Tour Divide 2017 - race discussion thread

[Angler]

I am happy to see you still posting the photos here -- THANK YOU, very much.  Facebook is great, but once things are posted, they are gone, so it's nice to have the more permanent record here on the bikepacking.net forums.


http://trackleaders.com/megaxc17

Are you kidding?  I can't fathom not posting here.  It was you and this forum that got me started doing this.  FB may come and go but I know this will always be around.

:-)

[jjmundt]

Anybody else seeing what's happening in northwest WY and Togwotee Pass?  Things are starting to get interesting in the lead pack.  SM and BS are making their moves.

It appears that the leaders will be the snow plows to Brooks Lake.  I wonder what Union Pass will bring...

Stefan will get some consideration for "ride of the Tour".

[PMalcolm]

Great battle brewing up front as Stefan and Josh are now only 8 miles down on Brian who seems to have hit a hotel.

Ben laying down a frantic pace post-repairs too.

[PKraft_Sr.]

Wow, I really stirred something up with the word "team".  You can all have your argument about teams in the TD.  I don't disagree with much of what's being said, but I don't think this is the place for the discussion.

Regardless, it's not fair to have this discussion on the backs of the names of Peter Kraft Jr & Sr, and for any part I played in that, I apologize to them both.  I didn't mean to imply anything about the Peters breaking the rules.  Not at all.

I've seen people drafting each other on course, for example.  That is not at all what I meant by a "father/son team".  Rather, a father and son entered and finished in the same year.  To the best of my knowledge, they were the first pair to do so.  The defining characteristic of their ride, at least as a human story, was the hardships they repeatedly encountered including, IIRC, hospitalization in the absolute tail end of things in New Mexico.  If you're curious about it, find a copy of the 2013 Cordillera, or search the race thread for that year.  It is a compelling story about human endurance and hardship, things we're all obviously drawn to.

Now back to the race!

Matthew,

Good to hear from you old friend.  No apologies needed at all! We followed the rules by the book. For what it is worth, not that anyone really cares about what happened to the Kraft's in 2013, you are correct in stating that we entered the race together and finished the race at the end together. Other than that we were completely self-supported.  There was never a moment of drafting, nothing shared, and no help given to one another. Peter actually had a four hour off route excursion for food because of a calculation error on his part after Platoro. I had plenty of food but of course could not share - hell, he rode all the way to Chama NM and back into Colorado with a huge elevation loss that he had to absorb but we always stayed with-in the rules. I typically rode with Peter for the first 30 minutes of the day and then he would drop me and be gone. 16 or so hours later I would eventually catch up to where he stopped.  We rode alone all day every day.  Hope I didn't bore you all with that but I just wanted to be clear that the rules were maintained at all times. That was important to us.  Enough said, this year is seriously exciting and I am having a blast watching my son do this again.  For all of the family members and loved ones that are blue dot watchers, I now understand the stress that we put you through.  This is hard watching!!!!

[jjmundt]

Oh dear, it looks like some serious HAB on Union Pass.  Clearly the 54" of snow hasn't all melted.

[Yann___k]

A bit of work with Mega Cross Country Tracker - to see each race track.

[BobM]

Part 4 from Ovando Montana Jun 15

Dan Nolan, ageless from Alberta via Ireland and the Irish never devulge their age.  Or so he insists.

Kim Ortloff, 48 from Florida

John Bolton, 49 of Ireland

Sandy Radsek, 35 of Arizona

John Bolton has a SERIOUSLY tight-fitting helmet!

[mtbcast]

#TourDivide17 Rick Ashton called in overnight from Lincoln and Andrew Stauffer called in this morning from Lima!

http://mtbcast.com/site2/category/td17/

[tkmoult]

I was starting to worry about the Bonita Fire, I guess I'm a bit late in my worries since the north bound group have all cleared or are at Del Norte Co.  From https://nmfireinfo.com/2017/06/14/carson-national-forest-bonita-wildfire-update-06142017/ it states:

The area within Forest roads 42, 42F and 274 is closed due to the proximity of the fire and heavy fire traffic.

The Continental Divide Trail is not within the closure area. Hikers, bicyclists and recreationists are advised that smoke may impact the area and create breathing difficulties.

The current route uses NF-42 as noted at https://maps.nwcg.gov/sa/#/%3F/36.5869/-106.1532/14, compare that to tracleaders at the intersection of 111 and 437 north of vallecitos nm

Containment is at 10%

[flyboy]

Sorry about that Angler -- I've increased the capacity of the overall attachments directory, so you should be good to go for the rest of the race.

