TD'11 Race Discussion

[mr cowboy]

Took an early distance ride today and came back by Tetonia in time to find the SB ladies leader Caroline Soong. She was riding with Itt'er Rob Culliver. Both were making a b-line for food. CS was all business doing some brake work and repacking last nights sleeping gear before heading in for some breakfast. Rob was looking like he needed some coffee but wearing well.

There were 6-7 bikes outside the cafe in Tetonia. (That cafe is loving the TD. Everyone is ready to eat when they hit Tetonia and it's the only place besides a gas station) A bunch of riders camped in and around the Drummond area last night. Spoke with Derek Bently (who was enjoying himself) and saw Nathan Jones earlier headed for the bike shop in Driggs. They all have some nice winds to play with today.

A couple more pics added:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/pedalmasher/

add me to the list thanking you for the photos you've shared. really cool to see the people who are out there. keep it up!

[mtbcast]

Jake Kirkpatrick called in from Driggs, Idaho though he thinks he’s in Wyoming. Dejay Birtch called in from Driggs with a hideously graphic description of his rail-trail ride. Sandra Musgrave called in from Platoro to say she’s OUT. Maybe we'll see you back, Sandra! Dan Simas called in from Driggs. And Russ McBride called in from Steamboat Springs to say he’s OUT. He’s pulled a muscle in his leg. Take care, Russ!

You can get the audio here, via RSS,  or on iTunes!

[Marko]

looks like a lengthy stop at the Clark store for the SOBO tete de la course. Wonder how that snow slog went. Unfortunately they will be rolling through steamboat at my daughters bedtime

I can report that the slog was fairly long and brutal, but the guys didn't seem to be postholing too miserably. The snow level is down below the forest service gate on the Slater park side, and down half way to Steamboat lake on the east side.
Here is a picture of Ethan and Jefe mid-slog fest with Hahns peak in the background.


as for the long stop at the clark store, Kurt had mentioned needing some new parts for his drivetrain so maybe it didn't last all the way into Steamboat. Before the leaderboard went down it showed Kurt in Clark while Ethan and Jefe were enroute to Steamboat.

[Marshal]

nice picture, just a wee bit more snow up there than last yr eh

humm, so once the leader board is back up (Scott where art thou) we might see EP and JB past Steamboat while KR's waits for a shop to open--ahh the suspense

[Mathewsen]

nice picture, just a wee bit more snow up there than last yr eh

humm, so once the leader board is back up (Scott where art thou) we might see EP and JB past Steamboat while KR's waits for a shop to open--ahh the suspense

yep, just a bit more snow. looks pretty consolidated though. patience grasshoppers on the live tracker...technical difficulties. we'll get it rolling again asap. thanks for the reports marko. good to hear from you! i can provide you all with this inside info: the sobo leaders are leaving steamboat together. paul is just entering the great basin north of rawlins

[ComoDepot]

Looks like they will get to us tomorrow evening.

We have a couple of tourers leaving in the morning heading north and they were wondering if they would get their golden spike ceremony as well!

[mmeiser]

Thanks for all the stories about the riders from their families. It shows that TD is not only an event for Kurts, Ethans and Jefes ... but for a lot of other heroes!

Haven't commented much, barely able to keep up between MTBcast, facebook and here. Just wanted to say I wish there was a way to like certain comments here. Love the personal rider backgrounds and stories here. Please keep sharing them.

[mmeiser]

I'm following my husband Ross Delaplane, a Northbounder.  Revelate and the USPS messed up his custom bag order and he is riding with the infamous seat rack and likely carrying 7-10 lbs of rack system.  The seat rack broke just before the high climb south of Del Norte, CO.  He wrapped spare spokes around it to secure until Salida, but is now carrying a lot of weight on his back until he can replace the rack.  The same night his rack broke he was 'victimized' by some varmints.  While he was sleeping they ate up his aerobar padding!  The excitement today is that he needs to get into Salida by noon for the post office - which is holding his revelate bags.

