On another topic,  any info on Tiana (on Trackleaders) and why she is in Dillon

No news on Tiana, but my guess is that she is being smart and safe. Where she turned around was an almost impassible mud quagmire last year, after heavy overnight rains.

(1) Are aerobars a TD must?
(2) I am using a Garmin eTrex30, a Garmin 800 GPS (backup), an Exposure Diablo helmet light, and a Planet Bike AAA battery charged bar mount light (backup). My plan is to have a ton of AAA lithium batteries and cue sheets on my iPhone (keeping my iPhone OFF, except in emergencies). I will also have a couple AAA battery powered USB chargers (to power the backup Garmin and the Exposure light). I'm not sure about bringing the maps (leaning toward "no"), as they are bulky/heavy, and I will have two GPS units (with routes uploaded), plus cue sheets on the iPone. I think I want to opts for no paper maps and no paper cue sheets and no batteries other than AAA batteries. My question is this: do I have enough backups in this electronics/navigation system? (I've thought through a number of ideas, and this is what I settled on; I just wanted to double-check it with the vets out there!)
(3) Is the official start time (on June 12) 10 am? Is it okay to start earlier?
Thanks!
Sarah

Aerobars can be important as an alternate position when your hands go numb from the constant pressure. Well-positioned aerobars are comfortable once you get used to them. And, they are useful to hang gear from, mount GPS to, etc.
I was able to buy lithium batteries along the way without trouble. I carried one or at most two sets of spares.
The map is pretty important if you need to go off-route for any reason. Mail half of them to yourself in Steamboat or someplace. Seems excessive to carry two GPS devices.
Start time in the past has been 8 AM. If you choose to start at another time, you will be officially on an "ITT" and not part of the Grand Depart. That's OK, but you get a different color spot.

What's up with Billy Rice? Unlike him to be camped out all day. Hopefully he just forgot to turn on the Spot Tracker.

Has anyone been thinking heavily about nutrition?

Race nutrition is a big, and interesting topic. You may have heard Billy Rice on MTBcast telling us that he is carb-free this year, and extolling the energy virtues of a stick of butter. Certainly going too heavy on carbohydrate is really a bad idea - last year I saw a rider who had swollen up like a football from lack of protein. My go-to one-pot meal when camping is a package of mashed potato flakes, add tuna (available in foil pkg) or chicken, cheese, pour olive oil over it, and sometimes an avocado or other treat. Cooks faster than pasta when you need to make your fuel last. Then in restaurants I would be sure to get my fresh veggies and salads as well as some quality protein, and get a couple of hard boiled eggs to go. Most bike racers (roadies, at least) are used to avoiding fat, since we are always trying to keep our weight down, but on TD you need plenty of good fats/oils to keep the furnace stoked. The best strategy for endurance is to eat small amounts quite often, but that is not easy to do on the TD unless you have some sort of bars that have all of what you need. I made my own super-healthy bars and sent some ahead to Rawlins, but of course I couldn't carry enough for the whole ride. I did shop in grocery stores several times, felt it was worth the extra time to get higher quality food. And, I have to say I was pleasantly surprised at what you can find in some convenience stores - mixed nuts, dried fruit, V8 juice, chocolate milk, sardines, and high quality energy bars.

I'd be curious to hear what other folks like to eat when camping on TD or similar events. I found that a hot meal and beverage was critical for my mental well-being when camping in the rain, but I know many folks don't even carry a stove.

As the 2015 TD gets revved up, I thought y'all might enjoy this article I wrote about my ride last year: http://hms.harvard.edu/harvard-medicine/adventure-issue/biking-wolves

Nat Cobb

Attention all family members and blue-dot stalkers!  The "Race in Progress" bulletin board is now open: http://www.bikepacking.net/forum/index.php?topic=10540.0

I see the tourdivide.org website now has the 2014 start date, thanks for that. Will the Leaderboard link also be updated? I've been telling people to follow me on that site, but it is still pointing to the 2013 leaderboard.  thanks, I know this is all volunteer work...

Nat

Looks like Lindsay is back on track after a early stop yesterday (per her mtbcast call).
She looks to be  well on her way to Abiquiu.

But can anyone tell me why there are two routes shown on Trackleaders between Cuba and Abiquiu.  Yes I know one is the normal route (red line) and the other (orange line) is a detour but why show the detour now?  

Is this now a ‘allowed’ option, or is this detour shown in anticipation of a fire closure?  

Anyone?

I hope that doesn't become the accepted route from Abiquiu to Cuba. The existing "alternate" routes (Chaco Alternate from Cuba to Grants, and El Malpais Alternate south of Grants) already skip some beautiful and classic Tour Divide roads, and it would be a shame to emasculate the route further unless there is a fire closure. I can understand why most SOBO riders would be happy to just ride on pavement and knock off some easy miles by that point in the ride, but that's not really what this is about, is it?