I am happy to see you still posting the photos here -- THANK YOU, very much.  Facebook is great, but once things are posted, they are gone, so it's nice to have the more permanent record here on the bikepacking.net forums.

Thanks for the reminder Scott.
The move by many to FB really grinds my gears too. I found this forum invaluable in planning my run at the TD and I am using it to plan an AZT750 attempt, so as you say, with FB the information is lost almost right away and the dispersion/loss of intel makes the hurdle for rookies that much higher. I get that FB is easy to use as an excuse so in light of that is it possible to make it a bit easier to use this forum, especially posting photos and links? Maybe a slight makeover in usability to bring it into the Twenty Teens? (Full disclosure- I am a techno numpty so it might be just me that struggles to post stuff)

Thanks again for hosting this forum and also for all the contributors going to the effort to post in here.

[Bob]

Re: posting photos - One possibility is to use a photo hosting service: flikr, imgur and the like. Then simply link to the album or albums from the thread on here. With imgur at least you can also get forum code to embed the images within the thread here without using space on the forum's servers. Slightly more work of course for the person doing the linking.

[mtbcast]

I try to steer people here when doing episodes and commentary. This just seems to be where the racers hang out and gives a much better perspective, more intimate if you'll pardon the expression. FB is fine and certainly for family and friends of individual racers. it's a new world, though. Many of the active racers opt to just post updates there.

[Angler]

Re: posting photos - One possibility is to use a photo hosting service: flikr, imgur and the like. Then simply link to the album or albums from the thread on here. With imgur at least you can also get forum code to embed the images within the thread here without using space on the forum's servers. Slightly more work of course for the person doing the linking.

Sorry I had to laugh at this......as the photographer is a town of only 50 with no cell service......I found I didn't understand a word you just wrote.  Shows you how far behind Ovando is in the technology world.  Geez.... it took a group of us a week to figure out a webcam.  HA!

[WatermelonSugar]

I'm happy to see the forum came alive once the GD got underway. i was a bit worried as the race prep forum was pretty quiet this year. As a non FB user this is one of the best places for info.

Eyes back on the race....I'm impressed with how Brian Lucido keeps pulling out that lead, I was sure Josh was going to be able to keep him in sight.

[BobM]

Sorry I had to laugh at this......as the photographer is a town of only 50 with no cell service......I found I didn't understand a word you just wrote.  Shows you how far behind Ovando is in the technology world.  Geez.... it took a group of us a week to figure out a webcam.  HA!

Wow, Town Photographer AND Chairperson of the Ovando Information Technology Workgroup!  I'm impressed!  Thanks for all the pictures and the webcam - great fun to put faces to names and watch a bit of live TD action now and again.

[BobM]

I'm happy to see the forum came alive once the GD got underway. i was a bit worried as the race prep forum was pretty quiet this year. As a non FB user this is one of the best places for info.

Eyes back on the race....I'm impressed with how Brain Lucido keeps pulling out that lead, I was sure Josh was going to be able to keep him in sight.

My problem with Facebook (and perhaps it really is just MY problem) is that replies to threads get buried and I cannot tell when something new is posted under an existing comment.  The linear nature of the Forum here ensures that I don't miss anything.

[Angler]

John Bolton has a SERIOUSLY tight-fitting helmet!

Funny you mention that.  I first I thought he had corn rolls on his noggin.  

[WatermelonSugar]

My problem with Facebook (and perhaps it really is just MY problem) is that replies to threads get buried and I cannot tell when something new is posted under an existing comment.  The linear nature of the Forum here ensures that I don't miss anything.

Definitely it's fun and easy to scroll through the forum posts after a night's sleep dreaming of blue dots!!

[Bob]

Sorry I had to laugh at this......as the photographer is a town of only 50 with no cell service......I found I didn't understand a word you just wrote.  Shows you how far behind Ovando is in the technology world.  Geez.... it took a group of us a week to figure out a webcam.  HA!

Apologies - never sure if I'm talking to someone who knows way, way more than myself - not difficult! Summary: online photo albums where you drag and drop photos from your computer and can then make links to.

I've never got a webcam working so you are one ahead of me there

Back to the race. Are conditions this year difficult? The lead riders seem quite a way back from both men's and women's records.

[danwiz]

I'm happy to see the forum came alive once the GD got underway. i was a bit worried as the race prep forum was pretty quiet this year. As a non FB user this is one of the best places for info.

Eyes back on the race....I'm impressed with how Brian Lucido keeps pulling out that lead, I was sure Josh was going to be able to keep him in sight.

just have to say i like your DLR skyscraper pic!!!  such a great album!!!!
now back to the race