Sara Dallman is about to leave Jacob Lake, headed for the finish.  She's trying to find transport to St. George, as she needs to be able to get her bike shipped home and get on a plane back to Ohio.  Is there anyone local who can get her to St. George.  Obviously, she's happy to compensate the time and expense.  So far, she's only found someone who will take her to Page, which has no real bike shipping options, or maybe, grudgingly, to Kanab, which has no airport.  If she could get all the way to St. George by tonight, that would be ideal.  Any suggestions??  Thanks in advance!

Sara Dallman is about to leave Jacob Lake, headed for the finish.  She's trying to find transport to St. George, as she needs to be able to get her bike shipped home and get on a plane back to Ohio.  Is there anyone local who can get her to St. George.  Obviously, she's happy to compensate the time and expense.  So far, she's only found someone who will take her to Page, which has no real bike shipping options, or maybe, grudgingly, to Kanab, which has no airport.  If she could get all the way to St. George by tonight, that would be ideal.  Any suggestions??  Thanks in advance!

Any ideas what's going on with Greg Thompson?  After heading south from Pie Town on route for a substantial ways, he's now been heading east from Pie Town for a while.  Heading to Datil?  Seems from his stops in Pie Town on the way back through he might have had some trouble.  I sure hope this isn't the end of his race.  If you haven't had a chance to read his blog posts yet, you should.  Very engaging, informative and touching.  Best to GT.

How do racers learn about the detours?

Denis' reading of the rules (and what he was advised when he inquired) is more like the impression I'd had from reading up on the race, which is why I was surprised that their plan to ride together was so publicly acknowledged, yet generated no discussion.  It would seem to me inconsistent to say that I cannot have a friend come cheer me on the side of the trail for 2 minutes as I pedal by and cannot ask someone for assistance with directions, but can have a friend who is familiar with the course ride the race alongside me, providing encouragement and flawless navigation, if not food and water.

Oh, and to be clear:  I haven't asked that anyone be scrapped from the results.  I agree it isn't my place to do that.  I think any "protests" ought to be lodged by another racer, if at all.  I was merely inquiring how the rules would be applied where others had already blatantly acknowledged what appeared to me a pretty clear violation of a rule that had already been discussed at some length relative to other racers on the course.

I agree that if two people want to ride the Divide together, they should.  I don't think they should be ranked against racers who are at a relative disadvantage to them because they followed the rules and did the race solo.  I also agree that racers who happen to ride together because they're of similar abilities and enjoy each other's company isn't a problem.  But that isn't the situation I was addressing.  If by "solo" the organizers simply mean one carries his or her own gear, and does not intend to exclude the significant other advantages obtained by riding end-to-end with another, veteran racer, then that should probably be made clear in the rules, so other racers have the option of similar advantages.  That's certainly not consistent with the plain language of the rule, though.   

[Elena/Marco]

The Elena/Marco duo camped with GregL at the Beaverhead on July 3rd.  The Italians never stopped riding after they left the Beaverhead on the morning of the 4th, reaching the Separ store at midnight, and the border at about 6:40am on July 5 (101.86 mpd). 

Amy, thanks much for all the great statistical analysis.  You obviously have followed the race closely and with a keen interest.  I wonder if you can answer a question I posed earlier on the forum.  I don't see that anyone has addressed it yet.  I'm curious as to whether Elena/Marco will be officially ranked?  There was a fair bit of discussion on the forum about Craig and Ollie traveling together at times, even though they clearly had no arrangement to ride together.  I've not seen anything similar with respect to the Italian "duo," however.  Are the rules simply less strict for those riders further down the finish roster?  Clearly, Elena and Marco did not chance to ride the entire route together.  There was a mention of the fact that Marco is a veteran who has ridden the route in 19 days before.  Elena basically had a pacesetter and coach throughout the ride, then.  It seems to me it would be setting a really bad precedent to allow them to be ranked.  It essentially negates the "no teams" rule, doesn't it?

SaraD mentioned to me that Steven Martine is trying to finish in time for his little girl's birthday - sending him strong, positive energy to the finish!

Unfortunate? Maybe he wanted to do the whole route with no alternatives. It's slower and harder but certainly more beautiful and remote. He's seeing country that none of the other racers will.

Oh, I couldn't agree more if he intended that choice - but if he simply didn't know better and would have made a different choice, unfortunate.

