Scott Morris called in from Buena Vista. He’s still having some issues with the GPS Track as he’s seeing some misinformation. Rob Kranz called in from Leadville as well.

after listening to scott's descriptions of the GPS track inconsistencies i have to wonder *by whom* --or rather by *what* conveyance the track was created. some sections of CT by bear creek north of twin lakes *are* confusing in spots (i remember being lost briefly at times in `07, based simply on nebulous trail data book mileages) but the hwy 24 earlier turn (over a gate), across the arkansas river n. of BV suggests a thru-hiker (and not a biker) is probably to credit for the track. c`est la vie of dedicated GPS use, i suppose, where bad data can be worse than no data at all.

Paging anyone who can confirm if Tegan Davis started the race - or not. Thanks

ok. cool. i have never heard of an issue that was solved by such but whatever works is good. we hate to see him carrying the dead weight thinking he'll have this nice history track to peek at later. (no points in the past 7 days)

zackR, do you have access to his SPOT login page? maybe creating a new shared page for him will help.

update: big Thanks to zackR for helping trackleaders get our sleuth on. zack had Jefe's login so i was able to determine he has 4 shared pages on his account. two are active, two are inactive. he provided stefan with one of the inactive ones. I've pulled an active one and sure enough he's got lots `o points and the unit itself appears to be working! looks like he's riding very well, indeed, sitting in the top 5 and having a little grub on 5th st in Leadville as i type. Thanks to his proud mother Kay for contacting us also. Behind every tough wookie is a soft, but firm mother-wookie. Go Jefe!

I say that to only conclude that he is well versed in the SPOT, he may just need to pull the batteries out and put them back in.

ok. cool. i have never heard of an issue that was solved by such but whatever works is good. we hate to see him carrying the dead weight thinking he'll have this nice history track to peek at later. (no points in the past 7 days)

zackR, do you have access to his SPOT login page? maybe creating a new shared page for him will help.

If anyone knows how to reach Jefe Branham (voicemail or family/SO), please contact info@trackleaders.com.

he needs a quick tutorial on operating his SPOT unit.
thanks

Calls this morning: David Harris called in from Copper Mtn with some comments on the new sections.

re. dave's call-in, i thought burritos and yogurt *are* cooking with gas. he is certainly one of the hard men of the peloton so his mood only affirms the mile-for-mile, unrivaled difficulty of CTR.

yep, looks like owen is enjoying a leadville breakfast--if he's keeping himself awake. no doubt, his chasers will be ordering "whatever owen had" as they contemplate his 4 hour gap.

edit: pivvay, you called it on the leadville breakfast. mindboggling. at what price, though? BV will be serving up plenty of redbull and doubleshots this evening.

damage assessment: racers are littered across nearly 100mi of the course after little more than 24hrs! as owen tempos to keep his breakfast down while pushing across the lower slopes of mt elbert, lanternes rouge (some 16hrs in arrears) yearn for a fatty breck lunch as GA pass further forces their slumming.

and to think they haven't even hit the mountain stages yet!    

Hi Stefan's wife, I just talked to Scottie.  He implied that the pace was pretty aggressive and that he had not had much time to eat...Trackleaders is making it very hard for me to get anything else done.  Hopefully, for me, Scott goes to sleep...I love this tracking thing.   

Oh yeah...Go Scott!

Go Stefan! (I'm partial to race organizers who also race)

(as of SPOT point dated Sun Aug 2 20:55:06 2009 ) is ethan p. headed to the closest food resupply--or might he have *broken a spoke* too?

Edit: Ok. looks like EP is back on track.

Although the moon's a waxin', it's more likely opening day pace has top-ten racers *seeing stars* come peak 5-6 pass atop tenmile range!

[72.9–Turn right onto FR 4134 up the South Fork of Poorman Creek. Next 4.4 miles are extremely steep uphill, but they lead through fascinating country with several stream crossings.]

Matthew, I'm sorry, I wasn't aware that a post meter was a measure of credibility.

no worries, it was a bit surly of me so say. sorry. perhaps my fatigue with that single right turn coming to define `09 racing is showing.

