TD'12 Race Discussion

[Jeff Tomassetti]

Erik L. has had his share of bad fortune in this race. It shows that avoiding the pitfalls is as important as speed in this adventure. Last year I was 16 miles from the finish in AW at 3am feeling great that I was going to finish TD 2011 with zero physical or mechanical difficulties when WHAM!!!, I was hit hard by a suicidal Jackrabbit. Rear tire flatted and sidewall tear, aerobars broken off and my left side pretty bloody. So, it ain't over 'till its over.  
Jeff

[ride MT]

Leaders will be in Idaho sometime tonight I do believe. The Centennial Valley is pretty incredible. Pretty sandy and crappy road down there if I remember though. Ridden that area on motorcycle before.

[Marshal]

Interesting to see how OW fairs with the Rohloff setup. Seems like he's had the right gear range to tackle Montana (knock on wood).  

The GD route grades are mild with a few exceptions.  I am sure a Rohloff , mated up with just about any front chain ring size, will have more than sufficient gear range.

I think just about every TDR racer who has researched the race recognizes the Rohloff’s lack of a derailleur could bring some real advantages in muddy conditions.

From personal experience, my middle ring was used for most of the miles and I am a weak pedal’er compared to most.  If I was to ever race the route again I would look very very hard a Rohloff.

[Cosmo K]

This has been exciting so far.  I've been stoked to see what Ezster could do to the route and so far  she's killing it.  The breaks in the front are interesting...holding them will be even more interesting.  At the back I've been following 71 yr old Larry Hipskind.  I'm rooting for that dude.  I'm sure he's a mentally tough guy.  I hope the hike a bike doesn't wear him down physically.  Great race and I'm sure lots of good stories throughout the pack.  I'd like to find out more about him.  I guess I'll search the internets for him...

[Jeff Tomassetti]

On the Rohloff discussion......there were many times on TD that I had to pedal gingerly or even dismount on mud to avoid a drivetrain melt down. It sure would be nice to apply full power with no fear of calamity. OTOH, it seems hard to fine anyone who can correctly set up a Rohloff with a belt and get it right. It would be a technical mystery for me.

[caseygreene]

who are the Missoula riders? I have to root for them having grown up in Missoula

Adam Jenson is the only rider from Missoula.
Lawrence Brouwer is from Corvallis, but seems to have been heading off-route towards Seeley yesterday afternoon. So, don't know if he's still in it or not.

[Curt_R]

Looks like Larry H. is at the border!

[mikepro]

Anyone know where to find the results from 2011? Can't seem to find them on the Tour divide website.

If I remember correctly, there was an informal results page put together for the 2011 riders, by the 2011 riders themselves.  A google docs spreadsheet or some such wizardry, and I never got the impression that it was ever complete.  You'd have to look back through older threads to find the discussion and link, but maybe Denis will chime in as I believe he had a hand in maintaining it as did Justin Long Ranger Simoni who's presently pre-occupied with this year's race.  Although, it was such a drastically different course last year that it won't be useful to compare to what's happening this year, and 2010 time check comparisons are only good up until Abiquiu, since the Mesa south of there was not in play that year due to forest fire.  Time check comparison is good for 2009 and some 2011 ITT's, for which a link was posted way back in this thread.  But, I'm sure you've got other reasons for wanting to see 2011 results.

[taprider]

how many over 60 year olds are racing?
is there an age group record?

[vikb]

On the Rohloff discussion......there were many times on TD that I had to pedal gingerly or even dismount on mud to avoid a drivetrain melt down. It sure would be nice to apply full power with no fear of calamity. OTOH, it seems hard to fine anyone who can correctly set up a Rohloff with a belt and get it right. It would be a technical mystery for me.

I run my Rohloffs with a $14 SRAM 8 speed chain. Cheap, cheerful and ignores mud/snow/ice etc... no brainer to setup and if you need parts any 8/9 speed chain you find along the way will do.

[mtbcast]

Calls from Dylan Taylor, Cjell Money “The Manalope from Antelope," Ollie Whalley, Eszter Horanyi, Jim Stansbury, Max Morris, Bob Marr who's OUT, Aaron Weinsheimer, and Georg Deck!

Nothing from Erik L. yet!

[mikepro]

Hey Scott M - Thanks for putting the time splits for current records on the Leaderboard segment at Trackleaders!!  That's awesome.  Now we can pretty much see that the Blue tandem is couple hours ahead of tandem record pace (and I thought they were behind), that the women are a day ahead of pace for their respective record, and the lead men, well they need to get to Isl Park in Idaho within the next 15hours, but the more accurate measure will be time check at Flagg Ranch in WY after that.  After which, it seems that both lead men will be in uncharted territory, with all the NZ friends saying Ollie hasn't ridden a distance longer than to the point he's at now in Lima, and Craig S having pulled the plug on his ITT last year at/near Flagg Ranch.

[taprider]

how does the race flow feature work on trackleaders?