Sara D informed me that the official race cue sheet instructed her to take the route Prentiss is now taking out of Cuba, though the redline on her gps directed her to the Chaco Alternate route.  She looked back through all of her pre-race briefing materials and found nothing about the Chaco Alternate.  Needless to say, she was thrilled when she realized that was an alternate.  It's unfortunate Prentiss went with the cue sheet, instead.

Any word from Greg Strauser lately?  He appears to be WAY off course south of Breckenridge.  Hope all is well.

EDIT: Oh, never mind that.  I see he went off-route north of Silverthorne, as well.  Looks like he's decided to keep pedaling to an unofficial finish?

Marco is a veteran with a ride of 19 days (last year?), this year he is taking it easy, riding along with Elena.  I would love to hear his thoughts on the tow different styles of riding.  Also if he misses not being in the "race" this year.

So, are they in the race?  Will they be ranked if they're riding the whole route together?

For folks who've commented on wanting more news from riders on the trail, I'll mention that I've been updating Sara Dallman's individual tracker page each day/night with updates from her, as a way of communicating her progress and experience to friends and family back home.  You can click on any individual racer and be taken to his or her tracker page, where you'll find a message board at the bottom similar to this one, but particular to that rider, of course.  I don't know how many other riders have similar blogs that have sprung up, but if you're looking for more news and information from the trail, that's one place to look.  I started keeping detailed notes about stops and mileage because Sara told me she just hadn't had the time and energy to keep her race diary, as she had planned to do.  I'm intending to print out all of these posts near the end of her ride, so she'll have a record of what I've recorded for her, as well as the words of encouragement and inspiration shouted out from her friends and family along the way.

My donation to Trackleaders and MTBCast is in celebration of the remarkable determination and heart shown by Tracy Burge in persisting and then coming back after being plagued by sickness so bad she thought she couldn't go on, and the unbelievable strength and competitive spirit of Sara Dallman, who has ridden her heart out trying to make up for lost time the first few days of the race.  It brings tears to my eyes every time I think about what you two are going through out there - couldn't be prouder!  Many thanks to Trackleaders and MTBCast for bringing this phenomenal race to us back home.   

Sorry - I intended that comment to go under the TD discussion, and now I can't delete this new topic!

My donation to Trackleaders and MTBCast is in celebration of the remarkable determination and heart shown by Tracy Burge in persisting and then coming back after being plagued by sickness so bad she thought she couldn't go on, and the unbelievable strength and competitive spirit of Sara Dallman, who has ridden her heart out trying to make up for lost time the first few days of the race.  It brings tears to my eyes every time I think about what you two are going through out there - couldn't be prouder!  Many thanks to Trackleaders and MTBCast for bringing this phenomenal race to us back home.   

So, I've been keeping an eye on some friends in the middle of the pack, but you all have totally drawn me into the drama of Craig v. Ollie and the pedal issue in Grants.  I don't see where anyone has yet made note of the fact that one of Craig's lengthy stops in Grants was at a Ford dealership.  That's the location in the northwest corner where he spent something like an hour and a half, after his first visit to Wal-Mart.  So, maybe he got a pedal, but then had a problem with installation (like, threads on the crank stripped out so the pedal wouldn't screw on?  I believe that's what happened to a participant in an adventure race I directed last year).  Just my bit of detective work for the evening.  Like all of you, I would sure hate to see his race end there.

Kudos to Tracy Burge for fighting the good fight.  She started the race with a nasty stomach virus she caught on the ride to Banff and she was never really healthy after that.  She battled back from a 2-day stop in Whitefish to get her protein levels back up, edema in her legs down and IT band within a tolerable level of pain.  She rallied for a while, but after leaving Butte, found herself suffering from dehydration, facial numbness, nausea, and the sense to know she needed to stop and take care of herself.  Tracy's tolerance level for pain is off the charts (she has no ACL in one knee, but you'd never know it to watch her adventure race), and she'd been living/eating/breathing this race for months and months.  For her to pull out, she must really be suffering.  Huge thanks to all those folks who showed her compassion along the way.  It's part of what the race was about for her, and we'll look forward to hearing her recount your many kindnesses when she gets back home.  Rest assured she'll remember them for years to come.  We continue to cheer on Sara Dallman, who lives just a few miles from Tracy back in Ohio and was her training partner for the TD.  She'll be heartbroken to hear that Tracy had to stop, but she's got a steely-eyed focus on that finish line.  She had a monster day today in order to make Pinedale.  She's built for endurance, and she's just hitting her stride, it seems.  All the best to everyone out there.