Finally, you contend there is no problem with the map or the route description.  If that is the case then no other discussion required. I was simply pointing out that one commentator stated that if your eyes are open (which presumably they are since it is hard to ride a bike with them closed) then you have an easy passage and another commentator that stated that several people were clearly pedaling shut-eyed and missed the turn. That seemed to indicate a map problem and I was merely suggesting an alternative penalty when the error is not the fault of the participant. If the error is the fault of the participant then the remedy is clearly stated and the participant should abide by that result.

here's the cues direct from the map:
* 61.6–Lincoln. Turn right at the blinking traffic light onto Sleepy Hallow (sic) Ave./Stemple Pass Rd. 66.5–Pass Fields Gulch. 68.3–Pass McClellan Gulch interp sign.70.9–Pass Rochester Gulch.*72.9–Turn right onto FR 4134 up the South Fork of  Poorman Creek. Next 4.4 miles are extremely steep uphill, but they lead through fascinating country with several stream crossings.

**the only thing to add in there that might be helpful riders is to say, "it looks like/serves as the driveway for several homes. it crosses a small bridge immediately". Neither the mileage or road designation are incorrect. the stream crossings are deep and the climb is brutally steep. there is no mistaking the error if you pass this.

again, the controversy is much less about missing the right turn up south fk of poorman than it is about how one gets from there into Helena and 200miles beyond without noticing the mistake. it's just not possible.

[To miss this turn]

I don't have a dog in this fight.

MIkeC said "If you've seen/read the ACA maps then you understand that there isn't any ambiguity about the route.  It is easy to stay on course 100% of the time, provided your eyes are open and synapses are firing.  Sure, a moment's inattention can allow you to drift off course, but only a (poor, IMO) decision can prevent you from retracing the route to get back ON course where you left it.  Your suggestion that not all racers rode 100% of the race route is offensive to those of us who've done exactly that.  Your further suggestion that it's unrealistic or impossible to claim that a person has covered 100% of the route is simply ignorant.  You know better than that, Chris."

Pivvay said "Plenty of riders early in the race who made the same mistake backtracked to not miss any of the course. Still more riders that made the same mistake did not wish to backtrack for whatever reason and DQ'd themselves."

These two statements made by different commentators seem to be incongruent.  It seems to me there is obviously a problem with the map if several people made the same mistake.  If there was a map problem, own up to it and add penalty time to the racers that didn't backtrack and remove the relegated status.

Tangy, nice first post. If you want street cred here, prefacing with a "no dog in the fight" phrase isn't best. It essentially means you have no interest at stake, which seems "incongruous" with your closing rhetoric urging time penalties instead of relegation.

If you key on MC's conditional, "provided your eyes are open and synapses are firing", that follows his "no ambiguity" assertion, it's not hard to deduce both MC and Pivvay's statements are true. As someone who has ridden the route more than once, I'll try to illustrate MC's point thru specifics of the Lincoln to Helena segment:

Course errors, when stacked on top of each other, have an exponential effect on subsequent navigation. En route to Helena there are no less than 20 GDMBR turns (described in detail) that follow the tricky right turn up South Fork of Poorman Creek. To miss this turn (and continue on) is to miss 20 turns that follow. As MC says, there is no ambiguity [in missing 20 turns]. To boot, denial of 20 subsequent map turns isn't all that's required to arrive in Helena by an alternate route. One must also navigate -without any cues- roads with foreign designations, pavement, downhills not described and passing geographical features not listed. in other words, one wrong turn quickly snowballs into an undeniable avalanche; one so obvious it is the mental equivalent a 4 mile hike-a-bike. To deny one is in the middle of a 4 mile hike a bike - or to say you cannot remember such- is just kooky and that's basically what's being asserted by the relegated riders tied up in this imbroglio...And not to belabor the illustration but the Lincoln to Helena portion is just the beginning of the SNAFU. The ACA map used for this section clocks Helena at about 120miles of 287 total miles on Map1/sideB before a rider zeros out the cyclometer to begin fresh with Map 2. This means navigation for the subsequent 160 miles (past Helena) thru Butte and beyond to Polaris, MT (approx 1.5 days of riding) would all have to be done using some sort of math formula. To Claim not to remember any of this begs to question how a rider completed the rest of the course without additional errors.

