Tour Divide 2019

[Bearbonesnorm]

Here's Dave on day 2.

I now know what I'd look like if I were 3 stone lighter with less hair

[jameso]

Lael appears to be giving the boys a good run for their money

Wouldn't suprise me if she ends up doing more than that after a week to 10 days. When the real long-distance conditioning kicks in, she may have as good as if not better form than anyone there.

[ssnowman]

Lael appears to be giving the boys a good run for their money

Wouldn't suprise me if she ends up doing more than that after a week to 10 days. When the real long-distance conditioning kicks in, she may have as good as if not better form than anyone there.

Lael is riding to win and I hope she does it.

It's already looking exciting and we are only just over one day in.

[voodoo_simon]

No sleeping bag for Lael Opted for some insulated shorts and top instead, so she can hop straight on the bike and pedal

[jay91]

That's extreme.
Surely a lightweight sleeping bag wouldn't take that long to pack up ?

[GregMay]

It all adds up when you do it 13 or 14 times.

[jay91]

Now you say it like that.
She's also got "down booties"

[techno]

Now you say it like that.
She's also got "down booties"

And no mat! #hardcore

Also, Lael and her film crew are taking the accusations of potential outside assistance criticism seriously by the looks of it: https://www.instagram.com/p/BysdMDtA2EK ... adijy5hmhx

[redefined_cycles]

No sleeping bag for Lael Opted for some insulated shorts and top instead, so she can hop straight on the bike and pedal

In which case I'd like to retract my earlier statement that I think she gonna win... I reckon she's gone too extreme and gonna get a chest infection again (happened in one of her earlier races a few years ago I think and once that starts happening you gotta take more precautions)... Hence my th8nking is she's gonna start getting slower and might have to pull out or finish a bit later than she'd thought out...

Hope I'm wrong though...

[whitestone]

Now you say it like that.
She's also got "down booties"

And no mat! #hardcore

You want to sleep long enough to rest and recover but no more so your sleep system should be just good enough for that.

[Lazarus]

essentially a system designed to not give a good nights sleep but just enough rest [probably ]- the complete opposite of my set up

[techno]

You want to sleep long enough to rest and recover but no more so your sleep system should be just good enough for that.

I know, I'm just not sure I'd sleep at all on the ground.

I don't have the racers approach to sleep.
I can do a couple of days of cat naps, But I think a fortnight is way more than I could manage.
Will she book into motels for a better sleep?

essentially a system designed to not give a good nights sleep but just enough rest [probably ]- the complete opposite of my set up

Same here, on last year's TINAT I blew my chance of getting round in time cos I slept 8 hours in my bivi.
Far too cosy

[GregMay]

When you're tired enough you'll sleep anywhere. Case in point, I fell asleep sitting upright in a Subway in Butte. Got prodded awake by a cleaner.

[jameso]

No sleeping bag for Lael Opted for some insulated shorts and top instead, so she can hop straight on the bike and pedal

Jacket and elephant foot makes sense, can you pedal far at any pace in insulated trousers though? Maybe a soft-pedal first hour in them works OK. Either way you have to pack up at some point. Maybe she's anticipating a Basinger-Curiak GDR style moment somewhere around Silver City.

[jameso]

I can do a couple of days of cat naps, But I think a fortnight is way more than I could manage.
Will she book into motels for a better sleep?

I expect so. Stage-post approach is wise - long stints of 35-40hrs if you can hack it, then a solid crash-out at the right points. Mike Hall pioneered that it seems. Looks like Sehili may be going for that approach this year and was a fast rookie before, 16 days or so. Cat naps and bivis are fine here and there but no doubt that if done every night it's not enough recovery for the full 2 weeks, for 99% of us anyway. Esp considering the shitty food available. It may save time and be an experience but overall it's probably not fastest.

[redefined_cycles]

When you're tired enough you'll sleep anywhere. Case in point, I fell asleep sitting upright in a Subway in Butte. Got prodded awake by a cleaner.

True but if you dont get the sleep in time, some people (myself for example) can do themselves some horrible injuries*. Multiply that to muktiple days and then not being properly protected from the elements and it can become disaster recipe (thought to save a word but not anymore after its explained ). 5 days and maybe recovery possible but 10 and 15.... Surely not...

There was that fella who almost (or actually did once or twice) won the RAAM but had to be withdrawn (on at least 2 years I think). Both times horrible full blown (and I'd say life threatening) pneumonia Hope the hardcorers on TD don't go down that route cos of not proper rest/recovery intervals.

