Bad news.  I can't help Seb today.  Sorry Seb.

I just rec'd a text from Dylan Thomas that one of the front six escapees has fallen to a broken fork. Seb Dunne is likely out of the race, and apparently lucky to be in one piece after shearing his fork clean off while negotiating the Brazos. He will hike out tomorrow.

I had lunch at HORCA yesterday while he and a couple other riders were there.  I didn't bother them, but I do live in the area.  As it turns out, I am going to Chama today with a guy who owns a 4WD truck.  I will plead with him to take a detour and offer Seb a ride into Chama.  I can't make any promises.  The guy's truck is filled with construction material, workers, and I have no idea how tight his schedule is.  There may not be time nor room, but I will make the effort.

Question for the branch dividians:

Trying to comprehend how the rule structure deals with on again off again , haphazard, or dumb luck food service that is commercial in nature (somewhat in response to the "dubious tortilla salesman" scenario played(ing) itself out near Atlantic city).

Divide racer arrives in a town and is looking for food. Options are "usual franchise" or tasty goodness food truck that is on a cross country tour and happens to be serving in that town on that day. If the divide racer elects to eat the fare at the food truck, is this the apogee of moral turpitude and grounds for relegation since it is not available for all divide racers?

Or scenario 2, divide racer stumbles upon a business that is open only during the month of June. Not available for itt'ers obviously.  The "pure" divide racer will ....Pedal on, right?





 

Grin ;-)

He appears to be moving in the right direction (south).

Bill Littmann's SPOT is back on now and he's on the move.

Jefe a mile north of HORCA.

I rode up FR 250 today and ran into Jefe coming down from Platoro.  I've gotta say (something everyone already knows), Jefe is a machine.

He is in great spirits and although I'm not a psychologist I'll play one on the internet.  If I had to come up with a word that described Jefe's mindset right now it'd be "amused."  He was all smiles.  He's totally in his element. He was psyched and clearly having fun - which says a whole lot considering he'd just come down that rough Platoro road. He didn't appear to be the slightest bit fatigued, at all - at all, and he said he'd been resting up for a big push through New Mexico.  Massive respect for Jefe - incredible job.

Continued from Ovando:


Moments later arriving to  applause from the Scott, Tuan and Jean:

-  Michael McMillan of Louisiana.

Who chimed in with the TDR 2014 Chorus of:  "Richmond Peak was just not fun at all"!

As you can see from the photo his is pedaling a heavy bike hence he has been the chaser the entire time.  It's hard for him to keep up with the lighter bikes.  He is going to Butte and re-evaluate.

And from the look of it we are through for the day and possibly more.  That trail looks mighty empty.  Except for a couple in the far rear our next push will be the NOBO's in the coming week(s).

Carry On!

Good grief, what's he carrying on that bike?  A little gardening equipment?

Sponsor yourself.  You have all the knowledge you need at your fingertips.  You know what I'm  talking about.

I smiled as I typed that.

I feel like dru1962 must be an old classmate messing with my ego buttering me up like that. I bleed green and gold, the bike colors were obviously a tribute to my great alma mater. I really need to make it back there and smoke some weed with dr nazari. Lucky I went to college, without it I would never wait tables and snowboard like I do.

The ma da hey 100. Damn, I need to do that. At the present moment I need to be wealthier too so not sure if its in the cards. If I could score a sponsor then I could probably swing it but not everyone can appreciate the money like dru and my own narcissistic ass.

Check out cjellmoney.com for my grand plan to have tons of folks shower me with big endorsement deals. Surly wants no part of Cjell Money despite him pedaling around their big ass tires and reluctantly loving the shit out of them. 'Woah, those are some big tires...please tell me more about them.' Dammit, I love them.

Sponsor yourself.  You have all the knowledge you need at your fingertips.  You know what I'm  talking about.

Yet another piece of Cjell$ TD lore.  He obviously impressed the hell out of the Back of the Pack Racing dudes -- they inducted him before he could leave the processing station.  Of course, now that he has rediscovered his "steel is real" roots, they may have to reduce his rank for bailing on the titanium Black Sheep (does he still have it? Does it need a home?  Wink! Wink! Nudge! Nudge!).

As a die-hard University of North Dakota fan and grad (twice!) and [team formerly known as the] Fighting Sioux backer, I must say that I cannot wait to finally meet this Cjell$ in person (along with the PBR crew).  He has already become one of my favorite North Dakota State University grads.  If the green and white Blunt rim combo was intentional to set off the golden drive train as a Bison homage, the complexity of this Cjell$ character continues to amaze.  If he just liked the colors -- or it was all that was available -- at least it shows that his run-ins with the oppressive normative attempts of the NDSU Engineering faculty did not totally jade his collegiate experience.

I hope to see that Chinook and its on-board manufacturing capacity out here in Maah Daah Hey Trail country in western North Dakota.  The Maah Daah Hey 100 is not until August 17th -- plenty of time for a road trip, Cjell.  Just sayin'!

