TD'12 Race Discussion

[JeffOYB]

I also like seeing the family and friends chime in here.

Fans, family and friends...what a scene! : )

And there's both poundin' the ground action AND theorizing. (I guess that's how sports often are, but maybe it's a BIT more here.)

So...has anyone who started out only as a fan gone on to actually do the Event? I mean, they weren't previously a multiday enduro nut, but caught the bug as a fan.

I recall a friend and I spectating the AuSable Canoe Marathon, lo, 10 years ago. Neither of us were paddlers. The next year he did the race! I watched it and was awed, and exhausted just from watching. (It's an 18-hr hammer-down allnight race here in Michigan with like 50k spectators, many of whom follow the race down the river, driving from bridge to bridge.) I was not tempted to race, though I'm still a fan and did report on it and do photography. My pal did the same, but caught the bug...and did the next bunch of marathons in a row! Heck, I recall him at the time finding the spectating to be too exhausting and passing out before dawn, but the next year he got a boat, partner, trained, did all prelim races, and raced! To me that's quite a change.

[Ryan Correy]

Thank you for the picture of Ryan and his bike! Hoping Ryan's "after" is as good as Dylan's haha.

More importantly, thank you for all of the support you provide the TD riders!!

Ryan, with allegedly the first proper opportunity to re hydrate since he started.

[JeffOYB]

The wheelie pic of Cjell is hilarious! (a few posts before this) What a nut! Nice tan! 200-mile day, SS-style. Whoa nelly!

[KRyter]

Is the race finally starting? a three mile gap between OW and CS this morning. It isn't much, but a bit more than usual...
Looks like AJ had something go wrong in Gunni?

[Jason_G]

A pic of Mark taken on fathers day as his dad drove by on a road trip. 
Also related to this post:

http://www.bikepacking.net/forum/index.php/topic,3854.msg34344.html#msg34344

[ComoDepot]

We had a chat this morning about coming down the God Dust Trail in the dark...

Ryan only crashed once, which struck me as a major achievement, trying to fix your bike afterwards in the dark is not so much fun.

Craig and Ollie came in together and I asked what happens further down the trail? Apparently something they did not talk about. I did see that Ollie broke away north of Saguache and now Craig seems to be in front.

[ComoDepot]

Is the race finally starting? a three mile gap between OW and CS this morning. It isn't much, but a bit more than usual...
Looks like AJ had something go wrong in Gunni?

The map is misleading on names, two Gunnison's.

At one level we are shown as Fairplay but if you zoom in it shows Como.

[JeffOYB]

Is there an easy way to rewind the clock on the TrackLeaders page? Like, to see where everyone was this morning, etc. Thanks, JP

[ride MT]

Andrew Hazen:
I grew up just down the street from Andy in Maine. Used to spend every day after school playing with his son after school in their 200 year old barn. 20ish years ago he started Andrew's Brewing Co and was one of the pioneers of microbrewing in Maine. My dad had told me over the years since I left Maine that Andy had started to do a lot of bicycling again, apparently he had done a bunch of road racing back in the day in Colorado but had taken a long hiatus. Bike of choice was a 90's Nishiki mtn frame restored with road gears and fat slicks for battling the crappy Maine roads. Fast forward to a few years ago and my dad loaned him Ride the Divide. Andy saw it and decided to do the race. He got a new rig: a Ti Seven Sola, and all the kit. Two years of training followed which from what I gather consisted of an average of about 3 hrs a day of riding. 7000 miles on the new bike I believe. I think he said he missed only 10 days this past winter! He got his setup dialed and went out on some shakedown overnights and was ready to go. He drove out to my house in MT prerace, with my father. We shuttled him up to Whitefish to an old friends place. And then he rode up to Banff for the start. He made it down to Lincoln MT but suffering a big crash which wrecked his shoulder. It wasn't possible to ride anymore. I was bummed because I knew the bad weather and snow was about over, and he would have had smooth sailing down to WYO. An unfortunate end, but he is determined to come back next year. "I KNOW I can make it!" He said to me.

