"Buy the ticket. Take the ride." was meant for the race director. Which is to say, embrace what is happening because there is no controlling it.

The pre-req idea... it doesn't solve the major issues posed:
1. Open course, free to anyone anytime. No one owns this so there is no governance.
2. Most who ride don't care about the record books. It's the personal quest so... you know...
3. Making a real race just bumps up the high profile even higher so it will never be underground.
4. Cat's out of the bag any way you slice it.

I'd say "create a new route every year" to control the N, but does it matter? The semi-classic route is known. Probably a better question for others.

"Which route do you suggest TD go?"

I think it is pretty much impossible to control riding the great divide because it's open. It isn't owned. It isn't groomed by an org. It just exists. It's a well known, well documented route (it's changed over time) that has been ridden for decades. Thus as I said, the barrier to entry is nil. Bike, some gear, a will to move forward. That right there makes the concept down right impossible to control. Other events change their route every year. That's the barrier to entry in those events. A person has to register / pay / whatever, to get the GPX or cue cards the night before. Controlling group size can't happen with this rodeo. A person can try, but what exactly is the recourse? Not being noted in the annals of a non-official event? That's about it really. They can carry a SPOT and roll on, posting for their friends to watch along the way.

I don't see social media, specifically FB, as inorganic growth. And none of the groups specified are anywhere near "viral". In fact the one left standing at the moment is pretty tame, informative and doesn't have a viral-level following at all. I also disagree that content is produced **after** the event. Content is produced before the event in mags (online and print), on rider's public social media and on some very well known sponsor pages. It's on Wikipedia. It's happening, and has been happening in a cycle for maybe three years. Before, during, after, repeat. The barrier to entry in user generated content has never been lower. There are riders this year that have more Instagram followers than all of the current and former FB groups combined. They are tossing info out there more than on any of the FB groups. Just making a point that content creation is happen all over the place at all times.

"Personal odyssey" is a great phrase as a sum of what many riders discuss on the MTB Podcast call-ins. With there only being a handful of gents that can ride this <20 days, the majority are truly on a personal odyssey. No chance to really win. No chance to break the official, non-official records. Just out there eating dirt, dodging horses and making my dots move so I can live through their personal odyssey this "race" year. Annals, unofficial records; these are not things a Jedi cares about in such instances.

No one owns or controls the trail, the future or the underground status of anything. Squashing FB groups to keep things underground is silly. It's no longer underground if there are TED talks, documentaries and mags writing about it. I'm not staying "it's over!!". I am saying that change is happening and resistance is futile. Rather than resisting, you should be proud. I'd bet that if you stepped away, the community would step up. It's grown legs of it's own and you are a part of that. And if it doesn't... I guess after a few years of no unofficial event you will be back to a smaller format which seems to be your goal is with the FB kibosh.

My suggestion, as HST once wrote: "Buy the ticket. Take the ride."

Matt Lee and keeping the race "underground"...

1. This race, like many others, isn't official. The Divide path isn't owned. The race itself isn't owned. That is the entire concept, thus any level of implied control is quite funny.

2. Groups like the ones found on Facebook have a positive impact on bikepacking as a past-time that far outweighs the proposed negative impact on a specific, "non-official" race.

3. The only reason this is a "race" or that there are records, is that the racers accept a person being an official / unofficial race director. Matt Lee has no real control other than that which the racers give him.

4. The high placing racers (along with a lot others) give interviews, share gear lists and do public speaking all based on Tour Divide experiences. Are they going to be asked to quit? B/C those activities are much higher profile than some message board.


The idea, when popular enough, becomes the institution. It isn't controlled, it just happens. With anything bicycle-related, the barrier to entry is pretty low. Entry to a non-race, race is just showing up. The cost is days off and whatever physical toll those people choose to accept.

The official, non-official Tour Divide isn't the only grass-roots style endro that has seen a bump in popularity. Two in my area have doubled in size in 3 years. One has become and official race. The other decided to raise the barrier to official entry with a lottery + high-placing exemptions and allowing official sponsorship. This post is critical of Matt Lee. And most race directors of official / non-official races get slagged over similar things.  He want's a level of control and ownership over this thing (that existed well before him). Seen it before. Either he will accept the wind and make changes to his unofficial event, or that same wind will change the event without him.

People were riding the route prior to the unofficial organization (organizations really... there was another at one point). People will ride it without a race director. The route is simply too long to control at a grass-roots level. Finishing under 20 days is too big of an accomplishment not to gain some sort of interest from endro media and niche fans. All Matt can do is regulate the unofficial start and record books. Both of which do not matter at all to the majority of people that want to ride.

I guess at the end of the day it comes down to the value of the race director and the organization. Since this is all so non-official, I guess the value is extremely debatable. Especially if your unofficial event is causing so much damage that there is a need to squash a freakin' Facebook page.