Tour Divide 2013

[numplumz]

Mike Halls strava stats of his ride, so now you can follow his tracks
http://www.strava.com/activities/642792 ... %253D%253D

[jameso]

Hey everyone.. thanks for the support! ) Mike Hall I'm certainly not and there was an entire Great Basin's worth of space between the 3 of us and Jesse most of the time, but what a ride. Mike seemed to redefine what people thought could be done on the TDR, he was a known name wherever we followed him 2 or 3 days later. "So you know that Mike guy? Gaaawd--damn, he's fast!? You boys got no chance!" etc. Just incredible.

I never expected to find myself in 10th on the morning of day 2 when north-bound Divide-double rider Billy Rice stopped and said hi, told me I was #10 on the road and lit the fire. I couldn't stop after that! Top 10?! I was knackered and grinning equally.
The end sprint was silly, I had no hope on a 34T ring on tarmac but we all agreed it was better to hit the border all guns blazing than limp across hand in hand for joint 3rds.
I'd spent 20 miles at threshold pace after getting past Liam and Alex around 7am on the last day, they had to stop for water but I'd resupplied in Silver City with the intent on not stopping in the last 125 miles. In the end the sleep monster got me around 3.30am, I'd been riding for 24hrs on top of 6hrs sleep in the last 3 days, the road was going all 3-d multi-level, with the white line becoming either a shimmering laser beam or a gap, a daylight crack in the road that I was scared of falling into, next I was having dream-state moments on the bike, sleeping for a few seconds then waking up swerving across the road so I had to bivi briefly. I'd ridden past Alex and Liam's bivi spot unknowingly about 10 miles earlier, they then rode past as I kipped for 90 mins. I woke up feeling really strong and rode well across the gorgeous final desert trail at sunrise (wish there was time for photos, it was stunning) and where they stopped for water and coffee in Separ, I kept on. Suddenly there were no tyre marks in front of me so I got my head down, 65 miles of tarmac to go. 20-odd miles later I saw 2 dots behind me, I was being chased down and went into full TT mode. 20 miles later again, Alex had dropped Liam and caught me. I sat up, we regrouped and rode chatting for a while. I joked about their aerobars being for triathletes not real mountain bikers while accepting a lack of a big ring and tri-bars had ended up costing me.. It was weird, racing giving it my all to stay away from those guys then being genuinely happy to ride with them again. We decided on a 1-mile-out sprint and I was resigned to 5th. Kind of gutted after thinking I had almost bagged 3rd, but there's no hiding on the road these days. Alex had seen a twitter post saying I was 4 miles up the road while Liam was having 'that bloody frappuchino'!
tbh, there's reasons why I'd have felt that I'd stolen 3rd from Alex if I'd stayed away. As we had a beer at the border it felt clear that I couldn't have pushed so hard without him on my case, like I owed him for the motivation for what feels like the ride of my life. His experience and need of a motel every few days balanced out with my dirt-bag bivi habits (16/16 out in the bivi bag, 2 washes in streams) and the racing between the 2 of us was never more than 2 hours apart for more than 2000 miles. Liam had done damn well to catch us up again after losing ground in the middle of the ride so he was obviously no go-slower.

Would've updated here sooner but didn't know my password from the hotel in Texas. All in all, a stunning trail and just a huge experience. I'm done in now, fell apart a few hours after finishing and still have nerve issues in my hand but it was worth it all. The TDR is worth it's status, I loved it as well as being so very close to being utterly beaten by it. (edit, sorry long post but no blogger here so here's the outlet for it!)

[Blackhound]

jameso - thanks for write up. I put away 10 litres between Silver City and the border including stops at Separ & Hachita but I think some of that was catch-up after the Gila - some of which you missed I believe.

When you have time I would be interested in your eating habits. Was it as much real food as you could get or sweet stuff? Gas stations or cafe's? I found I could not get enough food down me when I stopped and then had a couple of bad periods of a couple of days each. Little and often seemed to suit me but was not always practical in TD. Just wondered how the 'fast' boys coped.

I believe Matthew Lee's best time was 17d6h and fairly sure you were quicker than Kurt & Jefe a couple of years ago. I know re-routes helped your time a little, but they have effected most recent years as well. Aidan's time was ~19 days so you were seriously fast. If it wasn't for Mike that is Well done again.

A few might be interested in a kit list.

