I'm thinking about doing the AZT 750 this year as a, "get my feet wet" for the rest of the year (and may take you up on your challenge, David!) and my birthday falls plum in the middle of the race, so great present to me!

I, too am in Colorado and am in need of a ride. There's a potential that I have already a ride in the form of an RV that could also potentially leave out from Denver and have room for a few more passengers/bikes, in exchange for some gas money. We're working on seeing if there's enough interest and the driver has enough vacay time to take off to take us all there. If it starts on Friday, that's 3 days for the driver to take off.

Considering it's a 80's RV, capable of about 55mph @ 10 miles/gallon, how long you think it would take us to get to the start? 2 days non-stop?

I have absolutely no idea how to get back to Denver afterwards - there doesn't seem to be much in terms of civilizations between Arizona/Utah - think I may just plan to be stranded for a few days - and hoping there's others that wanted to do the 750 finishing!

You may want to follow the Arizona Trail Race in April, then:

http://www.topofusion.com/azt/race.php

Best Christmas present from my wife, daughter, and dog ever, will also serve as Erik Lobeck's 2012 LOI. (see pic)

Well, I'm officially excited about the 2012 TD now

That side of racing seems like it could be a daunting task.

Beats working.

The REI Minimalist bivvy is not waterproof. Trust me on that one.

You could also use a White Industries Dos ENO hub, run one chain and two chainrings and it probably would be a ton more convenient (working with the chains does not sound like much fun) and spare yourself some weight. Chainline is not going to move too much, but you're probably best with a chain tensioner either way.

Re: Food Budget

A trick that helped me greatly, when I was running out of money and there wasn't any real place to resupply was to ask the lodge (that I just budgeted and purchased an actual meal at, I'm not condoning being that cheap - respect all the resources on the route) if they had anything else for sale, other than the cookies and candy they had out. Like, bread. Sure enough, they were willing to sell me an entire loaf of some amazing bread to make sandwiches (and had peanut butter available too). Pack one of those Sea to Summit stuff sack backpacks you can use as a Sometimes-Pack for keeping a cache of food.

Much cheaper than buying 2+ meals and still get the calories you need, as well as not feeling like you deprived yourself of eating a good meal. Sit down, rest, relax with one plate, make sandwiches for the road and keep pedalin'.

 

hi i'm in the early stages of planning for riding in 2012 and was wondering what people roughly budget for the period they are actually riding. e.g. for food, repairs, accommodation?.

This is a hard question and the answers will vary wildly. Big expenses though are accommodation and bike repairs. Both seem to go up if the weather isn't cooperating, since you may opt to lodge indoors if the rain/snow/cats-dogs make it miserable outside. Bad weather also usually does a number on your bike. I'd budget in replacing your tires and your drivetrain AND your brake pads at least once. I think my ride was slightly atypical, but the chain was replaced 4x, brake pads at least 4x, tires replaced 3x and misc. things here and there. God bless those bike shops on route.

Bad weather also means you'll probably be taking a little longer to do the course, since sometimes the trail just isn't passable. Food's cheaper at a supermarket, but those aren't always available, so you'll be eating at a lodge/restaurant.

So get to a number and double it. And maybe double it again

I'd suggest getting your sleep kit working really well, relatively light, comfortable, warm and waterproof. That way, with a little ingenuity, you can bivvy, as much as possible and the system will pay for itself in motels you don't have to pay for. Maybe even think about getting AAA for the motels that you may have to take? But also remember motels are nice and comfortable and usually near other niceties, so they can suck up time. Remember to be disciplined in using them

There's certainly an art on budgeting on the TD and there's gives and takes, depending on what you're willing to go with and without.

To be honest, I can't grab a number on how much I spent, but I left the race completely broke and I'm still... completely broke. Not a cheap race, by far!

