2012 TDR LOI's

[mcmurv]

Im planning on a s to n trip starting june 1st if snowpack allows

Dave, come with me on a NOBO trip on 20 May.  Please?

[Slowerthensnot]

Dave, come with me on a NOBO trip on 20 May.  Please?

could work dependent on snowpack

[DocTrike]

Count me in for 2012 unless something huge happens at the factory and I don't get my ride done in time. First ever TDR trike rider......glad to be first for something. I will probably be driving up to Banff. Although I still have this idea of a tandem TDR ride dancing in my head.

[phil_rad]

Cool, you have any pictures of your rig?

[DocTrike]

No, not yet the new bike design is a chopped down version of an older design, that we converted to crank forward. I will add a photoshopped image to my profile of what it should look like. It is still in development I am riding the original design now.


This is not a recumbent, it's a crank forward.

 

[DenisVTT]

I'm compiling a list of declared 2012 TD riders. It is on a shared Google Docs spreadsheet:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0Ami9kLAhoE7GdHNKN2xQSTA4T0JiRmMxaUJlc01UbEE

Anyone with the link can update. If you are in for 2012, enter your info in there. I'll occasionally sort the list, do a count, etc...

Unless it gets updated at some point, I'll also try to have a link to this list published in the official TD web site start list menu. 

[woody]

Looks great Denis.

Maybe Scott or another bikepacking admin could make this a "sticky" so it always stays at the top underneath the 2012 Calendar.

Woody

[DocTrike]

I added myself to your doc

[vmjim]

Since the Subject of this form is 2012 TDR LOI’s, I’m throwing my out here…
This is my Letter of Insanity…I mean Letter of Intent to participate in the insane Tour Divide Race.  My objectives are simple.  1) Start in Banff and finish in Antelope Wells …alive (not become a bear turd along the way), still able to walk and comprehend what day it is. 2) Finish within the cutoff period and be eligible for General Classification. 3) Beat everyone who quits.  Easy, piece of cake, I have a bike like Matthew’s, I’m golden.  My fear, I might end up in Butte crying for mommy with knees the size of watermelons. 
Seriously, preparing the bike is easy.  Preparing and testing the mind, body and spirit for this great adventure is the challenge I’m looking forward to.  I’m undecided as to whether to do the Grand Start or ITT.  Due to the popularity of the documentary film Ride the Divide (now on Netflix), I expect over 100 participants at the Grand Start.  There won’t be a hotel room available or food on the shelf at convenience stores along the route with those numbers starting all at once.  I might wait 3-4 days to start an ITT. 
My training track is the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal tow path (186.4 dirt miles) and the Great Allegany Passage trail (141 dirt miles) in Maryland and Pennsylvania.  It only has one 2300 ft. climb.  I have to go up and down it at least four times in a day to come close to anything the TDR offers. 

Jim in Germantown MD.

[Chuku3]

The tour divide is another piece of my life puzzle. There is no other way for me to keep living my life, so I have no choice but to do it. This coming June I'll be in Banff, starting a great journey with a single pedal stroke...
Hanoch Redlich
Israel

[B_Bock]

Time to stop dreaming and do!
I intend to ride the Tour Divide as an ITT leaving from Banff the morning of June 19th.
Today I turned 50, and I received a gift of 3+ weeks to ride as fast as I'm able from Banff, Canada to Antelope Wells, NM along  the Great Divide Route.  There is no greater gift than time on The Great Divide.    

Blake Bockius
Truckee, CA

[sluttyduck]

I'm in June 30th ITT

[Foster]

Count me in

After changing my mind not to enter the Tour Divide back in December and becoming completely obsessive with climbing again, I have once again changed my mind which is not surprising. I can just envision me wanting to get off of my bike every 10 miles to go climb all the untouched rock. But I figure I can spend some time on the bike this summer but hopefully not too much...sorry climbing gear I'll be back in one month. So unless my bike vaporizes I am going to make it all the way to Mexico. yay.


Eric Foster
Flagstaff, AZ

[Endurance Junkie]

That makes 5 from AZ 4 from Tucson!

[Foster]

I expect over 100 participants at the Grand Start.  There won’t be a hotel room available or food on the shelf at convenience stores along the route with those numbers starting all at once.  I might wait 3-4 days to start an ITT.  


Jim in Germantown MD.

You make a very good point here about supplies along the route.  Any one that has done the route think this will be an issue?  I'm not worried about it cause I think I will be further up in the pack. But for those that are near the end of the pack during the first week when the pack is tighter may have resupply issues?  I have never done the TD before but I know how sparse the resupplies are and would expect some of them to be pretty small convenient stores.

[Foster]

That makes 5 from AZ 4 from Tucson!

Sweet!  Who all is going?

[phil_rad]

You make a very good point here about supplies along the route.  Any one that has done the route think this will be an issue?  I'm not worried about it cause I think I will be further up in the pack. But for those that are near the end of the pack during the first week when the pack is tighter may have resupply issues?  I have never done the TD before but I know how sparse the resupplies are and would expect some of them to be pretty small convenient stores.

I don't know the whole route but up in the north it shouldn't be a problem. There are some what larger towns up there with more than one store and or grocery stores. Where it could be a problem is in small places like Ovando, or Atlantic City in WY.

[DenisVTT]

You make a very good point here about supplies along the route.  Any one that has done the route think this will be an issue?  I'm not worried about it cause I think I will be further up in the pack. But for those that are near the end of the pack during the first week when the pack is tighter may have resupply issues?  I have never done the TD before but I know how sparse the resupplies are and would expect some of them to be pretty small convenient stores.

I don't think there will be resupply issues anywhere along the route. The only thing I could see being an issue is finding a motel room in Elkford the first day. There's a couple of motels and they're often full. One solution: there's a municipal campground, which may also be full but it's big enough that they will likely find you some space for a bivy or a one-person tent. The other solution: carry on to Sparwood, no issues there!

[cjellmoney]

It is my full intent to be present in Antelope Wells come the second Friday of June.  Preparing to be humbled; excited as hell.

-Cjell Monee (TZ)

[Beardog]

forget the hotels - they make you soft-there is enough ground along the 2700 miles for more than 100 racers and stores are plentiful for restock if you don't stop more than once a day--100 is probably more than will show on 6/8 - and the ride out together is worth the juice for the first 30 miles or so and then the field thins considerably--last year I saw no more than 10 people the whole route and several days in a row with ZERO--

Just Ride the Divide (the rest works out on the way)--