[Bearbonesnorm]

Not much to say except, well done! Truly stunning ride.

[jameso]

and for blackhound - the double double cheesburger fix with milkshake and coke was a staple fix-up : ) that and a lot of reese's peanut butter cups and trail mix. Pop tarts too.

[Ian]

In the HT400 thread:

I was watching this over the last few days, pretty amazed at the pace and hours put in. Riding long days for a week or so is one thing, but these 24hr+ stints are hard to appreciate. A very humbling thing to see unfolding

and then in this thread:

I'd spent 20 miles at threshold pace after getting past Liam and Alex around 7am on the last day, they had to stop for water but I'd resupplied in Silver City with the intent on not stopping in the last 125 miles. In the end the sleep monster got me around 3.30am, I'd been riding for 24hrs on top of 6hrs sleep in the last 3 days...

...after having ridden ~2500 miles

Not that's humbling

Well done fella - first class ride. And you have time for photos :D

[jameso]

blackhound, thanks, it was a faster ride than I expected (the fear motivated my training quite effectively!) but I don't for a second think I'd have been anywhere near Aidan on the same course. We had an extra 100 miles overall after the re-routes but the Cuba and Gila sections would have been harder and slower. I think we saved about a day with those re-routes? I was also lucky with the weather, the 1x6 gearing I chose to cope with mud / wear and tear was actually the wrong thing to use as it was dry and fast for >90% of the route. Others behind got hit by bad weather and I was cold and wet at times, but not as much as I've heard about in previous years. And you know I was considering riding SS and now I've ridden the route I know I'd have DNF'd with a 34-19. None of the route is genuinely steep for more than a mile or so, but the stress I felt at riding a 34-28 bottom gear and the general daily saddle-time was enough, to cope on a singlespeed over ~18-20 days is unthinkable. I was waking up between days 5 and 13 with knees that felt like they were in a vice as it was.

[jameso]

Cheers Ian.. I guess we find out what we can actually do sometimes eh : )
I wasn't going to take a camera, I wanted to race and it cost me some time, but others were tweeting as they went etc.. generally I know where I had a pee/food/faff stop from the pictures!

[Chew]

Amazing ride James. It was very entertaining watching the 3 of you race the route 8-)

Think you've sparked the imagination of quite a few people

[johnnystorm]

Definitely inspirational. A stonking ride and even the non-bikers in my office were hooked!

[jameso]

Chew, that's great, if I can do it.. :)

[Zippy]

Cheers for the write up Jameso, was brilliant watching the whole thing over the t'internet. Looks epic. Nice ride

[jameso]

A few more, because the Basin may be the most sublime place I've passed through alone on two wheels.

[FLV]

Spectacular ride mate. Very impressed.

Really pleased to hear that you enjoyed the ordeal too

[slarge]

Well impressed. The sort of ride that most of us can only dream of, but that is a seriously good performance. Your mum was worried for a couple of days - you might want to give her a ring!!

[barney]

James an amazing few weeks and I dare say quite a few of us are thinking about how we can wangle a couple of weeks off work and away from the family for a similar (if a lot shorter) epic adventure.

In my little world I'm treating the BB200 as the TD but that would probably be a short pootle for you.

[jameso]

slarge, I've spoken to my Mum : ) she had been asking questions about reroute info distribution (as I was w/o phone etc) on BP.net and I had to explain to her who Matthew Lee was .. "well Mum, you were on a forum asking about TDR fairness with the man behind the race, the greatest Divide racer out there (imo) and the guy that was my main inspiration, but hey ho, you weren't to know.." : ) it could've been a lot worse, thankfully Mum's not the argumentative type!
I'd simply been turning my tracker off mid-race as the guys close behind me had iphones - twitter and trackleader access. I wanted to be able to ride under the radar, but tbh in the end it made little difference. Either you have the legs to gap people or not and you still have to decide whether to react or relax when gaps appear between you and the rider in front. It's a good job they did anyway, as Liam told me about a re-route I wouldn't have known about toward the end. So it goes both ways..

[evilgoat]

Fantastic ride James and cracking photos. Properly inspirational.

were doing a lot of blue dot following and on that last day minute by minute updates of that battle for 3rd.

[BRP]

Incredible ride James!
I was watching your dot daily. :]

Any chance of a kit list? I'd be keen to hear what you took.
Also, anything you'd change in either your kit or bike setup if you did it again?

