Tour Divide 2020 Preparation and Planning

[bon]

Time to kick this off. Who is already planning and preparing?

[Salubrious]

Hey- nice T-shirt in your avatar. The shirt of the 2019 Tour Divide

[kiwidave]

A number are already signed up!

The unofficial list of 2020 starters is here to see who is entered:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1JsS2pMKY8_BLD7OLzx3eLdCmRRI-eulH2AdDB3brWgE/edit?usp=sharing


The input form for 2020 starters is here: 

https://forms.gle/A9qC2n5ar5YwqAsW9

[dskunk]

I’m not planning on 2020, but I am curious about the inclusion of a start in Jasper in the start list. Is that an unofficial unofficial thing or unofficial? , if ya know what I mean.

[kiwidave]

I’m not planning on 2020, but I am curious about the inclusion of a start in Jasper in the start list. Is that an unofficial unofficial thing or unofficial? , if ya know what I mean.

David - Jasper start was also there last year. It's unofficial unofficial as TD starts in Banff, but one day someone will want to ride a FKT from there as a prolougue like used to happen before the GDMBR started in Rooseville so just throwing it out there to capture the data.

[TheRealTSA]

I put my name on the unofficial list.  I have started to collect all my gear. This will be my first time participating in the TDR. I feel blessed to be a part of this!

[TheRealTSA]

Hi
So I am ready for this race except for my beginner skills with a etrex 20.  I ride trails and routes without GPS.
I have the route loaded and I turned off the map so I can just zoom in and follow a line.  Anyone like doing it that way?

I also loaded the route on my iPhone Gaia app as a back up.

Trying to maximize battery life, is this route totally doable with the Glonass and Waas turned off?  That is the way I am hoping to do it.

My goal is to ride the TDR as fast as my ability will allow and interacting with the etrex in a simple way.  As in just following the line and hoping I don’t miss to many turns.

Thanks
I really am getting excited for this race!

[dskunk]

I turned off the background map. Much preferred it like that, with just the pink line to follow.

[Salubrious]

Hi
So I am ready for this race except for my beginner skills with a etrex 20.  I ride trails and routes without GPS.
I have the route loaded and I turned off the map so I can just zoom in and follow a line.  Anyone like doing it that way?

I also loaded the route on my iPhone Gaia app as a back up.

Trying to maximize battery life, is this route totally doable with the Glonass and Waas turned off?  That is the way I am hoping to do it.

My goal is to ride the TDR as fast as my ability will allow and interacting with the etrex in a simple way.  As in just following the line and hoping I don’t miss to many turns.

I don't know if its an old saying on the TDR, but it goes like this: "When in doubt follow the blue line"  

[TheRealTSA]

I have read some divide the route into sections in basecamp. Is that necessary?  All I have done is load the 10000 point file straight to my etrex.  Is that ok?

[Iowagriz]

RealTSA, read thru the older threads that followed the race. There are several spots in which racers miss the route because they didn't follow the line. You don't want to have your eyes on the screen 100% of the time, so knowing the trouble areas in advance will help. Towogatee pass area and the singletrack south of Breckenridge are two that come to mind.

Sent from my SM-N920V using Tapatalk

[TheRealTSA]

Thanks. Old threads have been critical for understanding this stuff. Really getting down to little nitty gritty details now

[taprider]

I don't know if its an old saying on the TDR, but it goes like this: "When in doubt follow the blue line" 

...and you will end up following a river
or if you set your track colour to red or magenta, you might end up following a wrong highway (after that mistake, I went through my Garmin setup and tried to change track and background colours as much as possible to be different, but still have trouble with the blue of creeks looking like the bluegrey of gravel roads. My old GPS Map62 was better for colours and still wish it worked)

[kiwidave]

I have read some divide the route into sections in basecamp. Is that necessary?  All I have done is load the 10000 point file straight to my etrex.  Is that ok?