...the Divide on woolen wheels.  Good at any temperature.
Even if wet.  But can be a bit smelly then.  

helps stave off those chumps who draft...

Big bummer ML! but am glad your sticking to the rules..  I get very bothered at times with our culture of dumbing it down and making it *fair*......  thanks for the rule clarifications...  Esp with co trail race around the corner and such...

A neutral point to made here on the juggernaut otherwise known as, "dumbing-down", is it is largely a product of the world we live in and part n' parcel of progress. The GDMBR and other, once unknown routes are being "dumbed down" by development, by bloggers, by the abundance of info now available about every bit of route minutia, every secret water source, every camp spot, etc. For better or worse these elements alter the difficulty factor. GPS nav. and SPOT tracking are having an impact as well.

The only effective ways to maintain difficulty standards are a) simulate the old days somehow, b) make the courses harder by degrees as we go on (CTR `09, full GDMBR), and c) try to isolate out -or at least minimize- certain currently acceptable ergogenic aids (like serendipitous support). I don't propose to have all the answers but the simple, morally unambiguous solution is b, make the courses harder as races on them mature.

TD will do it's best to achieve a, b and probably c in helping preserve -or approximate- original Divide racing difficulty, but it will never again be the same as it was when John solo'd it 10 years ago, or even when Mike C. bravely challenged his mark 5 years later. We *can* wax nostalgic, though. Anyone want to found the Great Divide Hysterical Society? Maybe it can bring back wool and wooden wheels.

Any ready to go SS fatbike options beyond the Pugs?

i thought you got that out of your system last month?

Totally amazing!!
Congratulations to Deanna.
Ed

This is probably as good a post as any to quote (and concur with) when pointing out we had to relegate 4 riders from TD this year for rules violations. Unfortunately Deanna's amazing fixie ride is one that gets an asterisk. It doesn't diminish what she accomplished if you consider it was an innocent error but divide racing (and all self-support racing) must rule on violations with an iron fist if we are to preserve the ethos. This comment: http://tourdivide.org/blog2009/2009_provisional_general_classification#comment-2230 on the TD provisional results post explains a bit. Relegating riders after they exert 3 weeks of grand tour wattage is no fun but we can all learn from it, especially with the dangerous Colorado Trail Race right around the corner: No matter how much you're slumming out there, you've got to keep your wits about you. In many cases your life depends on it. If you are riding in the company of others, don't expect them to know the way. Reading [your maps] is fundamental. Personal responsibility is fundamental.

I know ACA maintains the addendum to the maps, giving corrections to the route and service list.  But they don't make qualitative assessments of things.
Is anybody maintaining a list of comments and notes?  Recommendations for restaurants (or those to avoid), motels, campsites, bike shops, etc?  
I made a list of notes I took when Jim and I toured the GDMBR in 2007.  http://gdradvice.blogspot.com/2007_09_01_archive.html
I think it would be useful to have a similar list that everybody can contribute to, organized by map# and mile marker.  That way we can recognize the service providers who have been welcoming of cyclists, and encourage other cyclists to make use of those service providers.  
If a list like that exists, I'll add our notes to it.  If it doesn't exist, I'd be willing to start a new blog dedicated to that purpose.
Amy

Amy, this is a good idea and something TD has considered investing time on as a way to respond to critics who assert divide racing is "too dangerous" (yes, there are some). At the same time, there are those who assert we've dumbed down Divide racing as well, so we just decided to leave it up to individuals. Personally, the route is big enough to be worthy of a guidebook along these lines. One that details every brew pub, eateries, tangent singletrack loops, hostels, etc. The hard part: keeping it updated. Conditions along the Divide are pretty fluid. Not to volunteer him for more work, but I would vote for Scott to set up a form on the GDMBR page for entries like you're describing. Frankly, I'm surprised ACA doesn't have a venue for such. Their forum: http://www.adventurecycling.org/forums/index.php is occasionally useful for such detail. Also, don't forget the GDMBR yahoo group: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/GreatDivideRide/summary

A couple nice articles:
http://www.steamboatpilot.com/news/2009/jun/28/joel_reichenberger_keeping_his_word/
http://www.steamboatpilot.com/news/2009/jun/28/steamboat_mountain_biker_competes_tour_divide/

Yes, Joel's a fan of the event.
TD.org is compiling a master list of `09 press here: http://tourdivide.org/dividenews/td09_press_coverage

[The Spot-effect:]

Wow, great finish.

