Check out what Dom fought through to finish (per facebook post):

Some questions have been asked why my speed dropped so much in the second half of the race. Here are some of the factors that may have contributed. (1) I strained my left quad muscle 1000 miles in. I could not produce power from my left leg for a couple of days and additionally suffered soft tissue damage due to the change riding position. Producing power meant riding out of the saddle for a couple of days. It did ease and I was ready to race. (2) Then my Di2 failed leaving me riding single speed in a 36:12 set up. I did this for a day, which I found hard. The Di2 then worked momentarily but left me with a 36:44 single speed. To make progress meant using my left leg to ‘scoot’ along the flat and slight inclines. I did this for 250 miles over two days until I could collect the replacement part a bike shop sent to me to Wise River. (3) Di2 fixed. I then discovered a bottom bracket issue. The bottom bracket shell had become so distorted that the bearing could not be screwed into the frame. I bought a cheap bike and swapped as many parts over as I could. I found this new bike was OK but soon had numb hands and fingers. After this, I ate a sweet which shattered a tooth in my mouth and incredibly the next day did the same again. I had to be cautious about what I ate and how I ate it. I think these things affected my performance.

Here's an update from SS killer Gary Pellas, who's laid up in Kremmling at the moment - https://www.instagram.com/p/BkKkF0nhCbQ/?taken-by=gggpellas

Joined the right FB group now - thanks guys!

About Richard Dunnett,
"Update:
So the Divide bit back yesterday. [...]"

Hey bikelite - where are these updates being posted? I'm not seeing them on either of their facebook or instagrams, so clearly I'm looking in the wrong places. Thanks for sharing!

I'm doing it on a fixed next year.  

I ride fixed around town and did the TD SS in '13 (for the 3rd place in that category), and all I can say is that doing the route *fixed* seems unnecessarily miserable -- coasting the downhills is the best part!!

To the questions above re gearing, 33x19 is popular (Jefe, Long Ranger Justin, etc), I ran 32x18, and Chris P is currently tearing it up on a 32x16. (All on 29ers, of course.) As they say: only one gear, and it's always the wrong one.

@Josh Kato: I'm still bummed about your drop. Was so excited to watch you and Mike battle it out on the sharp end for two weeks.

Watch her finish LIVE any minute now...

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=478421919025673&id=138893949645140

So what does a ~14 day run look like in terms of total daily stoppage time in towns / resupplying / eating at restaurants, etc?

Doing some research, I may be wrong about the current overall SS Record. Seems that last year,  Calvin Decker finished off in 18 days 5 hours, which would have beaten Plesko's long-standing time.

Only problem is, he didn't ride it SS.

Just found this confirming piece of evidence on his blog:

"The first 3 days went well, day 4 was a bit of a let down, and day 5 came to be a giant turning point in the race. In the morning I felt good, and headed out early toward Ovando in hopes to make up some lost time from the day before, only to discover it would be my biggest loss of the whole trip. It was about 35 degrees and a driving rain. I was wringing water out of my gloves without taking them off. I could not feel my feet, nothing I was wearing was dry. I was now riding a single speed. No, the bike worked fine, but I couldn’t shift because my hands were too cold."

http://calvinrdecker.blogspot.com/2014/07/tour-divide-more-than-silly-bike-race.html

This is a nice analysis, thanks.

Add to this that ML has run a few numbers (estimates at best) for JP on the new routes: 

The Fish Creek section (Union Pass) was 35 minutes longer than the old route.
The Wamsutter route was 4 hours faster.

This is comparing 2015 JP to 2012 JP.  Multiply by some factor to get estimates for slower riders.

So it would seem Mike was riding *significantly* faster still.  He didn't warm up with ITI and AZT750, though...

Oodles of great racing going on out there.  Heat could be the biggest thing to mix things up in the coming days.  It's been quite warm even at 9000 feet in Colorado.
 

While we're talking times, it's worth remembering that Mike definitely let off the gas in NM once the official record was off the table and there were no chasers for days:

http://halfpastdone.com/2013/06/26/tour-divide-day-13-holding-out-for-pie/

Whoa, I'm just now realizing the route doesn't go through Rawlins this year... by a long shot. Is this among the larger of (non-fire related) reroutes in recent years?

Full services in Wamsutter?