[Buzzard]

Hi All

Loving this years race and have been following the conversations on here with interest.  I dont have a particular view on what constitutes solo or not and what the perceived/real advantages/disadvantages are as I have never and will never be able to do anything like this, but in an effort to give some more background I thought I would give my story of my one run in with Craig.
I raced the transportugal with him (and I say "with him" in a very loose way) last year.  He was very much fighting at the front while I was fighting to stay on my bike at the back.  As a result I didnt get much exposure to him.  Then on the last day he came down with some serious stomach issues.  at around 30km on the last day he dropped off and told Jon Nutbrown (I think) to push on as he was going to drop out.  He then changed his mind and continued on.  I caught up to him with around 20km to go.  he told me of his trouble and to just ignore him while he continued in silence.  Even then he managed to stay with me - riding around 1km either in front or behind us (my cousin and I had been riding the whol way together) for the next 20km.  Coming in to the finish we crossed a little creek all together.  On the other side he stopped and let us go through and without saying a thing and with a nod of the head he let my cousin and I ride away to the finish to share our moment alone (the biggest thing we had ever done).  In a split second I learnt all I needed to about the man.  A true gentleman.

Win/lose/record/no record - a true gentleman and a credit to his family and friends.

[goldenboy]

I liked the picture of the rider mounting the bike first thing in the morning.  For me, that is a very telling moment.  After resting all night, eating, sorting gear, maps, and myself out its time to ride again.  Putting my leg over the bar, clipping in and sitting down always brings back the previous days effort, especially in the physical sense. Parts of your body that felt okay on land, feel a little tender on the bike and the thoughts of another big day ahead become more real. The transition from normal person to machine.
I think this is the rider with the toe injury.

[KRyter]

Is there an easy way to rewind the clock on the TrackLeaders page? Like, to see where everyone was this morning, etc. Thanks, JP

If you look at the riders individual history it will show every thing they have done. easy to compare where they stopped, slowed down, etc...

MY bet is the leaders will touch the border together, why not. This is looking like a great adventure for them. At this point it looks like they are evenly matched and pushing each other to go faster, their speed and sleep hasn't changed the whole race. Amazing.

Great stories and Great pictures and great commentary here. This is just an amazing challenge and so impressive just to finish with all of the variables in this race. Great Job to all the participants! AND good luck!!

[seabrin]

It looked like Craig was making a move; 11 miles ahead and a difference of 20 minutes on the SPOT check-ins. Now Ollie has closed it back down and the time/distance lag is close enought they may be even again. I'm convinced they are racing.

The race for third looks good as well. Garrett has put in a hell of a ride though I don't care for his profile pic. I hope that its tongue-in-cheek.

Honestly, I think I enjoy this more than following the TdF. Can't wait to race next year!

[JeffOYB]

Yeah, getting your daily system down must be a marvelous thing. I'd love that part of the challenge. I love daily multisystem flow.

I recall reading about the Ultimate Canoe Challenge (20,000 miles) with old fart Verlen Kruger and much younger Steve Landick. Steve was an ex-SEAL and they were trained to pack their kit and be under way in two minutes. (Verlen brought the kitchen sink and was much slower in that regard.) Steve would be sleeping in his tent, wake up, then back his way out of his tent on hands'n'knees absorbing everything as he skootched out, in reverse order to how he set it up the night before. I like that kind of flow. When he stood up after skootching out his pad was rolled, bag stuffed, and tent in its bag and he was ready to roll. I've heard that bivvying with that kind of flow is important in the TD.