* This latest 24H (gave in on the ride after about the 21st hour due to sleep deprivation and Wobbly Roadie Syndrome) ride of mine, i was on train during the 28th hour and having only had a few bushwacking/bus shelter naps during the ride - I almost aspirated due to such a deep sleep in train. Luckily I awoke and coughed my lungs clear properly.... Then post night shifts and a massive 90mile commute preShift, I often sleep so deeply on the train ride back home that I've almost bitten my own lower lip off midsleep

Either way, hope they all stay safe and have a proper planB in place for them untowards situations (possibly one brewing with the snow situation... )

[redefined_cycles]

Here's Dave on day 2.

I now know what I'd look like if I were 3 stone lighter with less hair

Newsflash. Daves just (and now 5 miles ahead) passed Josh Ibbett (seems he's having a long sleep somewhere) and is also 0.5 miles ahead of Steven Moatt... Go (our) Dave

[BobCatMax]

I think josh I has a poorly pinging tracker..

He's up in 2nd at the mo

[Dave Barter]

So tempted to post a selfie of me in a motel at Eureka applying witch hazel to my barse.

Today’s nugget of Tour Divide wisdom. feck Ortilieb and there stupid slipping feedbag which is now in the bin.

[middleagedmadness]

If that's the accessory pouch Dave your right constant slipping , ended up having to cable tie mine in place till I got home then the whole ortlieb system went on flee bay,keep riding strong mucka

[In Reverse]

I always preferred "banus".

[redefined_cycles]

Well done them all... seems they're still not up on Mike just yet. Can't quantify the mileage though... anyone care to take a guess:

[whitestone]

Well the men's and women's record pace dots have now appeared so there's some indication of relative pace. This assumes that the route is the same and there's no significant re-routes due to fire, etc. I think there's been a significant change in the route just north of the US/Canada border since Mike Hall set the record, the route completely misses Sparwood for example. Lael's slightly (10 miles) ahead of her own record while the leading man is about 20 miles behind Mike Hall's. Early days.

If you hover over a spot you get a short data summary of the rider including how long ago the last ping was. There's quite a few showing this as over an hour. From photos and aerial shots the northern section of the route is forested so that could well have an effect on whether the ping gets through or not. Shafiq: Sofiane Sehili is at 442 miles.

Sleeping/sleep systems/sleep deprivation - there aren't many sports/activities where an individual deliberately chooses to deprive themselves of sleep. After all it's a common form of psychological torture. There are lots of reports, including my own, of the mind trying to make sense of things whilst in a sleep deprived state: patches of tarmac becoming rocket wielding rabbits; moss on boulders becoming someone packing their suitcase and so on.

My earlier comment was slightly ambiguous, I should have said something like: your sleep system and strategy should be just good enough to allow you to sleep for your optimal minimal time. I think it was Mike Cudahay when he set the record for running the Pennine Way who said he'd run until he felt tired then just lay down and slept no matter what the time of day or night. When he woke up, he'd start running again. Multi-week events like this are a war of attrition (on mind, body and bike) and among otherwise pretty well matched athletes it's whoever manages that the best that will come out on top.

Sean posted a link to a podcast "The hidden Athlete" with an interview with Nick Skarajew, an Australian. He talks about The Race to the Rock where the staging posts in the Outback are roughly 200km apart which was probably the safe range of the old cars so you've got to have enough to get between those as there's nothing else. This backs up James' comments about the "stage-post approach" though of course the GDMBR/TDR isn't one of the old stagecoach routes, they mainly ran east to west.

Interesting how strategies have changed, it used to be the old tortoise and hare choice but now there's the multi-day block approach. I was reading or listening to an account of one race and whoever it was said they'd had an hour's cat-nap/power nap and felt worse for it.

[jameso]

Look after it Dave, really .. it can get traumatic

Stage-post approach is wise - long stints of 35-40hrs if you can hack it, ..

Ha, re-read that after looking at how they were going this morning, 40+hours without stopping for some it seems, 'wise' what would I know ...! It seems like a very different race up front to even 5 years ago, the lack of stop time is incredible/crazy. Impressive although put in context of doing the equivalent time on a bike as a 600km audax, off-road, and more - repeatedly, it's also

SS being so close to Mike's record inc the hike-a-bike section they now do shows how fast he's going (I think the 1st 150 miles is now slower but may be wrong, certainly less resupply than there was on old route that went through Elkford and Sparwood). 10.7mph average over the first 40+ hrs...

[Bearbonesnorm]

... and another of Dave ont' bike.


Pic Alex Cohen