Yet another piece of Cjell$ TD lore.  He obviously impressed the hell out of the Back of the Pack Racing dudes -- they inducted him before he could leave the processing station.  Of course, now that he has rediscovered his "steel is real" roots, they may have to reduce his rank for bailing on the titanium Black Sheep (does he still have it? Does it need a home?  Wink! Wink! Nudge! Nudge!).

As a die-hard University of North Dakota fan and grad (twice!) and [team formerly known as the] Fighting Sioux backer, I must say that I cannot wait to finally meet this Cjell$ in person (along with the PBR crew).  He has already become one of my favorite North Dakota State University grads.  If the green and white Blunt rim combo was intentional to set off the golden drive train as a Bison homage, the complexity of this Cjell$ character continues to amaze.  If he just liked the colors -- or it was all that was available -- at least it shows that his run-ins with the oppressive normative attempts of the NDSU Engineering faculty did not totally jade his collegiate experience.

I hope to see that Chinook and its on-board manufacturing capacity out here in Maah Daah Hey Trail country in western North Dakota.  The Maah Daah Hey 100 is not until August 17th -- plenty of time for a road trip, Cjell.  Just sayin'!

Did you know that Cjell $ rode his bike from like Costa Rica or some such to start the TD last year?  I mean, seriously, how does someone do that?  Costa freaking Rica?  Facepalm.....  Good thing he hablas - and he does.

Epilogue....

The Cjell Money La Manga Challenge was a great success.  The goods were sent to Peter Haile and he confirmed that he received them.

So, what's in store for next year?  It has to be something better and more exciting, right?

We're playing around with some ideas, but Cjell $ has indicated he might hang around HORCA next year and challenge riders individually up La Manga.  And, to be exciting, there has to be something to win - right?

So, what we may do is this....  If Cjell $ wants to challenge riders in a one-on-one comp, I may put up 5 Benjamins.  If any of five riders kicks his ass up La Manga, they'll receive a Benjamin on the spot.  If Cjell $ wins, he'll receive the Benjamin - on the spot.  Offer good for five man-on-man races.

Gotta do something to up the ante, right?  There's no entry fee.  There's no risk.  So, who is in?
 
Cjell $ thinks this is easy money.  What do you say?

The latest entrant coming in with a damn good time!  Andrew says he's slow but he made it.  I don't see 1:07 as slow at all.

It's a damn good effort regardless of the fact he had to ride over 2000 miles to get to the start line. 

That town is Chama, NM, and it's about 14 miles off the route (all downhill on the way in and a 14-mile constant uphill grind on the way back - personally, I find the climb out of Chama quite annoying).  Some of the shoulders are narrow, the drivers are insane and the grade is just relentless (for me anyway).

La Manga is steeper, but it's a whole lot shorter.

I think he made the right decision.

Here's P Kraft Sr.'s report:

At 8:47 PM on July 4th, P Kraft Sr. reported a very respectable time of 1:07.

I'll post a pic tomorrow.

He said he dumped half his water, ate a light meal, eliminated all extraneous thoughts, and pushed very hard to try to win the challenge. His Facebook page says he paid dearly for it because he ended up riding the next 70 miles on one liter of water and a granola bar. He's traveling light anyway and doesn't carry much food, no tent, minimal extra clothing, no spare parts, rigid fork/frame, etc.

I don't know how these "minimalist" types do it.  One liter of water wouldn't get me from La Manga to the Las Lagunitas camp ground.  Seriously. I've done that ride and one liter won't do me.  No way....  And he made it to vallecitos?  Ugh!  Good gawd.

"Impressive" doesn't begin to cover it.

Here are the entrants from yesterday.  I'm not sure who left the white piece of paper with the shout-out.

This is unrelated, but some may find it amusing....

I was over half way up La Manga today – labored breathing, but not gasping, when some kind of flying insect flew up my right nostril.  I was in mid-inhale, so he went way up there somewhere and then went spread eagle in an effort to not be consumed.
 
I exhaled as hard as I could and the thing wouldn’t budge.  He had a death grip on something up in my nasal cavity.  I erupted into a fit of uncontrollable sneezing – one right after the other – as I tried to blow him out.  He just wouldn’t budge at all.  I had to stop and unclip, but the fit of raging and uncontrollable sneezing made it very hard.  On one massive inhale in preparation for a big sneeze I was finally able to snork him down.  I wanted to spit him out, but I just wasn’t in full control of the insides of my head at that point and I ended up swallowing him.
 
I just stood there for a minute – eyes watering, nose running, now gasping, hoping I wouldn't vomit....  Ugh!

We had two new contestants today.  I will post pics tomorrow.

It was a monster climb, no question.  I just got an email from him.  He says he's a cat 1 roadie racer.  You young guy are killing me.  I feel proud as hell just to not be lapped a this point - no joke.

I love it -  

I feel like a six year old singing - Yew ca-ant lap me, nanny nanny nanner, yew ca-ant lap me, nanny nanny nanner.   I realize I'm probably the only one that finds that one damn bit amusing or even noteworthy.  LOL