If you go off route due to closure like this are you disqualified from a TD ITT or the group race?

Others will chime in on this, but I don't believe you would be, especially with proof like this that the route is closed. Style points might dictate that you don't take the pavement, but try and stick to the route as close as possible without endangering yourself. Depending on the roads that are difficult but still close to the route. It would depend on the specific closures.

Update this morning from the ACA

ACA Routes @acaroutes

Morrell Complex fire has closed roads between Holland and Seeley Lakes. Cyclists will need to use SR 83 http://1.usa.gov/1Mxdm0M http://inciweb.nwcg.gov/incident/4514/

#acaGDMBR 1A

I wrote a program to generate them for me.

Those are extremely sweet Swighton. A great route summary that will help me remember events for write ups and a presentation or two. I had forgotten about some of those steep climbs (after a while, they just start blurring together).

How much food and water did you carry for the longer stretches?

I carried a maximum of 5L of water at any one time, even crossing the Gila. I had the ability to carry up to 8L, but never needed it. I am a bit of a camel, and the weather was not all that hot in that section. Even crossing the Gila, I found places to get water (livestock storage tanks that were not marked with no trespassing signs, Beaverhead Work Station, etc)

The most food I had was leaving Grants for the push through to Silver City. Everything I had was at https://www.flickr.com/photos/zenbiking/19984344166/in/album-72157655933791860/

I also stopped at Pie Town for an extended period, and ate two entrees and 4 slices of Pie. Whether that's available depends on the time you arrive in Pie Town.

Assuming you've got a GPS with the official track loaded and paper maps in your pack for GPS failure is there any point having detailed cue sheets for the route?

IMO, not really, unless you want something to keep your mind active. I built some pseudo-cues for this year's race, but they only contained resupply points, what kind of supplies were available (C-Store, Grocery, Bar, Bike Shop, All, etc) , and the distance between those points. It allowed me to quickly decide if I was going to skip a town or not, as well as figure out how much food and water to pack.

Likewise - Small retractable cable lock with a dial combo. I used it a handful of times, mainly where I couldn't see my bike.

Thinking over my training prep for this year's race (coming from a guy in the central plains)

- gradual build up of endurance with two or three longer rides per week, depending on the week. These started at 2 hours and then worked up to 3 or 4 hours mid week and  6 or 8 hours on the weekends. Bike used varied.
- Lots of time on the trainer and occasionally the fatbike over the winter doing low RPM, high wattage intervals to simulate long sustained climbs. Started at 4 x 3 minutes w a 3 to 5 minute break, and worked up to 3 or 4 x 15 with 5 minute breaks.
- More winter trainer time doing shorter harder interval workouts
- Some back to back 4 hour trainer sessions during the winter with varying resistance
-  6 months before the race, almost all outdoor rides were on my race bike with gear, no matter the time or distance
- As spring weather got dryer (not necessarily warmer). Started throwing in 4 hour post-work ride/camps on Fridays, followed up by long 6 - 8 hour ride on Saturday.
- March to early April, I scheduled some race-sim weekends. Left work at 5 PM Friday, rode for 6 hours & camped. Rode 10 - 12 hours on Saturday at a steady pace. Camped. Rode 5 to 6 hours on Sunday morning so I was home by noon-ish.
- Strength training 2 x per week. LOTS of core and upper body along with squats, calf raises and step ups.
- Hiking on local hilly mtb trails with and without the bike.

I'd second that. I did notice it in Banff when I first got there but after that didn't notice it. The only place I felt "flat" was on Indiana Pass and Summitville but that could have been the 2000 miles I already had in the legs and not just the 11 920'.

Iowan here. I to never really felt like I had issues with the altitude. I concentrated on steady pace and not really trying to "kill it" per se,  for a (barely) sub 25 day finish. I was actually surprised how *low* my HR was most of the time, even though my legs felt like they were at the end of their leash.

I recently started using a SP PD8 dynamo hub built into a Stan's Arch EX rim.  It was kind of weird-feeling when I picked it up from my LBS.  If you hold it in your hands by the axle and spin the wheel it seems very jerky and comes to a stop quickly which is sort of disconcerting.  However, once I installed the tire, pumped it up, and put it on the fork it seems to spin like any other wheel except when it gets slow where it does a few notchy jumps back and forth before it stops.

This is a completely normal thing for all dyno hubs. Nothing to worry about.

I'm also thinking of getting a rechargeable battery pack and just charging this as I ride, plugging in the lights and phone as needed.   Seems simpler than stopping to switch cables but there is the added weight.

I wouldn't worry about the weight too much. A 6000 mAh pack weighs about 4 - 6 oz and will give you quite a few full recharges for either a phone or a GPS.