It also may be interesting to find out why the scratch was done. Was it a mechanical? An injury? Exhaustion? Mental? (home sickness)? There's a whole lot of things that are difficult to control, on such a huge route - aggro wildlife, bad weather, missed resupply, it can all add up.  I'm pretty amazed at those that have completed it 3x without scratching once.

Montana is, to put it bluntly, Huge. Believe I passed the 1st place NoBo'r, while going South, in Montana, right before Red Rocks Pass. Pretty impressive on him, I have to say!

The Canadian Flathead section is drop-dead gorgeous. Start in Banff and end in Eureka? Or even extend it to Helena. Or Butte.

The WY  section, right after the volcanic dust roller train bed crud is quite beautiful, being right by Yosemite and the Grand Tetons. The riding on the GDMBR is so so, but there's a billion things around the GDMBR there to check out.

I'm a major fan of CO and CO was the funnest part of GDMBR for me. Again, there's so much to check out, off route, but the route can get you there, in a relatively out-of-the-way, way. Between Como and Salida can be, ahem, windy, but my last ride through it was actually pleasant. Salida will treat you right.

I had a hard time in NM. It's got it's own charm but it's tough without enough water, or sleep or food. Except Pie Town. Wonderful Pie Town.

curious what some of the gradients are like? and lengths.
might have to revisit the TF files and do some studying.

A lot of the tracks are old narrow gauge railroad beds, ripped up. For example: Boreas Pass in Colorado, Outside Breckenridge. Very long and lofty. This is an extreme example, but I bet it never gets past 6% grade.  Remember: that the GDMBR was created with Adventure Touring while taking Gallons of water and BOB Yak's, etc in tow, so there's nothing technically  Craaaazy going on. It's super enjoyable for cruising, though, I have to say. Going up, still happy to have a small gear, but that's more because of exhaustion - what the GDMBR lacks in grade, it makes up for the number of bumps, which, when you're racing it, is frickin' nothing to scoff out. If you like cruising for untold hours though, this is certainly your race. Not many "walls".

The exceptions to this rule are things like the singletrack portion at the end of the Canadian Flathead section, which is comically steep and Fleecer Ridge. Those you're better rather to hike. The singletrack portion in New Mexico, North of Silvercity is pretty chill, speaking in Singletrack Talk. Watch that downhill. A little bumpy

You'll probably acclimate during the race. The elevations you're going up aren't super high. Banff is at, what? 4,000 feet? Get there a few days before. The highest pass is in the 11,000 foot neighborhood. If you have the form to do 2700 miles on a mountain bike, I don't think it'll be a problem. I'd be more concerned with something like the CTR. If you're sensitive to altitude, perhaps "plan" on bivvying at the lower elevations.

Re: training for climbing with nothing to climb - It's a strength to weight ratio thing, right? You wanna be strong, without being too large. Andy Schleck is an amazing climber, Fabian Cancellara is not. But Fabian Cancellara can destroy most anyone on a flat course. Why? The weight penalty is more when going up things. I'd exploit any hill you can find, though and do repeats. Work on spinning higher revs and put some weight in your bags to give you some, ahem, "gravity". But again, if you're in form for this distance, you'll be fine. The passes are pretty mellow. Lofty, but mellow.

Re: Training -

Now that I've done something like this,

I think one of the pillars for training is make sure that you're on your bike almost every day, even for an hour. This does not mean you're doing centuries every day, but get on your bike and ride it. Take rests when it's required and keep the fast days fast and the slow days slow and recover with recovery rides. If you're at race-pace on the GDMBR, you're not going to have a day off. Your body needs to adjust. Doing the TD is not extremely healthy to do and your body will pay the price, but get it prepared. I think splitting up the workout and doing half the time in the morning and half, like after work is an interesting idea. Train yourself psychologically as well. Get it used to be on the bike all the time.

Try out some theories on training, like periodization. There's a lot of resources out there on things like training for something like the Paris-Brest-Paris, or the RAAM that work well with the TD. The TD, although it's on dirt, is really differentiated by the amount of climbing done (not saying anything about the self-supported part of it). Fit a ton of training on hills - no amount is too much, really. If you can work up to 10k of climbing in a day, you're in good shape for the TD.

