fall divide race? -"Divided We Fall"

[JF-mtnbiker]

Spoke to JP yesterday as he came off the rail trail and warm river campground making way for WY. He had a hard time getting to Banff for the start. He was not well rested when he started and suffered pain and fatigue for days. He added some extra sleep time and said he is starting to come around physically and seems to be getting his second wind. He is in real good spirits, laughing about the raccoon that woke him up that morning and is looking to catch the rider a days ride in front of him. Riding comfortable now... His plan was to run on about 3-4 hrs of sleep. He liked that system doing the RAAM ride. Seems that the adjustment to more sleep has allowed him to get that JP grit back. As some of you know, working through the pain of that first week + through Montana is always a boost too. Lots of body adjustments, bear anxiety. Riding totally alone, knowing you are not going to run into other racers out there is mentally tough. A true ITT.
Been cold nights and mornings in WY (30-40) but the days are perfect temp and beautiful for riding. Looks like mild wind forcasted for his great basin crossing tommorrow. He's got a good run going.

[stappy]

Hey everyone. I'm humbled by all of the attention. I pulled out the night before last just before Pinedale. I've been struggling with what I think is a partially torn quad right above the left knee. Self induced from getting to excited and climbing to hard. The last few days I would try and take time to recover but by the second half of each day it was painful and every peddle stroke was tedious. At the end I was reduced to walking the final pitches on a bone dry Union pass. I wasn't having fun anymore, it's funny how your mind can work against you as soon as you start to have problems. At that point I decided to pull out. I loved the course, I was pleasantly surprised by the quality of the climbs and trail like quality of the roads in Montana. I keep looking around thinking, this is spectacular, how come I haven't seen this view in a picture before? Maybe the Divide has too many spectacular vistas to ever completely capture. Thank you Erik for the start date, I'm sorry we didn't get to meet up. The conditions I faced were fast and definitely an advantage. I had one half hour rain storm outside Butte and perfect ground conditions throughout. A minor heat wave in Montana would be the only none ideal element. I would like to congratulate JP on his ride to this point, I'm confident he'll break the record. Thanks to all those who have gone before and been so generous with posting their setups. I've certainly borrowed. Divide racing is hard, everyone who has finished one of these is amazing. Matt you are mind boggling and the hard men from this spring, wow!
Craig Stappler.

[Mathewsen]

Hey everyone. I'm humbled by all of the attention.

Craig, that kind of deep suffering attracts attention...

So...dang! I'm just in from a scratch of my own at TNGA. So sorry to hear about the quad; kind of like 'throwing a rod' in your engine.

At TD HQ we've been pulling hard for you. You were going so well...and yes, i recall the years of dry roads well and how uplifting it can be. You helped demonstrate the speed model goes beyond 'La Primavera', the 'Spring classic' (grand depart). Thanks for capturing our imaginations, and ditto on the treat a scenic doubletrack route can be when one is covering 150+mi/day along the Conti Divide.

RAAM may claim to be the hardest grand tour (debatable), Tour de France claims to be the greatest, but Tour Divide is perhaps the most beautiful and personally satisfying, which in many books, places it beyond the typical superlatives.

Get some rest! Welcome to the veteran club. We look forward to your day of redemption. No doubt you'll go even faster 2nd time around.

[rfutah]

Great Job Craig.  Watching you inspires me for next year.  Look forward to future efforts.

[Adam Alphabet]

Great job Craig,

I thought of you out on my ride the morning we went on our separate paths. I would leisurely be rolling out of camp at 8:30 knowing you had already hammered out a tonne of miles or boiling water for dinner at the end of the day knowing you had many miles ahead of you... it kept me motivated. And you guys were right, jumping pound was spectacular, so many great trails out there, It was an amazing trip.

Rest up over the next few months, we'll have to get an exploratory adventure in next spring/summer up in the Chilcotins with Scott.
It was great to meet you and I look forward to riding with you one day.

Great Job man.
Adam.

[elobeck]

Sorry to hear about Craig...it was a noble effort while it lasted and he obviously had his crosshairs on AW.

Meanwhile,

Anyone know if JP is on track for a record?

[pbasinger]

He is several hours ahead of ML's time from 09, but right on track to John Nobile's record border to border time from 08.

Jay and I have talked about this so I know he has both records in his crosshairs.  