Yes. And a good year to see it go down nearly analog.

I'd say Kurt has fired a sortie across the bow of John Nobile and other Tour Divide start-listers soon to do battle.

The Spot-effect:

This armchair spectating is not only entertaining but inspirational.  I had to burn off somebuilt up energy and ride this afternoon despite the snow and hail.

This vicarious racing is tough work, but someone has to do it. I'm pumped for the hard day ahead!

Scott, this is cool to follow.  Great job organizing it.  Very inspirational.  I'm stoked.  I haven't been motivated for awhile.

Great spectator race this year, I am watching from my phone at the San Diego airport.

It's getting interesting out there...I still think that the race winner will break the course record, but it's looking tighter now...Definitely a great rally by Stefan.  4 flats for Kurt!  Ouch... 
...I'm already biting my nails here.  No nails left...

Who knew it would be such a nail-biter between racers to the end?!?! How awesome is that!

What an incredible achievement by these AZT Masters!  Thank you to Scott and everyone for your excellent posts/commentaries throughout this race.  We've been glued to the SPOT coverage since Friday where we've loved the photos and amazing SPOT video, too.  As armchair supporters (junkies??) of Stefan's biking adventures, we now look forward to our next fix...

There's still some debate about cell phones in these kind of 'events.'  The AZT 300 doesn't have a rule against them, but the GDR has in the past.

Getting info from the SPOT tracker by phone does change some things, but, you still have to pedal no matter what you know.  And sometimes it can be better not to know, like you said.

When the four of us (Kurt, Stefan, Chris and I) were at Madera Canyon (two nights ago) we talked about getting tracker updates by phone for a bit.  It might be a gray area, but there's no rule against it in the 300, so it's all good as far as this race is concerned.

to clarify, i voted to remove the first detour but not the second unless stefan will be requiring a pro-level bikepacking license to race. as i mentioned in my vote -and mike brown reiterates- it will prob. take mortals 3-4 days of food to make the pull to silverton without a LC binge. my `07 CTR experience was just post-divide racing and i was underweight and very, very hungry so my recollection is more emotionally rooted but it still seems a tough call to me. as we refine our approach to racing the CT, i'm sure it will seem less intimidating, but my advice to CTR rookies would be to "assume" you'll need to hit LC no matter which way the route goes. one interesting effect of removing that detour is it has the potential to blow a close (at that point) race wide open depending on who's prepared/lucky enough not to be forced down to LC.

stefan,
you know the route well. my sense is you asked the question twice in this thread b/c you know the seriousness of the lake city change.

strategically speaking its an interesting twist cuz if one can make it to silverton without a back-track resupply to LC, its a huge time bonus over those who must bail for food. my guess is that many will end up not making it w/o LC resupply. from BV (or princeton hot springs) to LC area is one hard freaking stretch; makes grown men cry. more than one 08 racer bailed after/during it.

i probably didn't pack enough food for that stretch in `07 but i gotta say i was absolutely starving by the time i got to LC at the end of day two (from BV). i cannot imagine having gone on without LC resupply. 200 miles means three days for most riders. that's a long way to go, even in good weather, hiking almost as much as riding.

I am all for making the race as hard as possible, and preserving course records should not be the guide, but if the change is made, its worthy of a biggie-sized warning about how much food to hump from BV. there will be some bonking. it ain't just any old 200 miles.

this piece on jeff boatman/carousel in sierra mountain times is a good read

http://mysierramountaintimes.com/?p=3276