NOT THAT I'M SAYING I'M GOING TO, but if I did the TD again, I'd be a little more disciplined with my wakeup times, especially to fit training in and be somewhat of a sane human being afterwards. 5:00am every day to get a good ride in. Trying for 300 miles/week would be nice, but keep those miles "useful" - fast on fast days, slow on slow days. More important than amount of miles. Don't waste your own time! Keep a diary of your training, what you did, how you felt, what goals you have and remember to keep it somewhat structured. Work around important things in your life and adapt your training to your life, and not the other way around. If there's something in your life that you need to devote 4 days off to, that's a grand time to end a major chunk of periodization, allow your body to get an incredible rest and allow you to be stronger when you start ramping up again.

* I would put in more fast, short days than I did.
* I would do some actual 24hr races
* I would certainly keep the fluid trainer around, as it's a great helper with working with real-world schedules. As I wrote, try to ride (or work up to try to ride) almost every day. There are many stretches of the TD that are nothing but pounding out miles and the fluid trainer is perfect for that.
* I would keep going to the gym, especially when the weather is bad, the roads are bad and there's not much daylight, but taper that off to almost nothing, once race time nears - it's good advice to train specific to your event and if your event is riding your bike (and, uh, pushing your bike, sometimes), keep that end goal in mind. I worked on a lot of core strengthening stuff, which I would do again, and maybe more neck strengthening exercises. It's amazing how heavy a helmet can get with a few lights attached to it. Sprinting/Plyometric work as well. Make sure you're not gaining TOO much muscle weight, it's not going to be useful, so look for advice on athlete specific training programs and not programs for body sculpting (working towards complete exhaustion of your muscle groups in heavily isolated exercises will help little with ultra events).
* Other than the gym and riding bikes, I'd mix it up as before with hikes and snowshoeing and running, working muscles a different way than normal to prevent overuse injuries and keep things supple.
* Work with what you've got in terms of terrain. I'm pretty lucky to live 10 miles from the front range of the Colorado Rockies, but it's still 10 miles there and 10 miles back if I want to ride any type of singletrack. I used those long fairly flat times to get used to pounding out miles, working on cadence and smooth pedaling.

Learn about your equipment and endlessly tinker with everything until it's to the point of a natural extension of your own body. Simplicity of gear I think is pretty paramount in importance. Dropping weight really does help matters out. Get comfortable sleeping on the ground. Really. Learn about your body and food. Maybe try different types of diets with varying %'s of macro-nutrients, but understand it's going to be less than ideal on the route. I'd almost side on upping the % of fat, as you're going to get some greasy sides on the route, but there's also a theory that one can train your body to use what it's used to using and if you eat a fat-rich diet, your body will use its own fat stores more efficiency. Again, "theory" though, YMMV, and all our bodies are different. Research, research. Experiment.

And keep it fun.

What year did the TD start from Banff to Antelope Wells?

Pretty good question, as Matthew Lee did it as his, "Prologue" for the border to border Great Divide Race. At least for the recorded times, it goes back to '05, but I'm not sure there was a grand départ or anything:

http://tourdivide.org/Full_GDMBR_Times

Who holds the ss record & what is the time?

Gotta be Jefe Branham from this year w/16 days, 16 minutes, followed by Chris Plesko in '09 w/19:00:21. This year's course was a large deviation of the standard route, though.

Jill I think still holds the record for the standard route? But again, Caroline this year kind of smoked that with the deviated route.

Hiking with a bike thread:
http://www.bikepacking.net/forum/index.php/topic,90.0.html

AZT my friend:

http://www.topofusion.com/azt/aztr.php

Probably a lot of misadventures of Mike Curiak as well?