MLs 09 time from Canada is ~17 d 23 h  (is this right?  I always thought it was faster)
JNs 08 GDR record is 15 d 1 h

Tacking on Canada in race mode for these guys adds about 29 h.
So the target, is about 16 d 6 hr.  That is, John Nobile's time plus the added Canada section.  Obviously just an estimate.

As far as I can tell, he is on track to hit that if he maintains his average of 165-67 per day.  When John set his record he ramped up his milage considerably towards Antelope Wells, but I think the overall average still worked out to 165 or so.


p

[BobM]

JayP is amazing!

Does anyone know if the New Mexico portion of the route is all open now after all the fires?

[rfutah]

JayP is amazing!

Does anyone know if the New Mexico portion of the route is all open now after all the fires?

Santa Fe NF still has closure on FR 27, but exemptions are available.  Don't know what their enforcement is like.

Official website info: http://www.fs.fed.us/r3/sfe/newsroom/2011/20110729OrderNo10358StageIIIRestrictionsLasConchas.pdf
This order is still in effect for clean-up reasons, I believe.

[BobM]

Given JayP's past record it will take an armed guard to keep him out if it's safe to proceed.

[elobeck]

Given JayP's past record it will take an armed guard to keep him out if it's safe to proceed.

hmmmm that could spark another CTR-like trail closure thread. Hopefully we won't have to cross that bridge and it will be clean

[THE LONG RANGER]

hmmmm that could spark another CTR-like trail closure thread. Hopefully we won't have to cross that bridge and it will be clean

The rules of the CTR and TD are different in this respect - the CTR has the, "Don't break the law" rule, TD does not!

[BobM]

The rules of the CTR and TD are different in this respect - the CTR has the, "Don't break the law" rule, TD does not!

Right - TD is basically a semi-structured ITT rather than an organized race.  Besides, what I was referring to was JayP's penchant for inserting common sense into bureaucracy.  If there was a good reason for a lone bicyclist not to enter those areas I'm sure he wouldn't.

[ScottM]

Got to meet JayP at Absolute Bikes this evening.  The guy is so laid back about his riding and effort, like it is no big deal to be where he is as fast as he is.

He wasn't a fan of the Gold Dust trail with a rigid fork and slippery rocks, though.  It's going to be interesting to see if he takes the alternates in New Mexico.  Would be cool if he sets a new standard to stick with the official GDMBR there.

[carlhutch]

"As far as I can tell, he is on track to hit that if he maintains his average of 165-67 per day.  When John set his record he ramped up his milage considerably towards Antelope Wells, but I think the overall average still worked out to 165 or so".

You might remember that John had issues in Butte and had changed into some casual clothes and was hanging out there.Im not sure how long he stayed there before he got going again.He also stayed i think a day in Platoro.That made his ride all the more impressive.I often wondered how much quicker he could of gone without delays but then it opens up that question about ratio of rest to progress.Impressive none the less.

[annoying crack]

He wasn't a fan of the Gold Dust trail with a rigid fork and slippery rocks, though.

Do I read that right, he took Gold Dust down? As far as I know, that's not part of the official 2011 route. It's not mentioned on the official maps and is not mentioned on the tourdivide.org website (anymore?).

[woody]

Do I read that right, he took Gold Dust down? As far as I know, that's not part of the official 2011 route. It's not mentioned on the official maps and is not mentioned on the tourdivide.org website (anymore?).

Yep - on his call-in that is title "somewhere outside Breckenridge"  he said he did it and he was not a fan on a fully rigid rig loaded down, but would be nice on a 5" FS bike.

Woody
 

[BobM]

Do I read that right, he took Gold Dust down? As far as I know, that's not part of the official 2011 route. It's not mentioned on the official maps and is not mentioned on the tourdivide.org website (anymore?).

It was added to the official route (TourDivide only) for this year.  I haven't heard any good comments from fully loaded racers.

[woody]

It was added to the official route (TourDivide only) for this year.  I haven't heard any good comments from fully loaded racers.

Yep - I do it several times a year as a loop, but not loaded and doing 150+ miles a day and it's fun.

Woody

[BobM]

Yep - I do it several times a year as a loop, but not loaded and doing 150+ miles a day and it's fun.

Woody

That was my impression - great ride on an unloaded bike with a beer at the end of the trail.