Nat

Worth trying out the rigid rig with a full TD load. I find that the loaded bike is quite a bit more comfortable, seems to damp the sharper hits.

Weights... I am at 42 lbs. After looking at posts, pics and websites about all the snow this year, and since I plan on camping a lot, I am unwilling to go with less clothes and sleeping/camping gear. If I don't sleep well, I don't ride well. Hope to ditch some cold weather stuff after getting through Montana. But, it is snowing right now as I write this in Silverton CO, and I took note of the Boreas Pass pic from the Long Ranger. At least I can guarantee that New Mexico will be warm!

Seems like there are lots of places to get food and water, it's more an issue of when/if  to carry stuff if a resupply town seems to have limited resources or, worse,  limited hours!

It's mostly flat or downhill from Silver City to the border. I'm going to carry enough food from Silver City.

It has begun.  http://krwg.org/post/wildfire-forces-evacuations-near-silver-city

15 miles north of Silver is Pinos Altos and is most likely along the route. 

Looking at the fire maps http://wildfiretoday.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/Map-Signal-Fire-257-pm-MDT-May-12-2014.jpg  it appears that the "Signal Fire" is right on the CDT cutoff route that is "required" for Tour Divide riders. The good news is that much of that route burned several years ago, so less fuel sitting around. But after this fire is put out, will the trail be visible and viable? Maybe when the area re-opens we can get someone from Gila Hike 'n Bike to go check it out.

Just rode the section from Grants to Silver City, NM. The Toaster House in Pie Town is a special place. Pretty dry out there! Hope we don't get diverted by fires this year. Allow extra time for the CDT alternate, big winds have knocked down a lot of dead/burned trees across the path. Some are big enough that I bet even Cjell couldn't bunny-hop 'em!   
Can't wait to be in Banff. Four short weeks.
Nat

Further good news: the Farmer's Almanac predicts "warmer and drier than usual" in the northern Rockies. I'm going with sandals  ;-)

I think that the snow is going to be a non issue this year. Sure there will be snow hiking, but there's less than HALF the snow that there was in 2011 (the year of the reroute). And, the snow pack looks pretty comparable to last year and other years.

I was just up skiing in Banff/Revelstoke region; lots of snow but about the same as last year at this time. New Mexico, on the other hand, is bone-dry and getting drier. We still have a few trees left to burn, so expect more forest fire detours.

"Also, I consider the H2O filter to be a fear category item as well, especially for TDR, where H2O is plentiful (yes, plentiful).  But, I guess if it's the same weight & bulk as a few iodine tablets ..."

Being from NM, and being a public health doc, I'm a bit more conservative about water purification. While riding the southern Colorado and New Mexico parts of the route, I have been delighted to have my lightweight filter when I had to drink stock tank water. Doesn't take long to run out of water if you have a mechanical or get off-route. I figure my 200 gm filter replaces a liter or more of "reserve" water. Iodine pills are a good solution as long as the water doesn't have too many "suspended particulates" (green ooze).

Nope.....AZT 300.

Good luck!

I haven't noticed a slower boot up.  My batteries seem to last just as long....or as little since I always seem to be zooming in and out and scroll around looking for different stuff.  I've gotten very attached to my gps and totally prefer it over paper maps.  I'm running a dyno hub and will be able to recharge batteries easily so battery life is not a concern for me.  I'm running an Etrex 20.  I usually get about 2 days out of my batteries if I try to conserve.

Good to hear. I used my GPS for a couple of week-long bikepacking trips in the SW, and feel the same way, although I still have a soft spot for the old paper topo map. I may have to go for the dyno hub one of these years, but already over budget (and nervous about new technology) so I will be carrying batteries.  See you at the 12 Hours in the Wild West?

I got really awesome base maps for almost the entire country and western Canada on my gps with no memory issues at all.  I got them for free from GPSDepot.  For the lower 48, they're pretty amazing.  I'm not sure about Canada. 

Thanks!  Even if there is enough memory (you can always get a bigger card) I wonder if having that much more detailed basemap will slow down the boot-up of the GPS, or use batteries faster. Anyone know?

GPS question:  I have loaded my Garmin Oregon 450 with the Garmin US 100K Topo maps, which look great, about the right level of detail. But Canada remains a blank except for the minimal World Basemap. I suppose I could just follow the purple line across a mostly blank GPS screen, but prefer to have more context. I couldn't find an equivalent Canada map, and I don't want to load a lot of 24K maps as they use a lot of memory. What have others done?

Nat