HUGE props to Alice for her 22day finish as a rookie on a singlespeed!  Wow!  And top of the podium finish on the women's side, as well. Wow, just wow.  Way to go, girl!

Yes, very impressive ride for Alice. Women's Singlespeed record too, in year when at least the northern half wasn't very conducive to standing in the pedals.

I have a theory about why folks are turning around above Silver City.  The CDT was closed due to the Signal Peak fire.  There is a "Road Closed" sign up there, about where Paul Barsom and some others have turned around.  I took a photo of the sign after I traversed it going south to north back on 14 June.   Just thinking that some people are paying attention to it and then taking NM 35 and then NM 15, and others are just ignoring it and forging on.

Your theory is correct. I was unaware the north end of the Sapillo CDT section was signed as 'closed' until Lorenzo Serra passed through and sent me pics. At this time I immediately emailed and / or texted everyone approaching, but was unable to get to some riders (apparently). It's unfortunate. We have implicit permission to pass through this segment from the Gila Ranger district (they are following the live tracker closely), and our understanding is this segment of the CDT is NOT officially closed. It's the next section of CDT south of the Sapillo + FR149 (meadow creek rd) that are closed. Deviation from the Sapillo is not a relegateable offense, and it's undecided if any adjustment will be made to the times of those riders who deviate. This is just another example of the challenge / stress involved with managing remotely a bunch of emotionally charged riders on a 3000-mi course  

There's a new 'coyote' on the scene down in AW. He will be running shuttles to, and away from AW, based out of Hachita. His name is Jeffery Sharp. He says he will go as far as Tucson if asked. Pricing similar to what Sam Hughes charged (1$ per mile). He has a FB presence here: https://www.facebook.com/pages/SouthWest-Trailhead-Hand/777241485621284?fref=ts that lists his contact info. Thank-you Jeffery!

Calvin is about to get it done! Way to go Calvin!

Yes, nice work for the 2014 white jersey winner (top Rookie). Another GC contender is born. Looks like behind him, the Tandem has hit the North Star Rd at the worst possible time, amidst a good T-storm. I can't imagine pushing a tandem thru NM mud out of Black or Rocky Canyon 

"From the beginning, (including Stamstad), only a handful of riders have traversed the main route between Cuba and Grants. The Chaco Alt is pretty de facto."

Now I'm confused. The race tracker shows two different routes between Abiquiu and Cuba, and then another alternate route further south that goes through the Gila and ends around Silver City. Is there also an alternate between Cuba and Grants?

The orange lines are just fire detour lines we've gotten lazy about removing from the map because 1 in four years, one or both get used. They are not 'legal' alternates. The red line between Cuba and Grants *is* the ACA Chaco alternate. So few riders have taken the main route to Grants (south of the red line) that we have never bothered to show it, lest it confuse. In that main route, there's arroyo crossings, private land grants with temp closure histories, and another fire closure zone (Mt. Taylor) that make it problematic to make it mandatory. One can get trapped between arroyos in there during monsoon season. We've always gone with Stamstad's original decision to bypass it. He did that with specific forethought to records keeping.

I thought I understood the route/rules, but this Basin-to-Butte pre-race information sheet confused me a bit: does this mean riders could do either route, or is "I-15 Alternate" only to be used in case of a closure of the Main Route (due to fires, for example)?  I.e., could Jefe have ridden I-15 instead?

Only 3 ACA-official alternates are allowed for TD racers. One of those Alts is actually mandatory (down in the Gila, called, 'the Sapillo'). Other than that, one must keep to the main route. The new route to Butte is ACA's new 'main route'. I-15 becomes an alternate, but not a TD-legal one. Generally TD tries to steer clear of either / ors to keep time comparisons cleaner. Even the two really big legal ACA alternates in NM are almost never viewed as either / ors. From the beginning, (including Stamstad), only a handful of riders have traversed the main route between Cuba and Grants. The Chaco Alt is pretty de facto.

Nice, Leese! Thx for the fine reporting. I am now wondering what has / will become of the original concrete block podium in AW? I sure hope they don't demo it. I think a call to our favorite border guard, Tim is in order.

Anyone know anything about Lorenzo? No Spot movement in like 14 hours!

