Tour Divide 2015 for armchair viewers

[jay91]

what a pro road racer would make of this.

i like to think that the bikepacking races can/are won by normal people with no big backing as such.

[Taylor]

I spoke to Oli Beckinsale last year about bikepacking and mentioned the BB200.

His words were "F**K THAT".

[whitestone]

Depends how much skill/fitness is transferable I suppose. There's more to it than that though - TdF racers have a huge backup team: no getting to the end of a day's racing then sorting out your bed for the night; fixing your bike; etc. They just have to race. Also even the back markers on the longest stages aren't in the saddle for more than seven or eight hours and that will be only one or two days in the race, to be in amongst the leaders in the TDR you are going to be in the saddle for 16hrs or more *every day*, not on smooth tarmac but on rough tracks and trails.

In the interests of disclosure: I've never ridden either the Tour de France or the TDR so the above might be complete bo****ks

[voodoo_simon]

I think the prize money and publicity put many pro riders off. That million dollar race that never went ahead had a few pro riders signed up

[jameso]

i like to think that the bikepacking races can/are won by normal people with no big backing as such.

Agreed, though the format itself is a good leveller. It's the full-time training advantage that pros have that may be seen as 'unfair', another debate I guess.

Also even the back markers on the longest stages aren't in the saddle for more than seven or eight hours and that will be only one or two days in the race, to be in amongst the leaders in the TDR you are going to be in the saddle for 16hrs or more *every day*, not on smooth tarmac but on rough tracks and trails.

True, but riding at pro-road race pace for 5-6hrs and the training that's needed to hack it would mean that your base or steady pace for 16-18 hour days could be very high. I expect most riders at the front of endurance/BP races do a chunk of training a high intensity levels for efficiency and overall endurance but they will rarely go that hard during the actual events.

[whitestone]

The pro-road riders will be a lot closer physically to the condition required than someone like myself that's for sure but they certainly couldn't simply be dropped in to such an event. Look at Wiggins: he has to spend several months adapting his body to switch between road and track. Admittedly he's looking at being perfectly optimised for either discipline rather than the 98% (made up figure) that he's already at.

Training done properly is a lot harder than an actual event but it will be of much shorter duration - for his hour record attempt Wiggins was doing 20 minute efforts at above 56kmh for example, yes he probably did four or five such efforts in each session.

The truly hard part is psychological - getting up in the morning after only a few hours sleep to ride another 200 miles (way longer than any modern road race stage) having done 200 miles the previous day AND the day before that AND ...

[Richard G]

I'd imagine the pro XC guys would arguably be better suited. They're very used to putting in long hours on challenging terrain.

[jameso]

I think some of the pro roadies could drop almost straight in, after some basic BP-craft practice, but I'm not sure. What I'm basing that on is that the pro XC or road racer has the base fitness that means they could adapt to become a fast TDR racer in a fairly short time from making the call to race, if they have the mentality for it. A pro roadie's winter miles could make a very sound base for an ultra event and any good ultra racer will be doing some sort of HI training that the pros do a lot of. There's other demands but it's all within the ranges of different racer's strenghts. There was a blog linked to on BP.net last year, by a Canadian pro that showed how well he could adapt to the TD type of event, I forget the guy's name now, will have a look later. Basically he loved the lone touring life and had the legs to go fast enough day after day, all that's needed really. Also look at how the best of them cope with Paris-Roubaix, that's utterly brutal by any MTB standards. Pro roadies are hard, no doubt about it.

I agree that the hard part is psychological. The better you cope physically, the better your form (and the more you love the existence, as Mike Hall's blog post so well expresses) the better you cope mentally and I think there's often very little if anything in a person's past that can really show how well they cope in that sort of situation. 200 miles of dirt is longer than a TDF race stage but the intensity is lower, it's not directly comparable. tbh I think that line about 'the hardest race in the world is not in France' is just a good tag line for a film.

.. 3 riders just outside Silver City now, 3am and they've been stopped a couple of hours apart from JK who's caught up, wonder how much sleep if any there will be from now? Going to be a close finish.

[voodoo_simon]

I'd imagine the pro XC guys would arguably be better suited. They're very used to putting in long hours on challenging terrain.

