Tour Divide 2010

[Jilleo]

I don't think John made any plans to call into MTBcast, Joe. He's not carrying a phone as per Great Divide Race rules, and I doubt he's inclined to make too many pay-phone stops (since the majority of pay phones out there don't work anyway.) But he said be might check his e-mail once or twice, so I can relay the number to him if you want me to.

Looks like his first SPOT signal sent from Spray River at 9:25 a.m. He must be on his way. As far as public tracking, I think his SPOT will show up on the Topofusion Trackleaders site at http://trackleaders.com/tditti.php?name=John_Nobile. Not seeing any points yet, but I assume they will sync soon enough.

I'm envious. Seems like an excellent time of year to Tour Divide to me. Crisp fall weather, drier air, and hopefully drier roads. That last one is what matters most if you're aiming for a fast time. Daylight is overrated. :-)

[mtbcast]

You can forward it if you want. It's up to him. If he calls, I'll setup a separate feed for him too. If not, we'll keep an eye on his Spot! Should be interesting!

[BobM]

Thanks Jill!

Looks like he is on the Smith-Dorrien heading towards the dam.

GO JOHN!!!

[phil_rad]

I just checked and I didn't see it.

[robinb]

I just checked and I didn't see it.

you can't get directly to this url: http://trackleaders.com/tditti.php?name=John_Nobile. you can link to it from this url:http://trackleaders.com/tditt.php?name=John_Nobile.  not sure why...

[phil_rad]

I got it! Thanks Robin!

Go John!!

[BobM]

If you click the links from the posts you get the period at the end, which causes a "not found" error.  Remove the period and it works fine.

Bob

[JF-mtnbiker]

Any info on John Noble. Looks like his tracker is snowed in short of the US Canada border. Looks as if he had some wet & cold weather yesterday up there. We had another snow in Tetons yesterday and 4" of snow in Grand targhee parking lot this morning.


****Ah. Crossed the border and in Eureka as of 8:54 am. His individual focus map still shows him 31 miles in Canada.  Main tracker shows him in Eureka.

[Marshal]

I have been casually following John’s Spot and I am sort of wondering what his “strategy” is?  The split chart shows he is about 10 hrs behind the men’s record coming into Whitefish?

I wonder if he has had some set backs or if he is deliberately where he wants to be in terms of mileage?  Perhaps he is just pacing himself with a plan to make up time later on the route?

Also I was under the impression that John liked to get a room if possible.  But his Spot seems to show a 2nd night bivy just a couple of miles outside Eureka (where he good have got a room) (just a Spot update thing?)

Anyway, just sort of wondering……….

[BobM]

According to Jill's write-up, John carries only an emergency bivy bag.  I expect that he turns his Spot off either on arrival at a motel (so the last point would be some minutes prior to the stop) or just prior to arriving in a town (to discourage overly zealous fans from stopping by his room).  Spot would then record that last reading as his bivy location.

As to his strategy, I believe he probably got up early in Eureka and headed back up to the border to begin his border-to-border section - he did this in 2008.  I would imagine that he is on a pre-determined track to break the record and we will see some major mileage days further down the line.

Fun to watch, for sure.  I think if anyone can break the record it will be John.  He has the experience to do it if the weather cooperates.

Bob

[Jilleo]

John's strategy is pretty simple. He has a plan for where he will stay every single night of the race, and doesn't carry any kind of bivy gear except for an emergency bivy, so he doesn't have any options but to make it to the town he planned to stop at, or at least to the next town over. But if he manages to make all of his goals, he already knows pretty close to exactly what his finishing time will be. I think many would argue that not camping at all isn't the fastest strategy for a GDMBR record (because there's no margin for error, and it would be hard not to lose an entire day if everything doesn't go according to plan.) But John doesn't like to camp, so doesn't feel the need to do so on his bike-cations. Credit-card touring on the Divide.

His strategy is also to start out slow and ramp up the mileage near the end, so he doesn't blow his knee out early. Matt Lee always goes out hard at the beginning to get in front of the pack, and then usually levels out mid-race, so John's probably going to be well behind the record times of the first few checkpoints. If you look at John's 2008 GDR record, you'll see he had a similar start. He actually spent some of the first half of the race almost a day behind David Blaine and Geoff Roes. No one speculated that it would be a record year, but then John increased his daily mileage significantly later in the race.

He probably did return to the border from Eureka in the morning. He still views the border-to-border record as its own effort, so he'd probably want a fresh start, rather than to "start" will eight hours on the clock after sleeping a full night across the border.

Glad to see he made it to Big Fork. He likely had some tough weather in the Flathead Valley. Snowline was down to 6,000 feet again this morning, and the snow was really thick up high. Seems early in the year, but perhaps this is normal for September.

