I, for one, ride flat pedals with hiking shoes. This year I went with a mid height hiking shoe that surprisingly came in at less weight than my shoe from last year.

I suspect you are correct about injuries. i.e. ankles, banged knees, etc... not to mention an occasional sidewall issue.

Same for me....platform pedals and hiking shoes.  The little knobs on the pedals provide excellent grip and the hiking shoes (in may case, Keens) are extremely comfortable and easy to move around a bit on the pedals without stopping to make adjustment that require tools.

Interesting!  Anyone want to start a pool on number of ankle injuries by riders hiking through that stuff in cycling shoes?  It would almost be worth taking an old pair of hiking boots just for that section and discarding them afterwards.

...or sending them back home via the Fernie Post Office...it's just one block off the proposed re-route.

I'm just curious...is it a permanent removal of the bridge or just a repair / replacement issue?

http://www.lakecity.com/plan-your-colorado-trip/trail-road-conditions

Barring snow it looks as though Engineer Pass might be open next week...?

http://www.sanmiguelcounty.org/406/Road-Conditions

Imogene Pass still closed...?

Fortunately, it's a couple of weeks before the riders arrive, so maybe there's time for improvement.

The part through the San Juans in Colorado will be less CT and more Alpine Loop. Perhaps a little faster, but more traffic fer sure. Going over Imogene Pass should be fun.

I just watched a video of a guy taking a 4x4 over Imogene out of Telluride.  Holy buckets, is that some stout climbing!!

So I (finally!!) finished the state-by-state breakdowns and, again, you have to put a bit of faith in MapMyRide, so...:

North Carolina - 699 miles & 53,650' of climb
Tennessee - 500 miles & 38,400'
Mississippi - 299 miles & 10,400'
Arkansas - 443 miles & 27,200'
Oklahoma - 700 miles & 18,200'
Kansas - 7 miles & 115'
Texas - 17 miles & 350'
New Mexico - 73 miles & 3700'
Colorado - 606 miles & 59,200'
Utah - 515 miles & 38,100'
Nevada - 498 miles & 29,700'
California - 48 miles & 4,100'
Oregon - 650 miles & 56,200'

My theoretical day-by-day breakdowns total 39 days on-route.  It's going to be brutal at a race pace.  The final 260 miles in Oregon have 30,000' of climbing.

All the best to those challenging this!!

In case you hadn't noticed, a modified route has been published...

https://ridewithgps.com/routes/18684940

It's roughly 40 miles longer than v1.0.

I'm working through my map breakdowns and, so far, there are some significant changes in the hills of North Carolina.  It'll take me another week or two to find any other changes.

Be sure to inspect carefully and update your GPX.

I watched "Inspired to Ride" (for the umpteenth time) this afternoon, overjoyed by his persistence and super-human ability and simultaneously saddened that he's gone.

Actually the average gradient is 2X that because the net gain is negligble/neutral and therefore the cumulative climbing is accomplished in half the noted distance . . . so on average you'll do 186 feet per mile climbing for 300 miles and 186 feet per mile descending for 300 miles.

Still makes it sound easier than it is!

I've reached Salida in my mapping / spreadsheet and clearly, not all the pathways will be "railroad-grade" climbs.   Someone else mentioned it as well, but the lack of bike shops is shaping up to be a real issue.  By comparison, the TD is flush with on-route options.  I'm guessing riders will need to carry a few extra repair items and prepare to self-maintain.

Wow!  Really sad news and a huge loss to the community.

In case you're interested (and if you can believe the mileage / climbing numbers from MapMyRide), the breakdown of the first 4 states is:

North Carolina: 664 miles & 49,350' of climb
Tennessee: 497 miles & 36,400' of climb
Mississippi: 299 miles & 10,400' of climb
Arkansas: 443 miles & 27,200' of climb

I have this broken into 15 days of riding, averaging 127 miles a day.

My spreadsheet should be filled out to the Colorado border in about a week.

So far, this beast is making the TD look kinda tame.

Against the day that I'm able to ride it (maybe...), I've been putting together a day-by-day route spreadsheet with mileage, hours of daylight, climbs of note, the location of towns and stores and such.  I've got 14 days mapped so far - averaging 130mi/day, which I consider reasonable - and I'm still 100 miles from the AR/OK border.