I'd say the opposite, pro xc riders race for a maximum of 2 hours (?), whilst a grand tour rider will be cycling for much longer. Someone tough like Greg Henderson would do well

Maybe endurance xc riders would stand a better chance though?

[touch]

In my opinion, a pro road racer would be capable of taking a large chunk of time off the record.
Purely down to the time they have for training. Those of us who need to work just cant compete.

Looking at Neil Beltchenko's strava, he has ridden 1,666 miles this year (but obviously not uploaded anything from the TD yet).
Here is Steven Kruijswijk's strava, he has ridden 10,414 miles this year.

*I dont know if either of them are uploading every ride they do.

The problem is that if you are a pro dependant on cycling for an income, you cant take 3 weeks out to do a race with no prize money and little exposure for your sponsors.

[Richard G]

Maybe endurance xc riders would stand a better chance though?

Sorry, I meant the endurance stuff. 12/24 hour races and the like.

Looking at Neil Beltchenko's strava, he has ridden 1,666 miles this year (but obviously not uploaded anything from the TD yet).

Freaky, TD aside I've done more miles than him this year, and I've been injured.

[touch]

Freaky, TD aside I've done more miles than him this year, and I've been injured.

It does seem quite low. He might not be putting everything online. Although, there are no gaps - he has put at least 1 ride up every week this year.
I didnt look through all the TD racers and select the lowest milage to make a point, he was just the first name I looked up (because he's at the front). I suspect most others will have done more miles than that but I'd be surprised if any of them are over 10k miles.

[jameso]

1600 miles isn't much, although mileage doesn't tell a lot of the story and I suspect like most sane people he's not recording everything on strava ; ) You'd not log turbo miles either, he's a Colorado local so must be doing something like that when the trails were snow-bound, XC skiing for base fitness, etc.

[Richard G]

Mine go on automatically from TrainerRoad these days, but yeah, most people wouldn't. Seems quite likely that he doesn't have a bunch of trainer time listed.

[whitestone]

Mine go on automatically from TrainerRoad these days, but yeah, most people wouldn't. Seems quite likely that he doesn't have a bunch of trainer time listed.

If you mark them private then no-one else will see them. Not sure if they appear in your year to date stats though if you do that, I know that such rides don't count towards any Strava challenges you might be working towards.

[Richard G]

Yeah, seems it does remove them from the total. Would be nice if I could set something like that auto on sync.

Anyway, back to the tour... still incredibly close. I assume at this point that they're cycling together. I'd be giving my opponent stern looks.

[Justchris]

A lot of competitive cyclists don't record publicly on the likes of strava so their competitors can't figure what nic their in. And some cyclists like me just cannot be bothered!

[touch]

True. The point I was making wasnt about how little training mileage any the TD riders had done, more how much the pro road racers are doing.

10,000 miles is a lot of training time and we're only half way through the year.

[voodoo_simon]

Top three have all speed at the golden arches, guess the person who eats the big Mac first had the potential to win!

[Mart]

Blimey after all that way catching up, Josh Kato has made a bid for glory 90 miles out. ballsy move

[FLV]

Fair Play to him, hes stiill in it after chasing a long way.

[Chew]

Death or Glory?

[Blackhound]

I was reading that Connor O'Leary is pretty handy on the road but he only made it to Ovando. Only 23 so not a long road career and threatening to return. I asked Rob Leipheimer two years ago if Levi would ever consider the race. Rob's answer was a maybe! He has a mtb background as well as road. (I know there are 'other' issues as well with LL's generation) but I would like to see him have a go. If he was 'ard enough but not convinced he will.

If I could pick one ex pro to take on TD it would be Graeme Obree the first Scottish mtb champion (downhill I think) who used to do a lot of touring. He seems nuts in a good way and would be great to watch.

Race looking good. JK has a seven mile lead and will soon be on the pavement as our American cousins say. That should be about half an hour and I imaging if he is feeling strong - he has to be motivated - then that will be hard to get back in 65 miles once the turn to AW is made. Some of that could disappear at the store in Separ if he needs water, food or Red Bull.

[FLV]

Jodh os rolling on again. Neil and Jay are in separ. 7 miles back on Josh

[FLV]

9 miles between Josh and Jay, neil 1 mile behind Jay.

In other news Lael is smashing the ladies record.

Also, Gabe still going strong from what I can see.