The guy who built Neil's wheelset noticed that it looks like he's missing some spokes up front -- anybody have any intel on that?

And the rail trail begins...

As the sun is setting on the east coast, a question for vets: which sections of the route would you LEAST like to hit at night, for whatever reason(s)? The descent into Radium? Lava Mtn? Richmond Peak (if snowy)?

I did a lot of night riding in '13 and the midnight descent down the Watershed Divide (I think?) just after the Brush Mtn Lodge sticks out as being fun but sketchy. Also flying down Galton Pass, and conversely the flooded and super rocky downhill HAB into Mogollon on the second fire reroute come to mind, also all in the dark..

Yall's boy Cjell $ was on pace to beat the SS record as a nobo in '13 until the route got totally flooded out in Banff. His border to border time had a 15 handle IIRC.

(Or would that have just become a standalone nobo record, with Chris's still standing for sobo? I can't remember what the consensus is on that.)

Remind me again where that problematic S Fk Poorman Ck turn is..?

I too had my bear spray visible (in a holster thing between my Spot pouch and seat bag) and the border guys didn't give a hoot..

This might be a stupid question, but with regards to shipping bike vs having on the plane? Cheaper or better? And spray for yogi the bear and alcohol for stove. Can those things be found up there? Not sure you can bring that stuff on the plane.

Good questions...
--fly with your bike since having it get caught up in Customs would suck,
--bear spray is available in the outfitter on the main drag in Banff (an easy walk from the Y, or anywhere you'd be staying, really)
--and I'm sure alcohol is just as available given the stores there, but I'd recommend a re-think of whether you really want to carry a cook kit. Even if ultralight (pepsi can stove, Ti pot or Fosters can, etc), it's still not needed and I don't think many folks run them. Hot coffee in the morning *would* be rad, but that's just extra motivation to get to the next town stop quicker..

(I lived in Charlottesville for a long time, btw. Love Va!)

Wow that sucks. What interface were you using between dynamo and GPS? Ewerk? I was planning in running a very similar setup this year (Sp PD-8x hub with etrex 30 and probably an ewerk interface or similar). Has anyone else had their GPS unit fail like that while being run off a dynamo hub?

I was running the Reecharge between my SON and devices. It worked well (unless it fried my Garmin ) but it doesn't work with the new gen Apple lightning charger so I had to charge my iPod and iPhone separately. For lighting I used the Exposure Revo, which I really liked. Did lots of comfy night riding with it.

This may be an opportune moment to ask a Q about powering the GPS.

Last time I rode with an Etrex HCX and a fist full of batteries. This time I have the SON dynamo laced to some plastic wheels. The question is; how good is the mini USB connector in this unit and is there an issue with the plug working loose/ damaging the socket in the unit?

The socket is on the underneath of the unit (so quite well protected from the weather) but my thoughts are that the wire will come out...

Hey Rob, I ran a SON dynamo to my eTrex 30 in TD'13 and my Garmin failed spectacularly and decisively coming down Boreas Pass into Como just after the Gold Dust Trail, and I suspect that I fried the unit by always having it running off my hub. Don't know, and others have run the same setup with no problems.

So I rolled into Como and got online at the Depot (GREAT place) and tried to troubleshoot the problem to no avail; stayed the night and rode the next straightforward section to Salida where I got a cyclometer and ran that + maps/cues (which I was already carrying) from there on out with no issues or miscues.

Additionally (while we're all talking nav), I loaded the route as two ~10k point tracks, and when the second track kicked in just south of Helena *it was backwards*. That was a bit of scare since I wasn't too familiar with the unit, but I was able to reverse the track and be on the way.

All that to say, if I do TD again I'd be tempted to go cues+cyclo as *primary* nav setup and GPS for confirmation (which is precisely what MLee recommends, incidentally). I felt significantly more connected to the route and terrain and just generally way more tuned in to what was going on and what was up ahead when I was running off the cues, and I'm also now leery of being so dependent on the GPS for my whereabouts.

YMMV and RYOR and all that, just thought I'd share my experience.

Ron

Hey Don, when did you move to Greenville from the low country?? Nice work - let's ride.

Mark S. and Mike Pierce have been working together on that Palmetto/TNGA recon... sensing a beer + pizza + trail talk night soon...