Tour Divide 2010

[teamfaeth]

It just dawned on me. Heather must not have her tracker on. Duh!! I hope that is the case and she isn't still at Swan Lake. If I was doing this race, I for sure would be chillin by Swan Lake with a good book. LOL

[heathercycle]

But the tracker shows her going to swan lake, so it must be on.  Anyway she better hope she gets going soon because it is about to wet for all the riders. 

[cyg]

I am writing on behalf on my husband, Brian Aillaud, who got into Eureka this morning and after some thinking decided to officially withdraw from the race (he lost the number to call in the event of a scratch). He was very much hoping to finish the race, but the past few days have been pretty brutal on both body, bicycle, and gear. One setback involved a broken water filter, forcing him to boil all water for each day. I am very proud of him for getting as far as he did. Tomorrow he will ride to Kalispell and catch the next Greyhound back to Las Vegas. I think all of our scratchers did an impressive job, it sounds like getting over the pass before the border was quite the butt kicker. Good luck to everyone who is staying in...

[teamfaeth]

She has been at Swan Lake since this morning. That is why I think she has her tracker off. Can the riders do that? Just turn them off so they can't be tracked? If so, that would add an interesting twist for us "armchair mountain biker junkies" . I need to go to bed. It is only day four and I can hardly tear myself away from this race. Good nite all! 12 am Cali time..

[martinh]

Domencq and Temple are out too: http://www.actionandmotion.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=category&layout=blog&id=3&Itemid=4

I'd have thought it worth their while continuing even if they can't win this year just to get the experience under their belts for next years attempt.

[montanakb]

He was carrying sunglasses.  He took them off and waved as he went by, then put them back on.

[heathercycle]

So when you are tracking the iders there is a red line and a blue line.  Do the riders have to follow the red line exactly?

Anyone have news on Heather?

[ScottM]

The red line is the route they are following, yes.  Blue lines just connect their actual SPOT points, so they may appear to shortcut.  But they are not.

I added a 'notes' column to the split chart.  It shows who is on a singlespeed, at least according to my notes.  Let me know if there are other SSers.

I also scratched Chaucey Matthews as he was showing a point in New Mexico!

[krefs]

Matthew is now just under 5 hours ahead of his pace from last year and still looking strong.  Both he and Erik apparently got a little more sleep last night than they had been allowing themselves the first few nights, which surely made them feel a bit fresher this morning. 

Unfortunately, all the rain in the forecast couldn't come at a worse time while crossing Montana.  The dirt roads between from ~40 miles before Lima to 50+ beyond are built on clay-rich soil, and the consequences can be devastating in the rain.  The ACA maps call one section "impassable when wet."  That mud destroyed Joe Meiser's bike last year such that he had to wait a day for new parts to arrive in Lima before continuing.  If it rains more than a little, expect the leaders' paces to drop considerably as they may be forced to carry their bikes through the sage brush along the Old Bannock Road late tonight or tomorrow morning and then battle the wheel-sucking soft muck east of Lima. 

Fortunately, there's at least one hose to be had in Lima.  http://tinyurl.com/chris-lima

[heathercycle]

Hey Scott,

do you have any news on Heather Dawe?

[ScottM]

Hey Scott,
do you have any news on Heather Dawe?

Sorry, no.  It is possible her SPOT is just off, or not in tracking mode.  Racers can do that, either purposely or by accident.

[luckylarue]

So...re: the SPOT operation - does it automatically send a rider's signal or does he/she have to do it manually (push a button) as they ride?

[bmike-vt]

So...re: the SPOT operation - does it automatically send a rider's signal or does he/she have to do it manually (push a button) as they ride?

it will auto track every 10 minutes or so if the rider pushes the correct button to start tracking when he/she boots it up in the morning.
if they forget, or the batt dies, or they simply keep it handy for emergencies or to send individual tracking messages - then no - it does not automatically do anything.

[fneilsimms]

Looks like there's a glitch (entry error?) in the split chart - Matthew's moving fast, but I don't think he's in Lima yet!

[AmyL]

For heathercycle and teamfaeth, and others not familiar with SPOT.

When you look at the rider's page, the dot will have a time-stamp.  If that stamp is old, then there is no current data on the location of the rider.  Heather's last time-stamp is hours ago, so there's no way to know where she currently is.  All we know is that her SPOT device did go to Swan Lake, but we don't know how long she stayed there, or why she went there.  There are people and phones there, so if she has any kind of trouble she will be getting the assistance she needs.

The SPOTdevice auto-transmits the location data approximately 10 minutes.  It's not at all uncommon for a track to have a gap of 30 to 60 minutes, even though it is turned on in "tracking" mode.  If it doesn't show a signal for a few hours at a time, that probably means it is not on.  It could be off for many reasons: 
User forgot turn it on (it must be turned on every 24 hours);
User tried to turn it on, but didn't push the right buttons in the right order (the user interface on SPOT-2 is better than SPOT-1, but still tricky if you're a sleep-deprived racer with cold fingers);
User deliberately didn't turn it on (don't want to be "stalked", don't want competition to know exact location, don't like new-fangled technology, taking a nap and don't want the world to know about it);
Batteries or device failed;
Device can't receive GPS location (in a canyon, blocked by something inside the pack, etc.);
Device gets GPS location and sends location data, but no satellite available to pick up the signal;
Lost the device and decided not to backtrack to find it;

It's frustrating for the blue-dot observers when this happens, but don't interpret a "stuck" dot as meaning that anything is wrong. 

[luckylarue]

Spot for Dummies...very helpful.  Much obliged.  How long do batteries last in tracking mode?

[heathercycle]

Do the organizers ever go out and check on a rider if there spot hasn't moved or they haven't heard from a rider in awile?

[ScottM]

First TopoFusion replay is posted:

http://topofusion.com/td09replays.php

There are so many racers that it's near impossible to see what is going on in the main pack, but things will spread out, and people are dropping.  It'll get easier.  I will probably start doing 'leaders only' videos when they get further from the pack, too.

I want to stress that there's no evidence that people are cutting the course in the replay videos!  The dots follow the 'blue line' in the individual pages on trackleaders, meaning it can look like people are cutting corners.  But they are, in almost all cases, not.

[SteveW]

Do the organizers ever go out and check on a rider if there spot hasn't moved or they haven't heard from a rider in awile?

No, that could never be practical on the scale of the race with regards to distances and duration. The organizer is Matt Lee, who is up front racing himself. The Tour Divide is all about self-support. Tour Divide just provides a framework, set of rules and principles, for you to race under.

[AmyL]

luckylarue -- If fresh at the start, high quality batteries should last a couple weeks in the SPOT device.