Tour Divide 2015 - race discussion thread

[Cole]

Very cool race. Exciting to the end. Tortoise and the Hares. "It was the pie made with Billy Butter"!

[Cole]

Tortoise and the Hares. "It was the pie made with Billy Butter"!

[THE LONG RANGER]

Only separated by minutes after 2700+ miles. Incredible.

Let's throw it back to 2008:

http://www.outsideonline.com/1896446/worlds-toughest-bike-race-not-france

back when JayP was labeled the, "Wildcard"

Simpler times!

[bikee]

The latest on Lael. Always smilin'.
https://gypsybytrade.wordpress.com/2015/06/27/tour-divide-update-grants-nm/

[samh]

Congratulations, Dylan on your stellar performance and a solid 4th place finish!  

Next up: Colorado Trail and hopefully a Triple Crown Challenge completion.  

AZT 2015: 08:06:58
TD 2015: 15:03:01
CT 2015: tbd

[Majcolo]

Wouldn't adoption of that attitude eliminate most of the field in nearly all races?

Don't get me wrong, I'm a huge fan of all these guys and these races. I'm still pulling for Marshal to finally slay this demon and I've been glued to my PC as much as possible the last two weeks.

My comment was specific to Eszter's comments regarding sleep deprivation, the relatively small number of repeat racers and the sustainability of the events. There's a difference between racing and knowing you can come back next year lighter/faster/stronger/better geared to try to win your class and the current sleep dep-driven style of racing which has significant health and safety risks that other kinds of racing do not.

TL;DR: personal preference; I like the Kiwi model.

[welnic]

Amazing ride from the front running men!  

Great to see Lael go so strong given her health challenges.  

Anyone heard why Beth D is not making much progress at the moment?

-- Vik

BTW - I just donated to TrackLeaders to support the race coverage.  

Seb D broke his fork while running at the front, and had to spend a couple of days running around getting a new one. They are riding together now, so she might have waited for him, or was involved in helping him get going again.

[THE LONG RANGER]

I'm not sure the lack of repeaters in the TD is purely because of sleep dep. during the race, and health problems that stem from it.

I think it's simply that the TD is a huge commitment. People partly design their lives around it. If you're not ready to do that, you're not riding it 3x in a row. Still, people find ways. I did it 2x, but I was couch surfing for much of the time in between, and put < $100 (SS Chain, SS cog, SS Ring - good to go!) into the bike from last year to get my up running for the next year. When I got back: couch surfing again.

[Cole]

Tortoise and the Hares. "It was the pie made with Billy Butter"!

[Mxhdroom]

I've just noticed that fellow Alberta resident Tom de Vries is listed as scratched as of 20-odd hours ago and 85 miles north of Del Norte. Does anyone know why and/or if he's OK?

Gary

[kiwidave]

I've just noticed that fellow Alberta resident Tom de Vries is listed as scratched as of 20-odd hours ago and 85 miles north of Del Norte. Does anyone know why and/or if he's OK?

Gary

He's OK. Doesn't want to continue it seems ... listen to his MTBCast.

http://mtbcast.com/site2/category/td15/

[mtbcast]

Only separated by minutes after 2700+ miles. Incredible.

Let's throw it back to 2008:

http://www.outsideonline.com/1896446/worlds-toughest-bike-race-not-france

back when JayP was labeled the, "Wildcard"

Simpler times!

The "Polk and Beans" nick. 

[cousinmosquito]

Don't get me wrong, I'm a huge fan of all these guys and these races. I'm still pulling for Marshal to finally slay this demon and I've been glued to my PC as much as possible the last two weeks.

My comment was specific to Eszter's comments regarding sleep deprivation, the relatively small number of repeat racers and the sustainability of the events. There's a difference between racing and knowing you can come back next year lighter/faster/stronger/better geared to try to win your class and the current sleep dep-driven style of racing which has significant health and safety risks that other kinds of racing do not.

TL;DR: personal preference; I like the Kiwi model.

Plus, you don't need to take caffeine to keep going. To date I have never had to take caffeine in a Kiwi Brevet to finish in a reasonably competitive time, not that its a race : ) that worries me a bit, using stimulants to push yourself harder than you would otherwise be going.

[vikb]

TL;DR: personal preference; I like the Kiwi model.

You can operate both options in the same event by simply having two classes people select from. Open Class and Black Out Class where your Spot can't move between midnight and say 5am or whatever seems reasonable. Nobody really has to enforce anything other than look at the overnight Spot data for people in the lead and maintaining an extra set of course records. We seem to be doing the first anyways without being asked to do so.

Ultimately it's the racers who should decide if they want to see another "official" option.

I'm glad Seb got a fork and is moving again. A broken fork is every riders nightmare. I'm glad he wasn't hurt.

-- Vik

[bruce.b]

I proposed this a couple of years ago. My idea was to see if a couple of people wanted to try racing TD with the self imposed rule of having to make a 6 or 8 hour stop in every 24 hour period, say from noon to noon each day. I wanted to see if just a couple of people might like to try it. I got ripped a new one by Toby Gadd, who freaked out at the idea. He basically said that the only people who would want this are those not tough enough to do the real race. He and about two other guys were amazingly insulting about it. I have no idea why or how it challenged their manhood, but they sure got upset. It was a shock to me that a couple of people, mostly Toby, could be this rude over this idea.

Yes, it would change the character of the race. It would be safer and I believe allow people to ride faster when on the bike and perhaps make the race more tactical. You'd lose the sleep deprivation part, which can be compelling to watch. I believe it would make the race a lot more fun to do, but then I proposed the idea because I'm not a fan of the sleep deprivation part of ultra racing. I didn't see the harm in a small number of people trying it out.

[cousinmosquito]

I proposed this a couple of years ago. My idea was to see if a couple of people wanted to try racing TD with the self imposed rule of having to make a 6 or 8 hour stop in every 24 hour period, say from noon to noon each day. I wanted to see if just a couple of people might like to try it. I got ripped a new one by Toby Gadd, who freaked out at the idea. He basically said that the only people who would want this are those not tough enough to do the real race. He and about two other guys were amazingly insulting about it. I have no idea why or how it challenged their manhood, but they sure got upset. It was a shock to me that a couple of people, mostly Toby, could be this rude over this idea.

Yes, it would change the character of the race. It would be safer and I believe allow people to ride faster when on the bike and perhaps make the race more tactical. You'd lose the sleep deprivation part, which can be compelling to watch. I believe it would make the race a lot more fun to do, but then I proposed the idea because I'm not a fan of the sleep deprivation part of ultra racing. I didn't see the harm in a small number of people trying it out.

That's a bit sad Bruce. Imagine if it was faster to have 5 hours down each night. Mind you I guess as others have said, its an option anyone can take. We just need a "big-hitter" to do it so we can compare!

[vikb]

3hrs until another finisher in AW. I may have to have pie for dinner.

[BobM]

The beauty of the Great Divide Mountain Bike Route is that it is public access and anyone who wants to can organize an event that follows the route, with whatever rules that person wants.  Perhaps someone should step up and organize a multi-stage race with mandatory rest breaks and see how many folks sign up.

[cousinmosquito]

Multi stage sounds like hard work to me, from an organisational POV.

[BobM]

Multi stage sounds like hard work to me, from an organisational POV.

I agree, but mandatory rest breaks in effect automatically create a multi-stage event, even if the competitors start from different points each day.  Also, what would the parameters be?  Everyone stops from 10pm to 5 am?  Everyone rests for at least 6 consecutive hours in a 24 hour period?  Personally, I think the present "system", where racers monitor their own bodies and make appropriate decisions based on their own abilities is the best plan.