To this point re-supply doesn't seem too terribly tricky, though hotel dwellers may be a bit more frustrated.

But the scope of this race is massive.  Riding at a "Mike Hall Tour Divide" pace - ~190mi/day - the race will day take about 27 days to complete.  At my pace of 130/140 miles a day, it's a 37-day adventure.  And I'm not sure even 130 a day is feasible Colorado through the end.

The TransAm Trail Race may not have the mystique and status of the Tour Divide, but it's got more of everything else!!

Lots of good answers here and great food for thought.  Makes me kind of wonder about what race I want to do next...
I do know that I see a fair number of people who are nearing the end of their life.  I've never had a single one of them mention that they wished that they had waited longer to do something.

You, good sir, have unfinished business from last year's TD.

I hope your leg / knee have fully recovered...and all the best as you decide what's next.

My heart goes out to you and I hope you do well and recover completely.  You are absolutely right about things like this.  What is the point of waiting?  Life is short and fragile and there is no prize at the end for deferring things you could have done but didn't because it was too late.  

Thanks!  I'm doing well.  Surgery was successful and I'm recovering.  I'm still a bit sore and stiff, but every day is better.  I have 3-month scans next Monday and was cleared to start riding earlier this month.  So things are looking up.

Anyone that has the chance to take on the Great Divide Route should absolutely go.

I'm just 47 and would love to participate in the TD, but was diagnosed with cancer for the 2nd time in October (first time was thyroid cancer in August 2013).  I'm going in for surgery this coming Monday and they're going to cut a small tumor from my neck.

If I can have clean scans for a couple of years again, I'm going to see if my wife will let me ride at least a small portion of the route when I turn 50.

If you can go now, GO, GO, GO!!!!!

As soon as I learned Guy was racing under a different name, I figured he was pretty awesome.  The attempt to remain true to the spirit of the Tour in the midst of celebrity is most admirable.  It's a shame he used the wrong route...sounds like an honest mistake.

So he must have run the 2010 route (which was in his 2011 book)...as I recall, the actual 2011 route was radically different, maybe as far as Pinedale.

I was wondering which set of maps or GPX route Guy Martin was using?  A route from a previous year?

For those that don't know Hal - he's a great guy, humble and friendly. Hal is the type of rider that is the 'glue' holding the race together. We focus a lot on the winners, and rightly so, yet so many others are out there with a neat story too.

I was proud to have met Hal last year and bump into him along the race. I consider him and 'old guy', as I am a full year younger!

Good on ya Hal!

Hal is a real inspiration...so positive all the time and so grateful for the chance to ride and meet people.

Congratulations again!

Looks likes Hal Russell pushed through the night, has got himself a bit of a tailwind, and is bearing down on the finish.  75 miles to go.

Good on you, Hal!!!  Outstanding!

I think Chris' ride is a clear candidate for "ride of the 2016 Tour".  I expected Mike Hall to be really fast...maybe not 13.23 fast, but still...

To beat the old single-speed record by 4 days is hard for my brain to process.

Holy Shiz, with a Z, Mike Hall.....Someone give that a guy a beer or coffee, a shower and a bed for a well deserved rest off the bike for a bit.....Bravo dude, Bravo.......After this time, what is next.  is it possible to do this any faster??

You hate to turn it into a raw numbers game, but at the end of the day...

The route is ~2700 miles.  If you average 10mph, it's going to take 270 hours to complete.  10 hours of riding per day at that pace is 27 days.  20 hours is 13.5 days.

According to TL, Mike is averaging 10.6 mph (and history has shown him to be a VERY fast rider).  That means he's riding (on average) 19+ hours per day...that's a LOT.

That pace, on a (relatively) heavy mountain bike, on mostly gravel, with 190,000' of climbing, in a self-supported race, will be very difficult to beat.  Somebody either has to ride for more hours in a day or at a faster pace.  Given the body's need to recover, there isn't much room left in "riding more hours".  So somebody is simply going to have to ride it faster.

Mike has set the bar REALLY high this year.