[jameso]

Hey BRP, thanks. Blackhound mentioned a list too, been a bit slack there sorry. I did make a kit list sheet for this trip =

Item - Spec / details / notes - Grams :

Sleeping
Sleeping bag - PHD Ultra Minim ~8deg 350
Mattress - Neoair Small 260
Bivi - Terra Nova Moonlight 180
Tarp - small white one inc lines, bag and pegs 210
total 1000 2.20

Packed Clothing
Waterproof - Berghaus Paclite Mtn jacket w/hood 340
Windproof - Montane Pertex Quantum 60
Insulation - down gillet Karrimor 170
3/4 wp pants Endura Helium 150
Base layer new Altura synthetic 100
Additionals? thick socks, spare gloves, cap, knee warmers 300
total 1120 /2.47

Tools
Pump Fw Evans Giyo sample 140
UST kit inc extra sealant 100
Tools - chain, multi, pliers 100
Spares - links, cable, bolts weight inc in tools 0
Tube 29er 280
total 620 / 1.37

Medicals, Wellbeing
Butt cream Sudocrem 80g 0
1st aid - sleeping, nurofen, basics Proplus, Ibuprofen, Chlorine Diox 0
Pills Prescription stuff for giardia / infections 0
toothpaste + brush 0
ALL IN - 400
total 400 / 0.88

Extras
MP3 45
Lights F+R 108 for Exposure Spark w/batteries, + spare batts 250
Headtorch Petzel Tikka with red led mode 80
Camera, Spot + batts 125/200/150 525
Maps all ACA maps and my printed route cues w/notes 300
drybags x4 13l, 2x8l, 4l 80
Luggage - frame, seat and bar Wildcat Tiger, Alpkit frame bag, Revelate bar harness and gas tank 650
total 1930 / 4.25

5070g / 11.18lbs, plus a light backpack and 2l +3l bladders

So not much superlight kit apart from a pretty fast, light sleep system (apart from blowing up the neoair - I deflated it fast by 'pulling the plug' when i woke up to prevent oversleeping) that was based on a luxury air mat for proper rest. Tarp wasn't so fast but wasn't often needed and was more of a minimal security blanket that got me away from the towns in the evening when raining. I don't think I could have used less kit, but maybe could have had lighter versions of a few items. Not much tho.

Thing's I'd change for next time? Mainly, I'd fit a triple so I could contest stupid sprints on desert roads.. :) or just go SS and be done with it
I'd use bigger tyres if they were available - a 2.4 Saguaro would be perfect
I'd pad my bars even more than I did and make sure I used my backpack chest strap more often, my right hand is still not good
I'd not use bibs for faster 'movements' and making sure I slept in my shorts less often, not a good thing but at times I was too tired to care, regretted it after a while though
I'd consider a GPS / smartphone if I was expecting to be at the faster end of the race, but would be sure to only receive emails from pre-set senders (route diversions only perhaps). Cues are fine but a GPS backup would have saved some stress and mis-interpretation of cues (BRP, I'm happy to point out the vaguer areas if you decide to ride w/o GPS and want that beta)
And I'd eat more, if it were possible. HTH..

[FLV]

Travelling pretty light there!!

[BRP]

Cheers for that James...that looks like a really light setup.
It's interesting that you say about using bigger tyres next time. That's something I noticed, that a lot of people seem to be using pretty narrow tyres...2.1" etc I'm assuming it would be for the comfort?

[FLV]

I've just fitted a pair if 2.0 tyres with the intention of seeing how long they last before next years race. Not the grippiest but roll ok. It'll be difficult for me to leave them on as I'm a bit of a serial tyre changer...

I'm already thinking about bigger ones though.. :-/

[johnnystorm]

I've just fitted a pair if 2.0 tyres with the intention of seeing how long they last before next years race. Not the grippiest but roll ok. It'll be difficult for me to leave them on as I'm a bit of a serial tyre changer...

I'm already thinking about bigger ones though.. :-/

Didn't Mike Hall say his Race Kings were veterans of two Tours?!

[FLV]

I've just fitted a pair if 2.0 tyres with the intention of seeing how long they last before next years race. Not the grippiest but roll ok. It'll be difficult for me to leave them on as I'm a bit of a serial tyre changer...

I'm already thinking about bigger ones though.. :-/

Didn't Mike Hall say his Race Kings were veterans of two Tours?!

I think the front one yeah...