TD`13 Race Discussion

[DaveH]

http://app.strava.com/activities/64279296?ref=1MT1yaWRlX3NoYXJlOzI9dHdpdHRlcjs0PTYwODI5MQ%253D%253D
Mike's ride!

Daaaaamn! Keeping a Garmin 705 alive for 14 days is as challenging as the TD. That is freaking awesome. Real or imputed power I wonder...suddenly my grand loop strava file looks puny, ha.

[JF-mtnbiker]

Run Forest Run!!

[richNYC]

Daaaaamn! Keeping a Garmin 705 alive for 14 days is as challenging as the TD. That is freaking awesome. Real or imputed power I wonder...suddenly my grand loop strava file looks puny, ha.

Amazing effort!!! Funny it's been already flagged by some dimwit... I guess in this case, as we know this was a REAL and SUPERHUMAN effort, it must be a badge of honor;) LOL...

Congrats Mike and all racers, either finished already or still enroute. You guys are ROCKING!!!

[mtbcast]

Hal Russell called in from Steamboat Springs. Mike Komp called in from Steamboat Springs. Matthew Liggett called in from Salida. And Rick Ashton called in from Kremling.
http://mtbcast.com/site2/category/td13/

[lonefrontranger]

my husband runs a Garmin 705 both paired to his PowerTap hub (roadie) and using estimated power (MTB). The numbers Strava implies from the MTB on "estimated power" seem really accurate, just going by comparison.

I am so impressed by Sara Dallman's ride. She is like a machine.

[BobM]

my husband runs a Garmin 705 both paired to his PowerTap hub (roadie) and using estimated power (MTB). The numbers Strava implies from the MTB on "estimated power" seem really accurate, just going by comparison.

I am so impressed by Sara Dallman's ride. She is like a machine.

I've been following her.  She passed Ian McNab when he stopped in Platoro and has been pulling away since.  I wonder if she'll catch any more riders before the finish?

[Pussywhipped]

damn...151,000 calories...that's roughly 11,000 calories per day...and I am sure that is an underestimate on Strava's part.

how do you consume 11,000 calories a day?

[Canbaroo]

Brian Pal  17d 9h 28m

Now there's a boy who just became a man.

Thanks Desertrat, you can be rightly proud of him!

[lonefrontranger]

damn...151,000 calories...that's roughly 11,000 calories per day...and I am sure that is an underestimate on Strava's part.

how do you consume 11,000 calories a day?

although I'm pretty sure Strava significantly overestimates calories for longer rides, I'm sure he's easily in the realm of 7000-9000 daily as that's what you see from Tour stage riders. 

The simple answer is: you don't. You try to top up but you're pretty much always running a deficit at an effort of that level.

one of the highlights of my past racing career was training with Jon Vaughters and the Slipstream guys on their slowest-of-slow days (ha) because my coach is a personal friend of JVs. I picked him up off the top of Evans the year ('03) he dropped out of the Tour and barely missed winning the Mt. Evans Hillclimb, by like a tire width.  He is 5'11" and after just 2 weeks of the Tour he was around 125 pounds.  He looked like a walking skeleton. and keep in mind Tour de France riders get to go back to a comfy hotel in an air conditioned bus to eat huge meals prepared by professional chefs, and allowed 8-10 hours' sleep every night. They're not bivvying in the rain with bears, pedalling 18-20 hour shifts and sleeping 4, and depending on convenience stores that may or may not be open.

when I did a big stage race with my coach and the Slipstream crew up in Montana, we all stayed in the same host house. JV was constantly on everyone's ass to eat as much as they could force down after the stages.  When you're riding back-to-back days at very high effort, it all tastes like cardboard, too. He said "yea I know it tastes like shit, just shove it down; hold your nose if you have to.

tl;dr: it is really, really, really hard to eat enough to sustain such a high level of effort for multiple weeks.  Which really makes Mike's effort all that more amazing. 

 

[SlowDave]

"Daaaaamn! Keeping a Garmin 705 alive for 14 days is as challenging as the TD."

