 Topic Name: TD'11 Race Discussion
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Reply #1980 on: July 11, 2011, 03:45:52 PM
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caseygreene
Location: missoula
Posts: 385
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« Reply #1980 on: July 11, 2011, 03:45:52 PM » |
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Cartographer - Adventure Cycling Association
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Topic Name: TD'11 Race Discussion
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Reply #1981 on: July 11, 2011, 04:45:41 PM
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Jilleo
Location: Los Altos, California
Posts: 292
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« Reply #1981 on: July 11, 2011, 04:45:41 PM » |
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I got a kick out of the majority preference in that poll. The Tour Divide on a road bike is preferable to 2,000 miles in France on a mountain bike? Really? One forces you to work a little harder per mile, while the other will obliterate you with sore hands, feet, butt and back, and probably unrepairable mechanicals before you even get out of the Canadian Flathead. I enjoyed the GDMBR but I'd tour France and grind the knobbies on pavement any day before I subjected myself to that.
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Topic Name: TD'11 Race Discussion
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Reply #1982 on: July 11, 2011, 05:29:20 PM
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caseygreene
Location: missoula
Posts: 385
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« Reply #1982 on: July 11, 2011, 05:29:20 PM » |
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I got a kick out of the majority preference in that poll. The Tour Divide on a road bike is preferable to 2,000 miles in France on a mountain bike? Really? One forces you to work a little harder per mile, while the other will obliterate you with sore hands, feet, butt and back, and probably unrepairable mechanicals before you even get out of the Canadian Flathead. I enjoyed the GDMBR but I'd tour France and grind the knobbies on pavement any day before I subjected myself to that.
Totally agree, road bike on the divide would be more than discouraging. Sucks, but there was an error in the titling. It's suppose to read "Would You Rather Ride the Tour de France on a road bike or Tour Divide on a mountain bike?". |
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Cartographer - Adventure Cycling Association
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Topic Name: TD'11 Race Discussion
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Reply #1983 on: July 11, 2011, 05:38:21 PM
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mtbcast
Location: Sugar Hill, GA
Posts: 2455
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« Reply #1983 on: July 11, 2011, 05:38:21 PM » |
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James Hodges called in from Silver City in a two-parter with stories of thorns and a lost-and-found axle. You can get the audio here, via RSS, or on iTunes! |
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JP - MTBCast.com
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Topic Name: TD'11 Race Discussion
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Reply #1984 on: July 11, 2011, 09:49:24 PM
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THE LONG RANGER
Hi-Ho, Single-Speed, AWAY!
Location: Boulder, CO
Posts: 932
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« Reply #1984 on: July 11, 2011, 09:49:24 PM » |
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Justin Simoni here. Quickly - I will elaborate on this in the future when I have the time to: * ALL your support through my Tour Divide was absolutely incredible. You made it happen, I merely pushed the pedals. I will send a more thoughtful and eloquent "thank you" via email to all those that helped out with the fundraiser for my TD and for U.S.E.D. I'm sure they're absolutely freaking out with the money raised. I do have some balances out on the route and I haven't forgotten. You know who you are. Again, thanks for your trust and belief in me. * I feel greatly indebted to ALL your kindness, generosity and how you've all inspired ME. Let me heal up this shoulder, sort through my work (I'm self-employed) and let's talk about some projects in this community that can benefit others that I can lend a hand in. I hear art/design/posters/t-shirts. That's right up my alley, would love to help out in any way possible for other fundraising goals, Dave B.'s daughter's scholarship fund or otherwise. I'll continue to say this, but the matching fundraising efforts for the book was a complete surprise and extremely touching. I'm glad that I could inspire that sort of response - I can't quite put it into the best words yet, but see my last call-in for an initial try. And why, yes, I am single  * Re: medical bill hardships: I DO NOT have a bill, yet. I DO have health insurance - really awful health insurance, but it has a realistic ER copay. The X-ray won't be covered, so you can kind of guess what it'll be. No ambulance ride, no helicopter ride, the fish and game police officer was totally rad and drove me to the ER and dropped me bike off at Bike and Hike - so how cool is that? Props to the area's fish+game police and park rangers. Again, kindness everywhere you go on the Tour Divide. So, it's not life-crushing, it'll be an annoyance. I can still type, which means, I can still work. It'll take a few weeks to be able to screen print and probably do more hands-on art/design. I also play cymbals in a marching band (well, of course I do!) so that'll have to wait a little while as well! * Kent P. is going to email interview me in a few - he's asking questions from the community to ask me - you can give him the questions via twitter: http://twitter.com/#!/kentsbike/status/90441015030325248I'll be writing essays and releasing some of the photos I took on the Tour Divide, it may come out as some sort of small electronic chap book-sized thing or something. I don't really know, but I'm playing with the idea of writing, editing and doing a bang-up job (zing!) of it all. Here's a few hastily edited low-res photos of some of the standard route that were rerouted, to show y'all what you missed. Feel free to repost these to your own *personal* blogs, but please ask before using them for anything commercial. Grab the whole Flickr code, if you can. The Canadian Flathead Section was devastatingly beautiful:  Mountain in the Canadian Flathead Whitefish Divide, looking up,  Whitefish Divide, MontanaRed Meadow Lake  Red Meadow Lake, MontanaRichmond Peak,  Richmond Peak, MontanaUnion Pass, Wyoming  Union Pass, Wyoming |
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Topic Name: TD'11 Race Discussion
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Reply #1985 on: July 11, 2011, 11:18:48 PM
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CathyP
Posts: 35
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« Reply #1985 on: July 11, 2011, 11:18:48 PM » |
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Wow, beautiful photos! Okay, so my travels have largely neglected the mountainous parts of the continent, but was it really wrong of me to imagine that this place called the "Flathead" would be relatively flat??