[Area45]

Who is the rider that was pulling a BOB in Crazy Larry's video? Curious to see where they are amongst the field.

[mikepro]

is there an age group record?

Not that I'm aware of.  It's loosely recognized, in my mind at least, that Marshal Bird's time from 2010 is the standard for 50+ age group (feel free to clarify or correct me here, anyone).  Also, last year saw a 60+ finisher, yes? (Norb)?  Someone else will have to confirm on that.  Beyond that, records for 50+, 60+, or whatever categories get "established" it's wide open.

[mbeardsl]

how does the race flow feature work on trackleaders?

It shows the top 9 racers SoBo with Time in Hrs on the bottom and Miles to the side.  So a upwards sloping line means they are moving forwards on the course and a flat line means they are standing still as time goes by (eating, sleeping, bike repairs, etc).  A steeper line shows a racer is going faster than one with a shallower line.  

The real trick is figuring out how apart riders are form this, but you can do it with Hrs OR Miles.  For instance you can see at 120 Hrs (going straight up from there) that the 3rd/4th place riders were at mile 760 vs 830 for 1st/2nd or 70 miles behind.  OR you can see that 1st/2nd reached Mile 800 at 110.5 hrs and 3rd/4th at 124/127 hrs or 13.5/16.5 hrs behind.  Roughly you can say that 1st/2nd is somewhere between 70 miles and 13.5hrs ahead of the nearest competition.

The only thing I use it for is to see where someone made a big move by riding through the night as their line will depart from everyone else's and then you watch as the riders behind try to catch back up.

[mbeardsl]

VERY cool to see T-race beating her own Tandem record pace as a solo rider even if it's just for awhile!

Must have been hell to get the tandem from Whitefish to Lincoln as she was behind at Whitefish, ahead at Lincoln and now racing to stay with that pace to Butte.  Looks like she'll fall behind heading to Lima given the speeds I'm sure they pushed together on some of the flatter terrain.

[mikepro]

how does the race flow feature work on trackleaders?

In addition to mbeardsl, here's my input: 
It's a distance over time plot, showing top 9 or 10 riders, and their "flow" from the start.  Horizontal flat segments mean stop/rest/no-movement.  For example, at hour 13 or 14, the first set flat lines starts, around mile 140, which correlates to stopping/resting in or around Sparwood in Canada.  The next set of flat/horiz lines indicates stopping in Eureka, where you can see Jarral's flow, for example, showing a longer stop in Eureka to fix his brakes, followed by very infrequent stops by him as he pushed hard to make up ground, which he did impressively.  It also reveals where Adam Jensen, for another example, dropped off the pace with a longer stop around mile 420-ish (where his mustard yellow line is on the bottom or below everyone else's) and then endeavored to make up ground quickly after that.  Lines on top are the leaders, as the faster one goes, the steeper his/her flow chart line will be.  It indicates where the leaders pulled away from everyone else (by not staying in Eureka and pushing on) and that while they seem to be taking the same amount of rest/stops as everyone else, they are consistently covering ground between "stops" a fraction quicker.

[mbeardsl]

I don't know which, but I'd say neither.  His last spot is 2-1/2 hours old now, so I'd say that after going up so far/high last night he's headed back to Lincoln for some sort of services/help.  He might do a call-in to explain.

Also looks like we've got another rider missing the turn at Poorman Ck, with Paul Spencer up on Stemple Pass proper which is NOT on route.

This is really perplexing now.  Looks like he has stopped again on his way back to Lincoln for quite some time now?  Or simple case of batteries running out?

[elobeck]

Hey all Erik L here, at home in Steamboat.  FYI my right achilles got screwed up snowhiking in the flathead. Stopped in Eureka to tape up and ice. Next day  kept getting worse. Otherwise felt great- "normal" aches and pains aside. Wanted to make it to Holland Lake Lodge but slept in cab of a dumptruck 20 miles before-ankle had enough. Felt strong physically next day but on downhill to Ovando swelling of ankle got big and felt like "sand inside a tube" while pedaling. Not good. Knowing a 'lil bit about this body part, one can do serious long term damage if one presses on. Having seen my achilles grow steadily worse over two days I decided this was of concern. I had played around with my cleat etc. Having some experience with this kind of stuff I think I made the right call separating aches and pains that could subside from injuries that will not. While it would have been "tuff guy" of me to press on, it could lead to serious long term problems, which I can't afford to have. It was great but hard to see all the racers come in the next day, I love this route/race and so would have liked to move on.

Craig and Ollie were fun to ride with (when I wasn't busy chasing them)  they are extremely strong, determined, and in good spirits, and Craig breaks a great trail in the snow! The horrible weather was actually kind of fun in a twisted way, sort of an "adversity bonus challenge". Gear all worked out beautifully, waterproof socks would have been a nice addition to the kit, plastic bags were a tad overwhelmed with the moisture levels. Serge was a great buddy leaving Eureka at 3AM in the rain and is a super nice guy from Fernie, hope he can catch the two out front.

Everybody please be safe out there.

Erik