I have lots of trips planned for things like this - Colorado mountains and the passes that lead up to the trailheads are perfect for riding your bike to the top of the pass (think, for example, Guanella Pass), climbing say - Bierdstad, traverse over the Sawtooth, climb Mt. Evans and ride back down the Mt. Evans Scenic Highway, making a HUGE loop, if you start in Denver.  A mixture of road riding, mountain biking, hiking and scrambling.

Other ideas,

* doing the 10 mile range, from peak 1 - 12(?) - hike/traverse would be from Peak 1 - 3, the rest is somewhat rideable.

* Starting in Frisco, riding up Loveland Pass, hiking to Grays/Torreys, (jumble mumble mumble) to Argentine Pass and ride home.

* Ride to St. Mary's Glacier, hike up la Plata Peak, to another trail that goes (mumble mumble) to the SnowMass Side/HW 40 and connect.

* The entire Colorado Trail, hiking the parts in Wilderness (someone's done this, at least in parts?)

None of these would be races, although getting the mythical Known Best Time would be kind of rad. Hucking up a bike - ANY type of bike in Cat 3 Scramble is not for the faint of heart! The legality of going through National Parks/Wilderness zones with a bike strapped to your pack is also a little blurry. Most likely, you'll piss off a lot of other hikers and probably get fined. It opens up a fairly big pandora's box. Certain code of ethics should probably be followed (do this type of activity on the deadest times of weak, accept that it's illegal, do no harm to the hiking-only trail)


Riding/Hiking the CDT would be interesting. So would hiking as close to the Continental Divide magic imaginary line would as well. Props for being as close to it as possible with the least amount of gear and perhaps least amount of time. Again, legal issues with private property and you'd be scaling mountains The Wrong Way quite a bit. Which, I guess is the fun of it.

Man, I gotta tell you, one of the weird thoughts in your head when doing the GDMBR is that "these roads are so WIDE" and it's sort of a bummer. All the "Singletrack" parts are not so much fun - the part in Canada was hilarity.

Of topic, but who's the mythical happy sticker placer around the GDMBR? Helpful little bugger!

This probably won't be relevant for you, as I'm sure your dropouts are vertical, but on the horizontal dropouts on my Crosscheck, the BOB QR would slip every trip, unless you tighten it down ta-hell, and that will eventually bust the QR Skewer. No beef on the BOB Skewer, really, since it's really abusing the piece of gear, but switching to Bob Nutz works a dream with the same bike.

Remember on a tour to bring along a few extra pins, those things are easy to lose.

Yes.

Which actual shape of arrow-dynamik bars you use will be up to personal preference, so go ahead and try out a few.

You may have some problems with clamping them on to your MTB bar if you use risers. Probably may be that you'd have to put them outside the, "dip", making them really far apart. My straight bars also presented a problem, since they start big and wide and then taper towards the grips - it would be difficult to mount them anywhere there's a taper, so you only have so much wiggle room to work on - basically where the manufacturer has spec'd mounting the handlebar, plus a few cm on each side.

Many people seem to like having their aero bars both higher than their handlebars and have the rests further back, so look for a pair that allows a ton of optimization for whatever position you want to be in. I picked the pair I bought, as it allowed you to slide the bars themselves as far back or forward as you would like and also allowed you to mount them particularly high. If you look at the Profile Viper:

http://www.profile-design.com/profile-design/products/aerobars/carbon-aerobars/t1-plus-viper.html

You can see there are separate clamps for both the pad, and the bars themselves. That's nice.

If you look at the Stryke:

http://www.profile-design.com/profile-design/products/aerobars/carbon-aerobars/carbon-stryke.html

There's not, BUT it's probably lighter and a lot more simpler. The Viper are somewhat annoying to setup and tweak.

I know about those New Mexico Blues, and I'm not talking about the Tortilla chips. Jay's gonna pull through - it's funny sometimes to listen back at your own wavering voice when hit with that sort of fatigue and realize how out of your mind you really were (listening to the Del Norte check-in). GO JAY! Pie at Pie Town is going to taste so delicious.