Before leaving town everyone was asking if this was a charity ride; so he put it out to our friends and family to donate to the charity they are most passionate about.  So now he is not only riding for himself, but also for the American Cancer Society, MS, a Maryland Food Bank, a Colorado Youth at Risk organization, a biking youth group that is currently riding the path of the underground railroad, Volunteers for Outdoor Colorado and others.

love it, congrats, hope he got his bags!  Having trouble keeping up with /  correlating all the info! 

Hillarious about yummee aerobar padding. Never would have seen that coming. Who knows what combination of synthetic goodness, salt and sweat varmits craves.

with a huge amount of love and enthusiasm I must state a bike shop friends favorite axiom "poor planning on your part does not constitute an emergency on my part." I'm sure relevate is inundated leading up to this event. There are not yet enough frame bag makers, especially with the growing demand.

[ScottM]

OK folks, trackleaders is back up and Blue Dots are once again moving across the landscape.  Sorry about the downtime.

"Race Flow" has been truncated to only show the last handful of points.  I'll get it going again tomorrow, but first I need to ride bikes a while (racing in the morning).

Thanks for the patience.

[mmeiser]

Great story about Justin Voss, overcoming debilitating injuries to become a TD racer and making such an impressive showing so far!  

I'm following my SoBo brother JP Evans (JE on the tracker) and my sister's boyfriend Tom Sap.  JP and Tom have been leading somewhat parallel lives from McKinney, TX and Brussels, Belgium, respectively.  They finally decided to ride on the same continent at the same time.  We've got a whole mess of siblings, parents, aunts, uncles, cousins and friends from both continents keeping eyes on their blue dots as they ride in a quartet with Ray Porter from Dallas and Martin Wimpenny from the UK.  JP created a blog for the race.  It has some updates and photos posted by both JP and his wife Elizabeth.  Elizabeth put together a nice video of the Grand Depart and the first climb which you can find on the blog.  

http://www.jptourdivide.blogspot.com

Our other brother and his fiancee scheduled their wedding around the TD.  After the race is over and the boys are cleaned up and reunited with their womenfolk in AW, the whole family will repair off to Minneapolis (by air this time) for the wedding festivities in July.  

Somebody mentioned Father's Day earlier.  JP and his wife Elizabeth have 5 canine "kids" - Moseley, Haley, Kiwi, Hemi, and Andretti, with physical accomplishments of their own - at least two are highly decorated Agility Dogs!  Guess it runs in the family.  I hope someone out there can wish Happy Father's Day to JP!

Best sums up what I love about the TD culture... with jay petervary doing the RAAM self supported / unsupported style right now the differences between raam culture and TD culture have been on my mind a lot lately.

"siblings, parents, aunts, uncles, cousins and friends"

and

"canine "kids" - Moseley, Haley, Kiwi, Hemi, and Andretti, with physical accomplishments of their own - at least two are highly decorated Agility Dogs!"

These are the best kind of fans in the world.

It also directly parallels new social media, i.e. facebook / blogging and the much loved mtbcast, such a well perfected party line that's scaling so well!  Everyone is famous to 15 people. And that's the way it should be.

It just so happens that all these fans are colliding/partying around events like the TD and forums like MTBcast, bikepacking, facebook, flickr, etc.

P.S. Please keep posting links to blogs, facebook photos/posts, flickr and other postings as well!

[montanakb]

My sister, Sheila Reiter is towards the end of the SB pack, but between her and her racing partner - Sheila Torres-Blank, they are producing a fairly consistent pace.  Both are MTB race veterans from various events in and around the Texas Hill Country.  SR's family in Massachusetts and Texas is glued to the dots. I've got to find a way to explain my drop in productivity at work. I cant tear my eyes off of their dots. 

A few days ago, I saw they had arrived at Holland Lake, and even though the morning hour was getting late, saw their dots were not moving.  I was a little concerned.   So I Googled "Lodging" and "Holland Lake MT" and found the phone number of the lodge they were likely staying at.  I called the lodge, and asked the proprietor to connect me to SR's room.  He replied that she was standing next to him having breakfast and promptly handed her the phone.  After she was done cracking up, she explained they arrived at Holland Lake after a particularly long and brutal nightime ride, and so were a little slow getting mounted.  Technology is cool.

