Matt,

Go like the fuckers and if no one passes you then you'll have done a pretty slick time.

Good Luck!

PS: If I catch you, you'll be in deep shit

Wondering the same.  Seems like he might have determined the 300 to be 'enough.'

I see Calvin is now 'scratched' any update on what went wrong?

Some great US$1200 air fares LA-Sydney-LA on Air New Zealand at the moment if you fancy chancing your legs on the Monaro Cloudride starting g 26 March.

FREE 23kg baggage allowance gets you and your bike to Sydney for a 300k scenic cruise down to Canberra for the start. The US$ currently buying Au$1.41 ... !!! How many meat pies can you eat?!

Happy New Year Cloudriders ...

Registrations by riders for the Cloudride and Cumulus open 1 January 2016. Not everyone is or wants to be a Facebook slave so to provide a principal point of reference for future ride information
we have added a Blog page on the Cloudride website as a means of detailing expanded information for prospective riders. The first post covers the road conditions and some time estimates over the first part of the Cumulus route, hopefully it will be helpful for those planning the ride. For those new to our Facebook page you can trawl back a year or two and find other bits of useful and useless information to paint your picture of what's in store.

For those who haven't been paying attention, the Cumulus [light and fluffy] is a softer route than the full Cloudride route and detours the tougher more technical sections.

The Cumulus riders will travel clockwise and the Cloudriders will travel counter clockwise for the fist time in 2016.

www.cloudride1000.com

Well I think you can acknowledge Jesse Carlsson 1st TA15, 2nd TD13.

Looks like he stayed at Andy Pierce's place. Andy built my bike and does beautiful work in a welding shop that used to be a potato storage barn. http://www.ampeircecycles.com/frames/frames-2/

Holy schmuckoly ... fancy arriving from outaspace with a broken ti fork and landing in this dudes back yard!!

It's 'Run for the Roses'

....been used as an unofficial theme for the Kentucky Derby. The chorus mentions "the chance of a lifetime in a lifetime of chance" at once describing the experience of horse racing and life itself.

Seb's going on a cool train ride. The others are going to be really pissed when they see how much fun he's having.

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Beth-and-Seb-Tour-Divide-2015/1437564496563146

On a slightly lighter note than Seb's likely race ending mechanical.

Saul Britton has posted on Facebook an encounter with a slightly 'off piste TD rider' ... as distinct from just being pissed?

 "I met an interesting Tour Divide character today.
This rider is running a superlight set up with no tent, no sleeping bag, no extra clothes and only 2 litre water capacity. He spends his nights sleeping on the ground. He told me that he was really enjoying the first week of the Tour Divide - but then he ran out of weed, and once straight he realized the Tour Divide wasn't very much fun for him at all. Without a GPS or printed maps he is also trying to retrace the route from memory of looking at online maps over two weeks ago ... stoned.

Best of luck mate!"

Slow Ride, is this within the rules?

Not quite as threatening as Jeff Kerby .... back in 2009

http://tourdivide.org/blog2009/jeff_calls_butte_more_tales_darkside

Tragic bad luck for Seb. He and Beth have put a major prep and training into doing this lifetime event and a gear failure is just gutting when you're riding at this level and 10,000 whatevers from home. Let's hope Beth can hang in there and come home strong.

What is more impressive??

Will Bodewes at age 17 in 15th place overall??

OR

Robert Orr at age 60 in 16th place overall??

Agree, young Will Bodewes is riding at a maturity level well beyond his 17 years as is younger brother Luke at 16 years. They rode together for the first 4-5 days before Will said seeyalater and has gapped the young fella by 175 miles. Seems like these young men and another younger sibling Noah 14 toured the route with their Dad last year..... great parenting!

http://www.yourdailyglobe.com/story/2014/10/03/news/bicycling-bodewes-family-completes-another-adventure/3706.html

Mike Hall reached Como on Saturday Evening, I thought we have had another Saturday arrival?

JayP came through Sunday Lunchtime.

The latest a leader has come through was Monday lunchtime.

Interesting observations Dave @ Como Luxury Resort [cough]

Running a quick 2013 replay and merging with 2015 times and JP's 2012 Flag [which just arrived Como at 3.00am] looks a bit like this....