He texted me last night around 11pm MDT to relay info about the fire. I think he would have indicated if he was scratching. His batts may be failed, or he forgot to engage tracking.

Nice riding Brian! Bonus miles for each child you rear and business owned. An important thing is how you apply your experience back home.

With photos of the mechanical issue at hand... And what's for dinner! (Mathew Lee special, apparently) hopefully the images will attach while using an iPad...

Salted nut roll in the kingsize might be the quintessential Divide staple. weighs nothing, doesn't really melt, 6 or 7 hundred calories per bar, quite edible, pretty ubiquitous.

Does anyone know how much longer the new route into Butte took on average? On trackleaders it shows almost 80mi longer-wow. We may need an asterisk on the fastest times. That is kind of a big deal. Either way congrats to all the finishers and those that gave it a go.  

Jarral--here's the beta riders were provided pre-race. It's what ACA went to press with after the TD start / will be on the next Map 1b: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1iyXrTvW-9Ev5PBdRTN2N41C_QHs1clo-ZkFdDBZfja0/pubhtml#

Not sure how that number is calculated. May include their actual mileage with stops, detours, etc and not a mile marker type of number?

The long answer: All Trackleaders live systems are coded with a 'route factor'. This is a number slightly greater than 1 that is manipulated to arrive at a more accurate distance figure of a course than what is reflected in the red line on the map. It's supposed to account for all the little bends on a trail. In the case of TD, there is indeed a highly accurate GPX track coded in 'underneath' the red line seen on the map. I can't recall what that accurate distance is... i want to say 2710 or something like that. Anyway, the TD route as it is raced is not quite 2745 b/c of the legal Alts in NM being slight less than the main route. I just looked at the route factor setting, and it was set at our standard 1.073, which is high for the level of accuracy of the GPX 'underneath'. It was giving us inflated mileage. I ramped the factor down to 1.023, and we'll see how that looks when jefe reaches the finish. If it's still too high I'll lower it again.

Its just not posted anywhere.  JayP and T-Race did it in 18d and 5h with change (don't quote me) a cpl years ago.  2011 or 2010?  Kurt and Caroline had some issues during their run and weren't able to top that time, I think in 2012. Not sure of any other challengers?

The tandem record is listed under 09 results: http://tourdivide.org/2009_TD_results
KS can take time out of Eszter's 19:05 pink flag with the nearly 275 in road miles remaining, but don't know if they can manage a full 18hrs required to eclipse the Tandem record. Still an amazing ride by them, though. I hope the Tandem division sees more challengers in the near future.

Already working on the Tour de Taco Truck?

Oh, but if only my family would agree to live atop Sheep Creek / Med Lodge Divide for the entire ITT season. We'd do grass-fed lamb gyros and artisinal sheep cheese out of a horse-drawn Basque shepherd wagon. I'd call it GoodForEwe

Divide racer arrives in a town and is looking for food. Options are "usual franchise" or tasty goodness food truck that is on a cross country tour and happens to be serving in that town on that day. If the divide racer elects to eat the fare at the food truck, is this the apogee of moral turpitude and grounds for relegation since it is not available for all divide racers?

The existing rules have yet to be amended to reflect the taco truck boom. If food trucks in the Rockies are anything like they are here in NC, they are as legitimate (and likely to stay in biz) as a fixed joint. To be fair to all grand departees / ITTers, though, perhaps the TD live map (integrated with bluedot.mobi, of course) needs a new layer beyond its weather, dopplar radar, checkpoint layers: A food truck tracking layer. Why not? They already exist very successfully in all the big cities: http://findlafoodtrucks.com/ , http://www.findnycfoodtrucks.com/ Imagine rolling up on The Schmuck Truck, ShortRibTaco, PulpFusion, Meat the Greek, MeSoHungry, Let'sRollit, LetsBFrank, or the P-nut Butter Bar. The LA list of trucks is mouthwatering!

Does anyone know Bill's status???  Does he need a ride somewhere or a place rest today?  My ride home is on the way as we speak.  I'll be headed north through Teton and then Yellowstone Parks within a few hours.  Will have one spare slot on the bike rack.  Will be lodging in the Old Faithful area tonight.  Please PM me if you know he needs something.