[SimonK]

"He actually spent some of the first half of the race almost a day behind David Blaine and Geoff Roes."

That's not the way I remember it. John took the lead at the end of the first day in 2008. He wasn't feeling great when he was in Butte, so took the morning off to recover. That was when David and Geoff caught up, and David briefly took the lead. But that night David stayed in Wise River and only Geoff and John went on. David never repassed John, and I don't think Geoff ever opened up a significant gap on John before blowing up.

You can see the leaderboard my brother did during the race here:
http://www.kennett.co.nz/people/simon/greatdividerace2008/leaderboard-day10.gif

[Jilleo]

Simon,

You're probably right. I just made that statement based on memory from blogging the '08 race. I thought there was a longer period of time they were ahead.

Looks like he stopped in Seeley Lake tonight. Not such a good sign. I'm guessing he was aiming to make it to Lincoln.

[Mathewsen]

Looks like he stopped in Seeley Lake tonight. Not such a good sign. I'm guessing he was aiming to make it to Lincoln.

tracking history doesn't support that john returned back to the border from a night at eureka's ksanka inn to 'restart' a b2b time. it's possible he did this off-SPOT, but john already holds this record. it wouldn't make sense to do this. he is challenging the full GDMBR.

there are plenty of places down route where in 2009 we got hosed by biblical weather and were forced into short days. john still has plenty of time to make up mileage. in `09 i bivied just outside helena on the 4th night so he's only starting the 5th day about 100mi off group-race pace, which (as jill notes) is always more furious.

[BobM]

tracking history doesn't support that john returned back to the border from a night at eureka's ksanka inn to 'restart' a b2b time. it's possible he did this off-SPOT, but john already holds this record. it wouldn't make sense to do this. he is challenging the full GDMBR.

Hey Matthew!

I was basing my speculation on the fact that he did the restart in 2009 and it seemed the best explanation for a 9am Eureka start.  I wonder if he will do any call ins or at least post a summary at the end.  It seems like maybe he isn't into that sort of thing, though, since I don't know of any write-ups of his from previous races.

Bob

[Marshal]

Simon,

You're probably right. I just made that statement based on memory from blogging the '08 race. I thought there was a longer period of time they were ahead.

Looks like he stopped in Seeley Lake tonight. Not such a good sign. I'm guessing he was aiming to make it to Lincoln.

Hi Jill,

I find John’s ‘room to room’ strategy very intriguing.  I can see the +’s and –‘s.  It would be interesting to see a list of his chosen stops, plus any backup planning. 

If he gets behind (or ahead) it would throw off the next several nights. 

But if he hits his stops it really simplifies the overall logistics down to a series of day rides.  Some of these ‘day rides’ would be very hard, but others could have much better recovery.  I haven’t looked closely but it seems like NM would be a bit tricky but by then it’s ‘crunch’ time and recovery means less at the very end.

Anyway, with all that in mind I wonder if Lincoln would have made sense for a planned stop.  Looking at his Spot depart time from Big Spring I think he might be ‘on plan’.  Ie:  Perhaps Seeley was always the planed stop.  Seems ‘Seeley to Helena’ sets up the best ‘next day’. 
Lincoln to Basin/Butte would have a lot, maybe to much elevation, but then this is all just idle speculation.

[BobM]

Yes, but speculating is such fun!

I noticed he arrived at Seeley Lake around 6 last night and didn't hit the road until around 9 this morning.  That can't be part of his plan.  Hopefully his knees are not giving him trouble.

Bob

[SimonK]

Seeley to Helena is very good, but it's not quite record-setting pace. Perhaps the weather was crappy?
Hopefully he has a better day tomorrow.

[Jilleo]

I received a phone message late last night from John in Helena. He's actually having knee issues. Weather has been pretty good. He's a fair distance behind his planned schedule, I think a full day already, but I believe he did give himself a little wiggle room. It's tough when knees act up, though. I'm not even sure how he can recover from that. Last year, he never did. But ... he's still going. So hopefully optimism will remain. 

[Mathewsen]

It's tough when knees act up, though. I'm not even sure how he can recover from that. Last year, he never did. But ... he's still going. So hopefully optimism will remain. 

If you check in w/ BP.net, John: Let's go Nobile! Consider knee braces or patellar straps and, (of course) blue pills; Glucosamine and MSM; weed, maybe? Whiskey? There's a point when the pain will subside. The body is brilliant that way. There's lots of weakness in the latter half of those `09 record splits. Keep pushing! Bannack to Big Springs is surely rock hard and super-fast.