I am in the process of building a rando bike with a Schmidt dyno hub.  It will power lighting and take care of usb charging for a Garmin 800 Edge and an IPhone.  I am no engineer so I won't try to explain the system but the go to guy is Peter White of Peter White Cycles.  He has a ton of write ups on these systems.

[mtbcast]

Brett Simpson called in from Milan. And Leo Pershall called in with his finish call.
http://mtbcast.com/site2/category/td13/

[Canbaroo]

How does one click two separate spots on the route that a rider has passed today and get the mileage between the spots? I could add up 400 10-minute estimates but there might be an easier way.

David, As a suggestion for your earlier post. You can try Ridewithgps.com. It's very handy plotting routes and getting an overview of elevations/gradients etc.

Sign on and open an account [free].

Search for a near location. Zoom in a bit and you can see the trails and roads that are 'live'. Pretty much all of the TDR has been on live roads and trails. Choose metric or imperial.

Select 'Follow Roads' Choose cycling [or driving] Just click on a start point and travel along negotiating the road intersections by clicking a progress. If a section is not live you will have to plot with 'draw lines' cross country 'till you get to another live track. After you have done a few hundred miles from the comfort of your lounge room you can feel pretty exhausted!

The route elevation will be at the foot of your map page. Put your curser into the elevation plot click/hold and drag along a section over a climb and it will give you a highlight of that section. Run the curser along the profile section and it will show you the gradient percentage for the climb, the distance and the total assent and descent. When they get to 12% or more get off and walk if you're over 50!

If you have a big enough screen open Trackleaders on one page and ridewithgps on another, zoom in and you can follow the TDR route with very accurate detail.

Have fun, say goodbye to the couch!

[BobM]

James Hodges is getting it done out there!  He just left the comforts of Del Norte at 8:35 pm local time. That is a hard thing to do.

[mtbcast]

Episode 162 – Tour Divide 2013 Day 19! 50 scratches, a DQ, another missing GoPro, and we true up today’s calls!
http://mtbcast.com/site2/category/podcasts/

[davidhaile]

David, As a suggestion for your earlier post. You can try Ridewithgps.com. It's very handy plotting routes and getting an overview of elevations/gradients etc.

Good idea! I have a ridewithgps account that I haven't used in a long time.

[davidhaile]

Getting down to the end here. I'll be picking up two riders and bikes on Friday and I have no idea what to expect. The satellite view of the border crossing doesn't show much of a place to pull off to the side of the road to wait. Antelope Wells seems to refer to a set of water wells to be used by antelopes. What should I expect?

[Georg66]

Getting down to the end here. I'll be picking up two riders and bikes on Friday and I have no idea what to expect. The satellite view of the border crossing doesn't show much of a place to pull off to the side of the road to wait. Antelope Wells seems to refer to a set of water wells to be used by antelopes. What should I expect?

It is one of the greatest and nicest places on earth - provided you ride with a bike from Banff to there ...
How it feels, if you drive there by car? I don't know ... find it out and report here!  

[jape]

Another great day of uber-human achievements from all of the racers out there and a long day of blue dot stalking for me. I've just heard from my husband and it seems like this is going to be the first night in a while that he is not with the rest of the guys who had a similar pace. He really enjoyed their company and especially Rick Ashton, his fellow Basin Survivor Rick, I hope you are recovering as I'm writing this and in the morning all your strength is back with you and may you continue all the way to AW. Goodnight from Pittsburgh!

[elveepee]

My brother Roger and I just picked up the two Swiss riders, Saemi Burkart and Reto Koller, and saw and visited with Forest Baker, all at Antelope Wells. We passed and exchanged greetings with Markley Anderson too. All were doing well except for Markley who had torn the large muscle in the top/front and side of his right leg. He was riding in agony with about 14-20 miles left to go.

[mikepro]

Antelope Wells seems to refer to a set of water wells to be used by antelopes. What should I expect?

The unexpected.  Maybe some cows.  Maybe a buffalo.  Probably some desert and sun.  A really nice, quaint, and peaceful border crossing.  Border Patrol on occasion.  Maybe a cyclist or 2.  And one Lonely Highway.