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Topic Name: TD'11 Race Discussion
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Reply #1986 on: July 12, 2011, 03:59:33 AM
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BobM
Location: The Keweenaw Peninsula, Michigan
Posts: 936
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« Reply #1986 on: July 12, 2011, 03:59:33 AM » |
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For Justin or others who are thinking of putting their adventures into words, I'd like to put a plug in for Jill Homer's new collaborative venture: http://www.arcticglasspress.net/agp/?page_id=2 |
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Topic Name: TD'11 Race Discussion
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Reply #1987 on: July 12, 2011, 06:25:41 AM
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mtbcast
Location: Sugar Hill, GA
Posts: 2455
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« Reply #1987 on: July 12, 2011, 06:25:41 AM » |
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Stephen Huddle called in from Steamboat Springs. You can get the audio here, via RSS, or on iTunes! |
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JP - MTBCast.com
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Topic Name: TD'11 Race Discussion
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Reply #1988 on: July 12, 2011, 11:11:39 AM
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BG
Posts: 6
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« Reply #1988 on: July 12, 2011, 11:11:39 AM » |
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Go Stephen and James!!!!!!!
Justin, thanks for the pictures. So glad you are planning your next adventure!
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Topic Name: TD'11 Race Discussion
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Reply #1989 on: July 12, 2011, 11:27:27 AM
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EClark
Posts: 2
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« Reply #1989 on: July 12, 2011, 11:27:27 AM » |
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Instead of a long personal account, I'll keep it short. Thanks to everyone involved with the Tour Divide, such an amazing event! Also very big thanks to the riders, and sorry for dusting you on the dirt roads as I drove by- I felt badly everytime and minimized that as much as possible. I just posted the last Tour Divide report yesterday (here, http://www.mountainflyermagazine.com/view.php/2011-tour-divide-post-3-of-3.html ). Also, the next issue of the Mountain Flyer hitting the shelves soon will have some great Tour Divide coverage in it too. Cheers, Eddie Clark |
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Topic Name: TD'11 Race Discussion
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Reply #1990 on: July 12, 2011, 11:59:41 AM
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mtbcast
Location: Sugar Hill, GA
Posts: 2455
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« Reply #1990 on: July 12, 2011, 11:59:41 AM » |
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Love the caption: "Jefe's feet smelled so bad after taking his shoes off at the finish that the dog even took offense." |
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JP - MTBCast.com
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Topic Name: TD'11 Race Discussion
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Reply #1991 on: July 12, 2011, 01:23:43 PM
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Absurd Cyclist
Posts: 9
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« Reply #1991 on: July 12, 2011, 01:23:43 PM » |
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And thankyou from me too for the vibrant discussion that has helped inform the race commentary on the Tour Divide website. I hope it's gone some way to helping those who didn't have access to the combined wisdom of all those who post here.
It's also time for a confession: I've never posted on a forum of any sort before; I've always felt they're a bit like a rather muddled conversation in a bar, but without the compensation of being able to drink beer at the same time. However, I've so enjoyed the stories about racers, as well as reading insights into the race from others who've been through it, that I might be enticed to give up my role as a lurking curmudgeon - the forum equivalent of the grumpy guy in the corner of the bar reading his newspaper and ignoring everyone else - and become a regular visitor, even outside TD time.
Cheers,
Paul
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Topic Name: TD'11 Race Discussion
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Reply #1992 on: July 12, 2011, 02:12:21 PM
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Ty G
Location: TX
Posts: 24
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« Reply #1992 on: July 12, 2011, 02:12:21 PM » |
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So... is everyone in and accounted for?
