Looks like 7 folks have goal times listed of 15 or 16 days, 4 of them are returning veterans of the race:
Bailey Newbrey
Gareth Pellas
Lewis Ciddor
Richard Dunnett
Seb Dunne
Greg Gleason
Jacob Roberts

Interesting to look at the rigs posted on www.bikepacking.com.  I think Seb, Lewis, Richard, an Jacob each have less on their bikes than I had in my seat bag alone.

Speaking of seat bags, check out Chase Medina's seat bag.  Wonder what that rides like...

My money is on Greg Gleason.  Back this year with a full suspension Epic! Lessons learned no doubt

Any predictions on who the frontrunners will be this year?
-or- is it time to start the 2018 race discussion thread for such speculation?

Strange that his spot is following the roads if it is just drift.  He is showing up back "downtown" in Basin now.  Sorry to have misspelled his name.

We need to take up a collection for some new batteries for Josh's SPOT.  It keeps dropping out.  That or I need to get a life :-)  Go Josh!

Looks like Ben Steurbat just stopped at someone's house in Basin???  Interesting.

Eddie did put a call into www.mtbcast.com from Eureka

http://mtbcast.com/site2/2017/06/11/mtbcast-tour-divide-17-eddie-odea-called-in-from-eureka/

Does anyone have any info on how the weather might be affecting the course this year?  Hopefully things will dry out in time for the start.

Hi All,

Megan Dunn has done the starter's list for the race. Here's the link to the form. Please sign up so I can harass you to contribute to the Cordillera!

https://goo.gl/forms/et4PCGwFivVDXsNC2

Chris, or others, could you provide a link to the start list?  I am having trouble finding it and would like to keep up with who & how many are signing up.
Thanks!

I am also considering the Stagecoach 400 this year so a post when the start date is known would be appreciated.

What tires (model/width) would folks recommend for this race?  Sounds like there are some sandy sections.  I have a hardtail 29er I plan to ride.

Thanks in advance.

I am feeling a bit out of the loop here, and sorry if this is obvious to everyone, but...

I have seen several references to the 5000 mile course next year.  What is this in reference to?  Thanks in advance.

Not sure if this helps the conversation, but in case anyone may find this helpful...
I finished in 23 days 6 hours this year.  Below are the distance and moving average off my etrex for each day.  As folks have noted, road quality, the grade, wind, heat, rain/mud were big factors.

Moving avg, distance
10.5, 110
9.3, 146
10.1, 120
9.4, 112
8.9, 115
8.2, 113
8.3, 91
10.7, 131
9.9, 113
9.3, 112
10.4, 76  (had to stop early due to getting overheated and dehydrated near Pindale)
11.0, 171
8.8, 96  (heat issues again coming out of Wamsutter)
9.7, 96   (4 hrs at Orange Peel bikes in Steamboat for repairs)
8.8, 117
11.1, 132
8.4, 87
9.7, 104
9.3, 106
11.7, 148
9.9 112
7.5, 82 (Gila & CDT, grabbed a motel for a few hours in Silver city and started for the boarder at 2:30am)
12.5, 124

Nelson Carter

Thanks for the update Dave.  Good to know others have not heard anything back either.  I was getting rather nervous.

On a similar note, what is the general consensus on carrying extra tubeless sealant (Stans, etc.)?  I will have two tubes as back up and a hand pump (no CO2 cartridge).  I am fairly new to tubeless in that I have never had a flat/failure on the trail.  I am skeptical that I could reinflate with a hand pump if I break the seal, but could add more through the valve stem if I lost some in a puncture.  Thoughts?  Trying to shave the oz's where I can.

Hope everyone's training is going well.

I have made some progress on setting up my dynamo hub, Bush & Muller IQ-X light and sinewave-revolution paired with a Goal Zero recharger.

I don't have much experience with the IQ-X yet, but if anyone is interested, I will post an update.

Below are a couple pictures of the setup I am working on.  I am using 1" black PVC pipe mounted on my aero bars.  So far, this is working well and at $1.20 for a 2' section (Home Depot), I can experiment with different configurations.  I started with the light mounted in the middle, but am now trying mounting both the light and my Etrex 20 out on the PVC.  This may be a bit crowded, but with my growing farsightedness, I am hoping it may be easier on my eyes.  I am also going to try an incarnation with the pipe extended out about an inch more on each side. I find I like to rest my wrists on the pipe in the aero position.  I should also note that I inserted a small section of 1' dowel where the IQ-X is mounted so that I can really tighten down the bolt holding the light on.

The wiring diagram for this is the same as that shown by bmike-vt earlier in this thread (thanks Mike).  Using the toggle switch tucked down next to the right aero bar, I can divert the power from the hub to the light or to the Sinewave (wire running back into my bags where the Sinewave is).  I am planning to seal all the holes with latex calk.  Having said this though, I may go without the end caps (also from Home Depot) so that if moisture does get in, it dries quickly.

Maybe a little background here would help.  I am re-reading Scott Thigpen's book where he keeps leapfrogging "the kids" as he calls them all the way to the end of the race.  It sounds as though Scott rides slower, but longer each day.  This got me wondering how time off the bike during the day compares between people that ride fast, but fewer hours compares with people who ride longer hours?  Are the absolute numbers for hours stopped similar between racers or might there be a bit more correlation in the time spent stopped as a percent of total time start to end in the day?

Maybe I just need to go back to worrying about mapping out all the water stops in NM...

Thanks for the quick replies, much appreciated.

I guess what I was really trying to ask is if anyone has tried to estimate time spent stopping/resting/eating each day (between starting out and stopping for the night). Do you think the spot tracks are accurate enough to try and get an idea on that?

Great information Chris.  Much appreciated and very timely.

I was wondering if anyone has seen logs from riders for the number of hours in the saddle each day?  Many people provide daily mileage, but I was wondering if there is much information available on how much pedaling time they spent each day.

Thanks in advance.

My numbers are close to those of Phil's.  My LBS talked me into going with the Flows over the Arches.  Put the order in earlier this week.
Maybe I should have sought the wisdom of the web a bit earlier :-)

Nelson

I would be very interested in hearing people's opinion on the tent vs tarp and/or bivy question. How bad do the bugs get?  Any feedback or links to older posts would be appreciated.

Thanks Chris.  Could you provide a link to the Google sheet itself too?  I am having trouble finding it.

Nelson

If you look at the race flow plots, it almost looks like Neil and Jay decided to let Josh go.  Josh's pace seems uniform and theirs drops off together.