I could see personal habits being close to in synch between two or more riders, but darn it also seems pretty hard. Early on in bike tours with a few friends we would hardly get anywhere due to everyone having to stop at different times. After a few days we'd be in synch, but if you were going for a record it's hard to imagine that being with someone wouldn't slow you down due to all that. Still, with matched skills the daily average might be very similar. That's a LOT of things to be in synch, though! (Eating, camp routine, navvy, comms, bike maint, shopping, water resupplying, ye olde bodily functions, then daily biorhythms/energy-peaks/fatigue. Whew!)

ps: any tip for rolling back the trackleader clock to watch blue-dot race moves other than one rider at a time? I wish we could zoom in on the Race Flow lines or select which riders we wanted to follow. Maybe there's a way to do that?

pps: It was cool to see Craig ahead going 20mph there for awhile, then Ollie bumping it to 25mph on the downhill after he apparently crested a big climb (seems like it was a climb -- he was going ~5mph for quite awhile there) as they headed down into Abiquiu.

ppps: I'm totally hip to a tie -- whatever they do is good, and good drama, by me!

[bobloblaw]

I don't see any chance there will be a tie.  I don't know either of these guys but they are obviously ultra-competitive or they would not have gotten to this performance level.  I could see them being good enough friends at this point to pick a place where they decide to race to the finish and then let the fastest guy win, as opposed to a strategic sneak attack. 

[Cosmo K]

I don't know how accurate race flow is on trackleaders but it's interesting to look at Ollie and Craig's lines.  Ollie's line is smoother whereas Craig's has more variability and has been getting more so as the race goes on.  Ollie's lines have remained smooth.  Possibly from his gearing??  Maybe just better at pacing over long distances?  I don't know but an interesting perspective.

[BobM]

People have been discussing the rules a lot.  I was wondering if there was a violation of the rules when Brett Stepanik mentioned in his call on 6/19 that he picked up a care package from his wife.

If she mailed it to General Delivery at a PO prior to race start - no problem.

After race start if it contained emergency parts/supplies (other than food) and was sent by a commercial shipper to a commercial address - no problem.

[woody]

So does anyone know yet if the C&O Express will be forced to reroute because of the fire?
I would think the reroute will be in place - hope not

Woody

[BobM]

I don't see any chance there will be a tie.  I don't know either of these guys but they are obviously ultra-competitive or they would not have gotten to this performance level.  I could see them being good enough friends at this point to pick a place where they decide to race to the finish and then let the fastest guy win, as opposed to a strategic sneak attack. 

I don't know either of these guys, but I'm guessing a hand-holding finish line cross is unlikely.

[lonefrontranger]

I'm concerned for Adam Jensen - does anyone have an update or maybe his spot batteries died?

A quick fun thing on Eszter - my husband and I are friends of hers & Chris from awhile back (went to CU together, raced together, did some BC skiing, husband and Chris lived together in one of those horrible cheap college rooming squats, etc.).  We were at Chris & Eszter's wedding in 2010.  

In typical Gooney fashion they sort of left the whole "how to communicate wedding ceremony details" to the guests at large to the very last minute, or maybe hadn't considered it a thing.  So they had picked out this lovely, picturesque meadow up a hill in Crested Butte for the ceremony.  The only problem was, getting to it required finding the exact right unmarked curve up a mountain road, then there was the little quarter mile hike in over rocky trail into the meadow in question.  The night before the wedding, my husband, I, and a few of the more outdoorsy CU grad school pal squad rode our MTBs up in failing twilight to do some reconnaisance.  It required a GPS and some diligent scouting.  We finally figured it out, and one of our gang actually sniped some balloons from a yoga studio in CB to mark the turnout where the trail was!

The next morning another friend with an Extracycle did runs back and forth portaging in some chairs and the less-mobile guests from the wedding party, and everyone found the place and arrived on time and in style.  He did about two dozen runs all told and quipped at the end that he was glad he hadn't bothered to wear a tie.  It was an awesome wedding, very lovely ceremony, and exactly what I'd have pictured, knowing these guys as well as I do.    The groom and groomsmen were all decked out in immaculate white Carhartt shorts, standing knee deep in wildflowers.

After the ceremony, Eszter tied her bouquet to the stem of her Waltworks 29er hardtail and rode down and did a lap of the pump track in her wedding dress.  It was very cool.