I have a Buckshot if I want to use an actual speaker, which I occasionally do on paved trails around here. For TD and other long gravel rides around here, I tend to go with a single headphone to save battery life on my iPod.

I finished the 2015 TDR in 21 days and now that it has been over 3 weeks I have a question.  How long does it take for a 52 year old to recover.  I was signed up to do Boulder Ironman Aug 2, but I just don't have the energy.  Not to mention my achilles have all flared up everytime I go out for a training run.  I have decided to not do the IM and take it easy.  I suspect my legs, body, mind and spirit have all thrown down on me and have said enough is enough.  What say you oh wise ones??

Rest and recovery will be your friend. It will probably take a few months to fully recover. I've scheduled no races through the end of the year, and plan on just riding my bike for the sheer enjoyment of it and to catch up on all of the riding time with friends that I missed over the last two years.

I've been looking at some of the information for the Tour Divide. I see a figure of a net 200,000 feet climbed during the event. Is this correct? This seems incredible. Assuming riding a 15-day race, riding 14 hours a day, and a difference of zero at the end (considering the difference in altitude between Banff and Antelope Wells is about 200 feet), that's something like an average of 13,000 feet altitude gain in a day.

This year I had around 184,000 feet based on my GPS. Over 25 days, I had a one day high of over 13000 feet of gain, and a low of around 4500 feet.

Just stumbled over this and wanted to lift the secret behind the stick on my sweet roll shown on the picture taken by Russ Kipp (if you are still interested). I had decided to bring a DIY tarp this time instead of a tent but didn't bring a tent pole. From my first run in 2013 I knew there wasn't any trees to be expected after Polaris for the next 100+ miles and I planned on camping that same night so I thought it would indeed make a good tent pole. I didn't need it in the end because I slept near Bannack Park under a roof anyways. BTW I didn't need it for the dogs either as I rode through Vallecitos around 11 pm so they were all asleep or at least off the road  Could be a good strategy for future riders.

I and another rider from Tahiti slept in the Post Office lobby in Vallecitos this year. We got on the road about 6 AM and had no issues with the dogs either. Heard them barking, but that was about it. Ran into a couple in Del Rito, but they were just looking for a friendly scratch behind the ears.

I'm riding a 27.5 in 2016 so I hope there's something in stock at Orange Peel in Steamboat Springs or Absolute Bikes in Salida.

Those are both good sized shops. I replaced my rear tire (Conti Race King) at Orange Peel in Steamboat this year, because I knew it wouldn't make it to the end, and I was already stopped for other repairs. They had one in stock. The post office is not to far from the shop, so sending parts there via General Delivery before the race would be a way to ensure you had the things you wanted/needed for them to install as well.

It's easier to get MTB derailleurs that work with the SRAM shifters, IMO. I have 105 working with an XT derailleur on one of my cross bikes, but the shifting is not as crisp as I would like sometimes. Combine with a type 2 derailleur and you have a pretty nice setup IMO.

As Bob said, most people were on something around a 2.1 - 2.3. I saw maybe 3 or 4 bikes with 29+ tires, and about 3 - 4 bikes running 40 - 42c tires.

My opinion - 3.0 tires with the right air pressure might have been more comfortable over some sections of rough road, but the only bike they really made sense on for the race (TO ME) was the tandem due to the extra weight of the bike and two people. If I were touring the route, I'd give them serious consideration just for the extra comfort over the months (I'd also take a spare tire with me too).

What you need, and therefore what you pack and what you need to carry it, is all going to depend on the length of your trip, resupply options, location, how far you want to ride, etc. I *personally* don't like putting things on my back, but I had to do so for a few days of the Tour Divide just so I could carry enough food and water to get me through the Gila. I just made sure the stuff on my back was high volume, low weight so that it didn't bother my shoulders or back.

With your sleep setup, putting that all into a small backpack doesn't seem like it would be a huge issue as far as weight went.

Is the Union Pass alternate worth doing if you're not racing?

IMO, yes. There's some ATV trail and hike-a-bike on the steep sections, but once you get to the top, it's an absolutely gorgeous ride along 7+ miles of high alpine meadow. When I went through a couple of weeks ago, the flowers were in full bloom and their scent was completely intoxicating.

Does anyone have any more info on this water source or other general info about this detour for people touring the route?  I assume its 40 miles north of Wamsutter and probably connected to a drill site?  Starting a tour of the route next week and this looks a good alternative to Rawlins.

The water source is a solar powered pump filling a cow trough on the LH side of the rode. It's pretty easy to spot and is maybe 20 or 25 yards off of the road. There are no "No trespassing" signs on the property.

Maybe 4 or 5 hrs depending on the wind.  You want to be heading for Separ right now.

60 miles N of silver city at 5 PM means hitting that CDT alternate section during the dark. UGH...