - Tough luck for Sheli Thomas.  NOBO ITT - Side trip on 1st day; now it appears two side trips on day 2.  And it appears she was up all night working her way back to the track.  Hope she has the food needed to continue north.  She might need to back track to Silver City to regroup.

Yeah, the CDT single track is really hard to see if you are coming from the south and don't have a gps. It looks like she is floundering around the trail head there. I wonder if she is going "old skool" with maps or is having gps troubles? Not nice. I hope she finds her way soon as the rest of the route is easy from there.

Also, looking at "Terry S", he has missed the CDT alternate near Union Pass and is sticking to the original GD route like he did on day one around Spray lake and Josephine Falls. Either he has an old .gpx or is being true to the original route ala The Long Ranger?

Anyone else just see a bunch of dots turn white?

Yeah, I'd say Scott has some internet access and is doing some house keeping. He has changed them to touring status as they are well behind the 30 Day flag.

Huge number of riders still ahead of the 20 day marker, but it looks like the next couple of days will be windy for the leaders.
Fires are looking good for the moment in NM     http://gacc.nifc.gov/swcc/predictive/intelligence/admin/google_maps/ics_209_incidents/ics_209_incidents.htm

Yes, the 20 day marker will have 2 sub-optimal days, namely yeserday and today as it had a squeaky achilles and stopped early both days to rest and stretch it. After a late-ish start from Helena tomorrow it started to crank out some 150-180 mile days so expect it to charge off again.

So, where willthe 'Golden Spike' occur this year? Normally seems to happen at Brush Mtn Lodge but at the speed MH is riding it looks like it will be much more central CO this year.

Indeed.  Wicked fast ride so far, for a one-speeder.  Dude is seriously representing those of us in the married-father-of-two-bikepack-racer crowd.  Go Chris!

Amen to that brother! I hope he can keep it up and adjust the current (already impressive) record downward some.

And hats off to the Minister for War and Finance for giving him the time to have a go. Us married-father-of-two-bikepack-racer types would be going nowhere without that Minsterial approval!

Ever more reason to go stealth. Surprised more riders don't shut their SPOT's off with all this 'spot-stalking'.

I didn't mind it last year as it is a long, lonely race. The only people likely to stalk most of us is another bikepacker or family of one, so the interaction with a friendly face along route was one that I quite enjoyed.
Guy on the other hand is probably pretty protective of his privacy these days. I for one would like to see a photo of him out there as "Terry" seems to be setting a good pace so far, though he did have some navigational issues early on. 

Has anyone seen Guy Martin on the course?  What pseudonym is he likely riding under?  My guess Greg May....

http://trackleaders.com/tourdivide16

Is he 34? From the UK? Terry Smith?

Does anyone know what happened to Guy Martin? I read where he was seen in Banff, but his name isn't on the list and I'm wondering if he scratched before the start.

http://www.bikepacking.net/forum/ultra-racing/tour-divide-2016-race-discussion-thread/msg83549/#msg83549

(Scott, is the 20 day marker an algorithym or is it based on a previous racer? If so, whom?)

Ah, I see now.... I wasn't fishing, just that I was using an iPad and didn't click the Flags. At least I feel involved this year.....

Well now that's rich, I don't even see him at ALL! I'll bet his batteries died on his spot tracker. Initials are DP, last seen as 46 miles from the border, on the Canadian side.

Try not to worry too much. Spots have a way of going dark and coming back and even "spotting" unusually far from the track sometimes.

As Joe said, the Spots are far from cutting edge. They drop out or a shielded by trees/buildings/bags etc all the time. Batteries go flat and a rider might not notice for most of the day. Making sure the little green light is still blinking away is about number 83 on their 'priority list". Also, Dave isn't out there on his own. They are surrounded by other riders.
He will be fine and having the time of his life. Easier said than done, but try to enjoy the show. 

Thanks Hurtin'. Looks just like last year! Still lots of big smiles despite the cold though.

Wow! 8 riders are in front of Josh's record time from last year.....but only 12 are in front of the 20 Day marker. (Scott, is the 20 day marker an algorithym or is it based on a previous racer? If so, whom?)

I wonder if those behind the 20d flag will ride into a sub 20d finish? Has there been much rain toward the back of the pack because from the photos the leaders look like they are enjoying pretty decent weather.

Answer is: Yes. 

Insert secret handshake emoticon here..

Happy to see the MH dot this morning.

JK and LW record flags are live.  I just turned them on.  Do a full refresh of your tracker map to get them to show.

I thought it interesting that when I switched them on, LW was ahead of JK. 

New 20, 25 and 30 day flags are up as well -- hopefully they are good examples that track well.  They should follow the Wamsutter route and such.  30 day is the ever popular Rice Burner team.

Looks like we have 10 singlespeeders (now a category).  Seems to be a race between two Dad's -- Plesko and Kevin Jacobsen.

Thanks Scott. That gives a great perspective to how fast they are FLYING so far this year!

On another note, is Guy Martin running tracking? Or running under a pseudonym? It would be great for us dot watchers to see his progress though I do understand he might be worried about stalkers re his semi celeb status. He is in the US and not the UK though. (Has the average American ever heard of him?)
A simple yes or no answer would be enough for me if a cloak of secrecy is required. 

Terry Smith lost about 60-90 minutes coming off Red Meadow above Whitefish by taking the wrong road.  Bummer to have that happen when you are expecting a town so close (and food).  But, he has been rolling along quickly.

Some late advice to all FWIW - run your map screen all the time in the first 4-5 days. There are many other roads and turns that will catch you out. Also, run on a 100-200 metre scale and have a VERY CLOSE look to see that you are on route before you start descending any hills!

Good luck out there and have fun!

MHCL is THE place to stop. Russ will look after you like you are royalty.

Just don't do what I did and get 2 miles down the road and realise that you didn't leave a tip! (Later sorted though the post) Thanks Russ.  

The other question is could she have gotten a ride back to the route where she left it? It was daytime and i'm certain she could have got a ride easy and would have saved a few hours. The rules state this is legit for medical or mechanicals so I would assume its legit for mis-direction so long as you do not go forward and miss any section out.

Another small point which i'm hesitant to raise due to the superhuman effort some of these riders are showing is I am aware of a few points at which riders have not strictly followed the route, i.e continued on a road or taken a wrong road for a few miles and then re-joined the route. They have not necessarily gained any advantage but have also not followed the route exact. Does this warrant a penalty? Its all on Trackleaders so depending how much scrutiny is given to each riders plots for final classification it could be missed.

One problem with dishing out penalties for such small deviations is that some riders have their SPOT emitting at longer intervals meaning theoretically they could have also done the same thing but it not be picked up compared to riders emitting at shorter intervals.

While it might not be in the rules to say that you can't get a lift back to the route, I would suggest it isn't in the spirit of the race. Whats to stop a rider going off route for resupply then hitching back? Thats just not cricket.

As for the slight route anomolies? I found on the Tour Divide last year that in some cases where we were following a road, be it dirt or sealed, the official gps track didn't exactly match the road on the ground. In most cases the road had been rebuilt or an intersection moved a few hundred yards, so the Trans Am riders might be just riding what is actually there not what was there last year or the year before.
Of course, I could be completely wrong. I am just giving the benefit of the doubt.

Either way, these people are CRUSHING it! 

Wise River ain't a bad place to visit.... but prob not what she had in mind.

It ain't great either. I almost got eaten by mosquitos when I was there.

It would be a shame to turn around if it was an approved alternate. She could have followed the TD route down through Polaris, back onto the main route. Tiredness must have been a big factor. I wonder how long the leaders can keep this pace up for?