Splitting is good as it means that the "distance to go" data field becomes very useful. If you split to resupply points then you've got a good heads-up without your sleep deprived brain having to do the maths. I used 6 segments, but 13 would have been better. Eureka / Ovando / Butte / Lima / Pinedale / Wamsutter / Steamboat / Salida / Del Norte / Abiquiu / Grants / Silver City / Antelope Wells.

[TheRealTSA]

Thank you for the replies. They are insightful and helpful

[Redpath]

Anybody else out there for anti-planning? Winging it?

I like doing things cold. I find it more challenging and interesting to tackle events without detailed plans.  In an event like the TD its so hard to know what you will encounter, when, where etc seems to me you're better off having a full toolkit and just dealing with stuff as it pops up. I had my GPS track but rarely knew exactly where I was or how far it was to the next place or even what was coming next beyond my daily map study and rough mileage goals. Yeah I went hungry, slept in some crappy places and suffered unnecessarily.  But I absolutely love it this way! You can only ever do it cold one time.  A true adventure and an exploration in discovery. A true test of your abilities to deal with unknowns and make decisions on the fly. Why wreck it with detailed plans? 

My preparation began years before the GD.
My planning ended when I checked in to the Youth Hostel in Banff.

Less is more!!

(Unfortunately I had to resume planning upon arriving in AW.)

[TheRealTSA]

I am right there with you on less planning.  My main motivation for my planning is that I do need to be back in a timely manner. Otherwise, I would love to take two months to do this as a tour instead of race.

[Pampa]

Anyone running/planning to run Teravails Sparwood? If so, what internal rim width are you going with? I used them in my first attempt 3 years ago and mounted them on 30mm rims. They felt great during my 1,300 mi stint - fast rolling and good traction with the loaded bike. Now I need a new wheelset (I sold that when I switched to a boost frame) and when I checked the Teravail site they now say the ideal rim width for this tire is 24mm (this info wasn't there 3 years ago). Not sure if they changed something on the tire in these three years (I think they weren't available for a year or so). Any insights or recommendations?

Thanks!

[chez_clam]

The Sparwood is a long wearing tire—“harder” durometer materials than some of the others you’d consider, like the Vittoria Mezcal.  It’s a bit less forgiving on wet rock surfaces and loose dirt/gravel but super fast on road or hard packed dirt.  The “harder” casing may repel thorns and other potential hazards better than other options.  If you go with a dramatically wider or narrower rim than recommended, you’ll open yourself up to a range of issues, including sidewall exposure, sub-optimal tire profile variance, and potentially, blowing the tire off the rim when you least expect it. If you like the stability a 30mm rim offered you, you’ll probably enjoy the feel of an appropriately wide(r) tire profile.  Maybe experiment with a 30mm up front with a 2.4 tire of your choice and a 24 in the back with a 2.2 Sparwood.  Good luck on the ride!

[Pampa]

The Sparwood is a long wearing tire—“harder” durometer materials than some of the others you’d consider, like the Vittoria Mezcal.  It’s a bit less forgiving on wet rock surfaces and loose dirt/gravel but super fast on road or hard packed dirt.  The “harder” casing may repel thorns and other potential hazards better than other options.  If you go with a dramatically wider or narrower rim than recommended, you’ll open yourself up to a range of issues, including sidewall exposure, sub-optimal tire profile variance, and potentially, blowing the tire off the rim when you least expect it. If you like the stability a 30mm rim offered you, you’ll probably enjoy the feel of an appropriately wide(r) tire profile.  Maybe experiment with a 30mm up front with a 2.4 tire of your choice and a 24 in the back with a 2.2 Sparwood.  Good luck on the ride!

I noticed that now these tires are 60 tpi. The pair I had was 120 tpi. I remember that version felt hard compared to other 120 tpi tires. I didn't think the 2.2 Sparwood offered too much stability on a 30mm rim. The thinking for me was that a slightly wider rim would give a bit more contact patch and help with traction. Maybe they would have perform even better on a 24mm rim.

Using a wider rim/tire on the front than in the back is a good idea. Will explore that at some point. For now, unfortunately, I have to change my plans and postpone this race one more year. Consolation is that I'll be doing the CTR instead (first time), which is much less time and cost (I live close to Denver).