Josh, I have asked him to phone me when he gets into range. I have your mobile #, too, so I will let him know of your gesture and see what he wants to do. If you do not hear anything by voice or text, assume he's carrying on by bike. Thanks for willingness to help.

Edit: I misspoke below, and thx for questioning, FoldsInHalf. It's crazy, but if you sign up for SPOT's roadside assistance (glorified AAA), it indeed disables the Help signal from use for texting & emailing family. My assumption is that it may also disable it from the XML feed we pull. That's pretty lame. I will complain about that, but I guess they're doing the same thing Trackleaders does when we censor out Helps from public view. In their mind it means one thing, "flat tire". It will be interesting to hear what Bill thinks after the fact regarding forfeiting his only stepped-down version of SOS for use in road side assistance only. In this case, in combination with texting, I guess it got the job done.

SPOT Assist is initiated by using the Help signal, which does indeed come across in the shared page / in the feed. We would have rec'd it for sure. I can confirm there was no such signal. I believe his wife called them. Trackleaders doesn't publish Helps on live event maps so as not to cause panic, but we definitely get them. I am rethinking the non-publishing setting for bikepacking ultras, though. This forum crowd had been watching that sidetrip develop for a while. If a true help signal had come across, been posted to the map, the question of whether / how to act might have been answered faster.

OK, I've posted way too many times in the last 48hrs, but here's my final mention for the night...

Red flag warning (meaning fire danger / wind) tomorrow for NM. There's an upper level trough moving across, and they're concerned about lightning. BUT...if the route can escape the weekend, outlook for next week hints to rising dew points and you know what...

NWS Pie Town forecast discussion re. the impending trough:
"THIS MOISTURE WILL INTERACT WITH THE HIGH TERRAIN BEGINNING TUESDAY AND GREASE THE ENGINE FOR DEVELOPMENT OF AT LEAST THE FIRST IMPULSES OF THE NORTH AMERICAN MONSOON."

D'oh!
I've always warned, if you don't giturdun by independence day, you're asking for NM mud. I hope it's slow developing, not so robust, yet generous with cloud cover.

It might be that his movement off trail was about getting up higher to get a text out. The funny thing is, he is subscribed to SPOT roadside assistance, which is for auto-towing only, and that's who contacted YNP. Apparently he got a text out to his wife, and she alerted roadside assistance. When I phoned GEOS, the life or death SPOT SOS svc., they knew nothing about the situation, so I can confirm he did not use SOS.

I really wonder if he is with his bike / kit or not, since all that trail would be nothing more than HAB. If not with kit, that will indeed be a cold night!

He is in the Bechler Region of Yellowstone. (a no no with a bike) Looks like he was following the Pitchstone Plateau trail for a while and then he went bushwacking. I've hiked all over that region and it can be tough going. A lot of down fall trees and brush. It has been raining and cool here all day and I would think it's pretty chilly up there. The Bechler and that trail don't see a lot of people. Definitely bears in there.  I camped close to Grassy Lake in 2010 TD and was a bit uneasy because of it. My guess is he went on a walk about for a while and either lost his direction or knows where he is and just decided to stay for the night. Just hope he is using good bear country technique by hanging his food, ect.  

I am just getting tuned back in here. Bill's back to back (2min apart) check/ok and custom messages (which he never edited from the default settings), sent from well off that Pitchstone Plateau pack trail, looked like a real red flag to me. We see this sometimes when a user doesn't know how to operate their SPOT to send for help. Yikes! It honestly looked like he might have been pursued off trail by a griz in there. I have seen griz on this road probably 3 of my 7 runs. I do NOT like to camp in there. Y-stone bears = bad bears, for the most part (or that's the safe assumption).

Anyway, I immediately called Y-stone 911. As it turns out, The Park is aware of Bill's problem. He has been able to text out (amazed he has spotty cell svc for that). He is stable for the night, but has requested assistance getting out, says he is 'lost'. It sounds like he got in over his head with deep snow and downed trees. Not sure why he didn't just turn around, but maybe he was indeed pursuing that sunset. He'll spend an interesting night in the snow, and have lots to ponder tomorrow after the 'hiking team' of rangers comes in looking for him.

So that's two botched SPOT distress signals in TD so far, both for different reasons, both from personal (not rental) trackers. "What the heck" -Napolean Dynamite