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Topic Name: TD'11 Race Discussion
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Reply #1993 on: July 12, 2011, 02:18:57 PM
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Done
Posts: 1434
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« Reply #1993 on: July 12, 2011, 02:18:57 PM » |
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So... is everyone in and accounted for?
I've been wondering the same. From the original group start, only Jame's Hodges' blue dot is still active on trackleaders.com. But it hasn't been updated in eight days. I assume that he's still out there somewhere, or perhaps I missed an update in this thread? It'll be fun to see the final placements! |
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"Done"
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Topic Name: TD'11 Race Discussion
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Reply #1994 on: July 12, 2011, 02:26:15 PM
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woody
Location: Southern Utah
Posts: 288
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« Reply #1994 on: July 12, 2011, 02:26:15 PM » |
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I've been wondering the same. From the original group start, only Jame's Hodges' blue dot is still active on trackleaders.com. But it hasn't been updated in eight days. I assume that he's still out there somewhere, or perhaps I missed an update in this thread?
It'll be fun to see the final placements!
James has a call-in from Silver City yesterday saying he will be finishing up today July 12th. Woody |
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Topic Name: TD'11 Race Discussion
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Reply #1995 on: July 12, 2011, 04:05:55 PM
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mtbcast
Location: Sugar Hill, GA
Posts: 2455
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« Reply #1995 on: July 12, 2011, 04:05:55 PM » |
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James Hodges called in from Hachita.
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JP - MTBCast.com
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Topic Name: TD'11 Race Discussion
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Reply #1996 on: July 12, 2011, 04:37:35 PM
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DesertDog
Explore and Enjoy!
Location: Vegas, Baby!
Posts: 121
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« Reply #1996 on: July 12, 2011, 04:37:35 PM » |
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I got a kick out of the majority preference in that poll. The Tour Divide on a road bike is preferable to 2,000 miles in France on a mountain bike? Really? One forces you to work a little harder per mile, while the other will obliterate you with sore hands, feet, butt and back, and probably unrepairable mechanicals before you even get out of the Canadian Flathead. I enjoyed the GDMBR but I'd tour France and grind the knobbies on pavement any day before I subjected myself to that.
Funny thing is that is how the early Tour de France riders did it: ancient, heavy road bikes on dirt roads. Many of them carried their own supplies too. Even a few stories like the rider who broke his fork, then went to a blacksmith shop and made his own fork to continue the race! And, I always have to smile when I see the pics of them taking a rest (maybe) and having some wine and a cigarette! Go to Google and do a search thru the images just using "vintage tour de france". |
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Topic Name: TD'11 Race Discussion
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Reply #1997 on: July 12, 2011, 05:03:31 PM
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Jilleo
Location: Los Altos, California
Posts: 292
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« Reply #1997 on: July 12, 2011, 05:03:31 PM » |
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No doubt those guys were tough. But I'm guessing their bikes were at least made for rougher conditions — steel frames, heavy tubulars, etc. I shudder at the thought of my carbon Calfee road bike in Tour Divide conditions. I'm highly skeptical that the frame would hold up to any number of those long rocky descents, let alone the tires and rims, although I'm sure I would break myself first by skidding out the loose gravel and jettisoning through the air. I'm not saying no one could pilot a road bike for the duration of that race; I'm just saying I feel 100 percent confident that I could not.
Since any person with a modern road racing bike would likely end up hiking large sections with their broken bike on their shoulders, I think the question of attempting it on foot is a whole other interesting tangent. Even hiking the GDMBR wouldn't be wholly horrible, and I'd really love to fastpack the CDT someday.
P.S. Amazing pictures, Justin. If you ever decide to put together a book of pictures, essays or art, please let me know. I'd love to help in any way.
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Topic Name: TD'11 Race Discussion
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Reply #1998 on: July 12, 2011, 05:23:08 PM
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DenisVTT
Location: Beautiful downtown Darnestown, MD
Posts: 278
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« Reply #1998 on: July 12, 2011, 05:23:08 PM » |
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I posted my race report here in this thread, under 2 separate posts: http://www.bikepacking.net/forum/index.php/topic,2284.0.htmlIt's written mostly for my friends, so some of you may find it a bit wordy with unnecessary details. Apologies for that. And thanks all for this amazing adventure. |
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- Denis aka Ze Diesel
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Topic Name: TD'11 Race Discussion
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Reply #1999 on: July 12, 2011, 05:58:11 PM
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Coop
Location: Missoula
Posts: 14
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« Reply #1999 on: July 12, 2011, 05:58:11 PM » |
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It's also time for a confession: I've never posted on a forum of any sort before; I've always felt they're a bit like a rather muddled conversation in a bar, but without the compensation of being able to drink beer at the same time.
Who says you can't drink beer at the same time? Cheers. |
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