2013
Mike Hall - Saturday 10.30pm
2015
JayP  - Sunday Noon
Neil B - 2.45pm
Josh K - 3.45pm
Seb D - 5.00pm
Dylan T & Alex H 8.00pm
2nd 2013 Jessie Carlsson 'sparkled' through @ 8.00pm
JayP 2012 Record - Monday 3.00am

So in summary, plenty of depth and great racing from the current top six ..... but well short of Mike Hall's phenomenal pace set in 2013. Let's not forget he rode as far as Helena with some serious respiratory issues. 



 
 

For those out there relying on maps ...

From NoBo ITT Saul Britton's Facebook post.

"If anyone is following my Tour Divide tracker and wondering why I'm off course ... I am not lost!
My GPS has failed so I am now using printed maps to get to Canada - and these printed maps often take a different route along the divide than the official race route.
Disappointing to say the least - but I will still wander and roam to Canada- albeit quite a bit slower than originally intended ... Printed maps are slow!"

Saul Britton "Thanks for the support everyone. - this was never intended to be anything other than a great big adventure - the race part was never important to me.
Riding 225km yesterday and then once I sourced internet in Rawlins discovered I was in the complete wrong location was devastating. That was a very long and hard day riding through uninspiring countryside, all for nothing."

Some savage near century temps again today. Jesse seems to have taken the early 'rest break' late afternoon in John Day and now in the early AM hours is up and away. The cream [very fluid] seems to have risen to the top with six riders and just 50 miles covering them all looking serious contenders.

[Saul Britton]

Saw northbound ITTer Saul Britton wheeling through the Gila this afternoon.  Couldn't
get a picture quick enough, but these are his lone tracks about to drop into Rocky Canyon. 
He looked good!

You're not the first to just see Saul's 'lone tracks'. In the early days of 12 & 24hr racing in Australia, way back in the mid noughties he was the gun enduro multi lap rider winning multiple national level events.... plenty others only ever saw his tracks.  Looks like he's only riding short days but covering some good ground when on the bike. Should arrive in Grants in the hour.

Calvin came, ate and left........

Holy cow! Patrick is kickin some ass! So stoked. Wish I was there!

Yeah, not sure what Mrs Cloudrider put in their breakfast on Saturday morning .... never works that well for me.

This is no ride for a fixie and I don't know how Patrick is pushing one gear. The country he is in at the moment is brutal!

USA rider Calvin Decker the leading rider in the Monaro Cloudride  has crossed over the Snowy River the half way point in the 1000 kilometre ultra enduro bikepacking event and crested the Barry Way climb on his way into Jindabyne with an expected arrival time around 6:00pm this evening. Decker crossed over the Victorian Alpine Park in 8h:10m hitting the foot of the climb up Mt Tingaringi at 4:45am this morning and arriving at the Snowy River at 12:55pm. This section in the event course notes warned of 'unridable steep rubble strewn descents and assents' however Decker appears to have taken little regard of these notes completing a remarkable crossing several hours ahead of the fastest estimates.
Compatriot Patrick Leiderbach is part way over the Victorian section in second place and Canberra rider Nijat Inmin in third place recently arriving in Delegate to resupply.
Riders must complete the 1000 Klm course without any outside assistance other than the normal commercial services available to all riders in the towns along the way.
Eighteen riders started in Canberra at 8:00am on Saturday morning and the field has halved in the first 48 hours as the tough off road fire trails and relentless climbing has taken it's toll on bodies and bikes.

Riders can be tracked live by SPOT gps trackers at;

http://monaro-cloudride-2015.followmyspot.com

36 hours in and 250 miles Calvin Decker has just refuelled at the Delegate Hotel [8:00pm] and is pushing on for the crossing into Victoria and the Victorian Alpine Park, 40 miles that will take him close to 10 hours. Patrick Liederbach, three hours behind Calvin, appears to have stopped for the night and will cross the Delegate River in daylight tomorrow morning. Hugh Harvey [ex TD13] is in third place at 180 miles however has a failed gps, subsequently lost off the bike and will have to ride back to try and retrieve it in the morning daylight ..... fortunatley only 6-8 miles.

Behind these riders the field has been decimated with five riders now abandoning before the second night. The trailing group of three riders are back at 110 miles in Numeralla [no services] still with a 5-7 hour ride to their first re-supply town at Nimmitabel since the 8:00am start two days ago.

http://monaro-cloudride-2015.followmyspot.com

http://monaro-cloudride-2015.followmyspot.com