My hat is off to the Sheilas, and all the TD riders for undertaking this ride.

Mine, too.  I've been watching the Sheilas and convinced my husband to go down and say hi to them Thursday while they were eating lunch in Helena.  They (and Marion Penso and Luke Bush) seemed really excited to have someone take the time to find them and wish them well.  You can imagine the looks on their faces when we walked into the nearly empty restaurant and I asked, "Are you the Sheilas from Texas?"

[mtbcast]

Kurt Refsnider called in from near Steamboat. Dave Goldberg called in from Atlantic City. And Sheila Reiter and Sheila Torres-Blank called in from Montana High Country Lodge.

You can get the audio here, via RSS,  or on iTunes!

[6thElement]

A tough day for me coming across Red Rock Pass, 5 hours of rain and a headwind to make the crossing into Idaho, no matter how much my busted spot still thinks I'm up on Fleecer still

[s8tannorm]

For anyone who's interested, here's a link to a mini questions and answers with Aidan Harding from the WRT blog.

http://welshridething.blogspot.com/2011/04/10-questions-aidan-harding.html

It might just give people a little insight into one of the racers.

[ridingman1]

My ride report for Banff through Butte (where I pulled out).

2011 Tour Divide Richard Ridlehuber report Banff to Butte

Features: scenery around Banff; Meet Crazy Larry; The start at YWCA; Riders: David Horton, Derek Bentley, Dale Shadley, Bob Anderson; the Stryker snow section; Holland Lake lodge; the treacherous road wash out near Ovando; Wickes Pass Dilemna; and my decision to withdraw due to medical reasons. There is no sound track other than the video sections. Created in MS Powerpoint with 5 second slide transition. Good for family and friends or people new to the event. The GPS tracks shown at the beginning of each day are my own compared to the routes. I also show elevation profiles. There are no GPS mapping errors in the profiles - the climbs are as steep as they appear.

Enjoy.

[Thumby]

Richard, I LOVE your video!  I'm about half-way done, my Internet keeps dropping so have to refresh but it's wonderful, especially like the video sections on the ride.  Thanks for taking the time to put that together!!!   

Elizabeth/JP's wife

[Snomonster]

Here's a shout out to James Hodges from Northern Virginia- The most fit 60 year old person I know.  He is riding Sobo.  Jim in previous years had gone out and rode section by section of the Divide trail each summer until he completed it.  He must have got the bug to race it.  He ran the Boston marathon recntly and has done some endurance races.  He is a teacher - retired now I believe.

He posted one message about  having some neck issues due to some crashes but continues on.  Drop on over and give him some support.   I think he is riding near the times of the two Sheila's.

To all the racers out there - great job and stay safe.

[sherpaxc]

Just wanted to give a shout out to the Sheila's.  I've been following them.  I sure wish them the best.  Ray Porter too!  Hopefully he can finish this and get that monkey off of his back.

[29singlespeed]

First posting, and I am loving the commentary on here as well the pictures.

I am stoked to see 3 people from Gunnison/Crested Butte in this race. Josh Shifferly, Jefe and Ethan. I unfortunately am no longer living in CB/Gunnison but have had the pleasure of knowing these 3 great people! That valley is full of fly under the radar athletes that get after it. It must be the water!

Kurts quote about Ethan being heavily caffeinated is just Ethan being himself, he can talk your ear off no matter how in the pain cave he may be!

Dejay and Jake are 2 more that I know which brings me to 5 that I am watching obsessively.

Great work to all of those that started.  Starting and finishing are some of the best moments. The journey is a blur at times.

[mtbcast]

Denis Chezelle called in from Salida. And Norb DeKerchove called in from Victor to recap.

You can get the audio here, via RSS,  or on iTunes!