Super late to this thread. I've seen mention of it in stories in The Cordillera and I did it at Holland Lake Campground in 2015 to escape the wind coming off the lake. Three racers at the campground at the time, and 4 other campers, 1 in a pop-up camper, and 3 in RVs that obviously had their own facilities. Multiple Montana Hilton's at the campground, so I didn't personally have any issues using one of them to sleep in. The one I chose smelled and looked like it had been just cleaned, so I felt it was "safe enough" to use. Had it been the only unit at the campground, I certainly would have figured something else out. 6+ years later, and I'd probably make a different choice.

Personally, I concentrate on the distance between turns to keep my brain awake, but I also pay attention to the odometer readings, which may be off if you've gone off course. I usually run a small standard cycling computer in conjunction with a GPS to track mileage (belt and suspenders). A headlamp is useful for reading cues at night. Make sure you have something to keep your cues dry and well attached to your bike.

Some RDs will reset the cuesheet mileage to zero once you've reached a checkpoint, so you can reset your computer to 0 and remove any inconsistencies at a couple of points during the race.  We will be doing that for Wind and Rock as well.

HughieP, thanks for digging this thread out of the archives. Comming up on the three year anniversary since my Divide ride. Toughest thing I've ever done physically as well as mentally. But I miss being out there so damn much.

A fellow 2015 alum?

This has probably been answered somewhere in the past but how does the Koko Claims reroute compare to the old Elkford, Sparwood, Corbin, Flathead route? Yes Koko is a nasty climb but there was a big climb out of Elkford on the old route, then another up from Corbin too. Just asking as to the relevance of the green pace flags being the old route versus this new one?

The climb out of Elkford is somewhat steep, but paved, and a fairly steady grade. I think it hurt more because it was the first thing out of the gate when I left Elkford in the AM. The climb up from Corbin wasn't too bad from my recollection, but there was the "road that became a river" on the back side of it that required some HAB. Based on the photos I've seen, I'd say the Koko route is probably tougher.
 from a riding standpoint (but I haven't ridden it).

https://www.instagram.com/p/Bj2O4aXBeAj/?taken-by=baileygenenew

Snow up on Red Meadow.

Ramdom musings

- Following Greg Gleason, Bailey Newbrey, Kevin Hinton, fellow Iowan Andrew Cohen, Marty Johnson, and Nick Leagan closely for personal reasons.
- Following Hal Russell, because Hal Russell.
- Following Brian Jett because he's a fellow 2015 GD racer

- Good to see Gary Johnson got his missed turn figured out quickly
- Looks like Marty Johnson passed Separ (NOBO) and went back for some reason

Hoping everyone has an awesome, memorable, and honorable race.

I swore I was one and done, but every year, I find myself yearning a little bit more to make my way back to Banff. I also considered volunteering at Brush Mountain Lodge just to keep the yearning at bay

In no particular order, based on my limited knowledge

Eddie O'Dea
Andrew Carney
Greg Gleason

Others to watch, as I'm guessing they are going for the Triple Crown -
Mark Caminiti
Brett Stepanik

The route is different - does that help?

Bob - Actually, the new reroute and some of the photos I've seen of it really sparked something in me the last couple of weeks. This blog post also got the adventure saliva running a bit for me as well - http://longranger.justinsimoni.com/2017/01/10/making-the-great-divide-mountain-bike-route-even-greater-rollins-passargentine-pass/

Maybe I just need to get out there again, and ride most of the route, but take a few side trips to make it different. *shrug*

I have said numerous times I would never race the route again, but man, the draw keeps getting stronger...

I think 2015 was the first year for that earlier turn off of Togwotee Pass. Once you made the push up to the top, that entire section of the route was absolutely beautiful. Decent two track just wandering it's way across the CD. The fields along there were in full wildflower bloom and the smell was absolutely intoxicating. One of many favorite memories of my race that year.

2015 was a snow free year as well. It was weird, after seeing the hiking people did in 2014.  I toured the route with friends the last week of July 2014 from Port of Rooseville south. Locals said that the avalanche debris had just gotten cleaned up the week before we rode. Still quite a bit of snow on the sides of the road at the top of Whitefish Divide.

Wamsutter is not

The Wamsutter reroute that was used starting in 2015 isn't part of the official ACA GDMBR, it's something that Matthew worked on for the Tour Divide to get around expected road construction, and heavy truck traffic due to the building of a windfarm.

FWIW, I have 2 full length brake cables tucked into the space between the stiffener and favric in a Revelate Jerry Can that pretty much always stay in the home (Bb7s). When I mount the Rohloff I put 2 shift cables in the other side.

Good to know I'm not the only one that uses that spot to store cables. It's perfect.

Late to the convo, but when I last flew with my bike, I put the bike and all of my gear, in bags, in one box and still came in under the airline combined weight/size limit. This will, of course, depend on your bike and what you're bringing. Based on your description,  it sounds like standard bikepacking bags.

Adze Lite has worked well for me for editing existing tracks (combining/splitting/etc). Topofusion in a VM also works well too.

I will also add that knowing resupply points and hours of operation is also big.  Regardless of moving time/speed, one can easily tank 12+hrs by pulling into a small hamlet at 8:15p tired, hungry, wet, dirty, etc, when the place shut down at 8 and there's nothing for another 100+ miles up and over 2 more mtn passes.  Or roll in after hours on a Monday night and come to find out on the spot that the only mini-mart/grill/lodge store/shack in town is closed on Tuesdays.

This. i kept extra weight in calories on the bike just in case this happened (saved me more than once). I also kept a list of towns, or restauraints, with resupplies and distances to the next resupply point on my bars. That helped with deciding where I was going to stop, especially when they were close (Silverthorne, Frisco, Breck for instance)

Did/do you race with a power meter? Since I started training with one, I added one to my TD bike. I CANNOT see racing without one. It gives me exactly the data needed to stay at a sustainable pace.

I trained with a Stages meter for about 1.5 years before the race, and raced with it last year. I definitely did not have my face in my Garmin for the race, but on the climbs an occasional glance down on climbs or at higher altitudes to check my power output was usually all it took to keep me from doing anything too stupid. I will say that after using one for so long, I had a fairly good idea of what my power output was just based on breathing patterns. It took me a couple of days to lock that in being in the mountains vs the great plains.

I finished in 24:17:02 last year (2015), which made me the last person in under 25 days that didn't deviate from the route, (that was being tracked on Trackleaders), so I averaged about 111 or so per day. My low mileage day was 38, and my high mileage day was 195. Pace obviously depended on road surface, elevation, etc. My fastest day from a speed standpoint was the pavement from Cuba to Grants on Day 22, where my moving average was 15.3. I had a couple of days where my moving average was under 10 MPH.

Things that helped me keep things in perspective during the race were:

• You're not going to win it on the first day, but you can certainly lose it.
• I'm a diesel, and I know I can only go in the red so many times before I have issues, so I tried to keep my HR and power levels in the high Z2 to mid Z3 as much as possible
• Everyone underestimates how tough New Mexico is, so I wanted to leave some in the tank for that last week.

An hour on an unloaded XC rig vs an hour on a bike with all of your gear plus food/water might have you not feeling as worried about 12 MPH feeling ridiculously slow.

We had no issues with the Border Patrol officers coming back into the US last year (I am a US citizen). I had my paper passport with me. I have a friend that went in 2013 and came across with no issues using the card.