Tour Divide Rules and website

[BobM]

I have done several organized double centuries, some 50K road races, and some underground cyclocross events all without carrying any more food than a few power bars in case of an emergency. I don't ever use food stops if available at event rides or any of there services. The lines slow me down and I never like the food selection. I ride self supported from town to town. The only thing I would consider sending to USPS offices is some spare parts, and batteries if budget allowed.

I can do the STP Bicycle classic each year in between 9-17 hours unsupported with very little training. I usually wait for my riding buddies on first 100 and use that as a warm up to go barn storming the second which I have done in under 4 hours. I don't carry anything more than 1 spare tube, Park multi-tool, zipties, and an emergency patch kit. I use about 3-5 20oz bottles of water and gatorade per 100 miles, I eat at subway at 100 miles and snack on fruit and power bars between. I don't even have a bag or rack on my trike, just 3 water bottle racks, and a small Pedros recycle inner tube seat bag for my tube,tool, and patches.

It is very easy to do self supported rides town to town with a few simple reserves like powerbars and hammer gels. I find that eating a good carb heavy dinner the night before helps me as I don't like to start a ride on a full stomach.

You will want to take a good look at the maps.  There are stretches of 100+ miles with NO services - nothing.

[jryter]

go for it! A power bar and banana! Actually i tend to eat much more than I normally eat after a few days of hard riding. One day you can eat normal, two days also, but the third and fourth (and 20th?) you may be getting really hungry. I also ate too many power bars and gus on the CTR and my mouth took a beating from the sugars I guess.
Oh and with the gluten free diet, I'm pretty sure Jefe Branam doesn't eat wheat either. He doesn't seem to have problems. I'll have to check that out....

[Done]

gI also ate too many power bars and gus on the CTR and my mouth took a beating from the sugars I guess.

My tongue was trashed after the CTR too. My dentist says that it was from mouth-breathing too much while riding, and that I should try to breathe through my nose more. Kind of hard to do when climbing some of those passes! The dry air up high doesn't help. She recommended trying some Biotene, which I might do.

[DocTrike]

@BobM As to TDR I have been studying them for months along with google earth and GPS files.

My comment was about my general experience in long routes, I was saying to the OP you can do unsupported Ultras if you wanted to without carrying all your food or using UPSPS drops. I think according to the route guide posted yesterday by a former racer the longest distance was like 130 miles.

[BobM]

@BobM As to TDR I have been studying them for months along with google earth and GPS files.

My comment was about my general experience in long routes, I was saying to the OP you can do unsupported Ultras if you wanted to without carrying all your food or using UPSPS drops. I think according to the route guide posted yesterday by a former racer the longest distance was like 130 miles.

Sounds good.  You had me a little worried when it seemed you were talking about carrying only a few Power Bars between stores/cafes.

[DocTrike]

For TDR I will probably double that that plus some trail mix and fruit, between stops. Since it's my first TDR I will carry more than I think I will need. Off to go train on the dirt.