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Post by dgaddis1 on Jun 14, 2011 14:28:35 GMT -5
2,745 self supported miles from Banff, Canada south to the US/Mexico border, with enough climbing to summit Everest from sea level 7 times. That is the Tour Divide in a nutshell. It's a big ride. The Grand Depart was last weekend, tho some start an individual time trial (ITT) earlier. Over 80 racers this year, about twice as many as last year. Only half of the last year's starters finished. The winners do well over 100 miles every day. For several weeks. On mtn bikes loaded down with camping and survival gear.  Check out this map that shows where everyone is. If you haven't seen the documentary Ride The Divide, you need it. It's awesome. |
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Post by brianW on Jun 14, 2011 15:33:33 GMT -5
Seems like a big gap in there. Have to second the documentary. Really good. Also the photo section is very nice.
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Post by dgaddis1 on Jun 14, 2011 15:58:41 GMT -5
Seems like a big gap in there. Have to second the documentary. Really good. Also the photo section is very nice. I think: blue markers are people who started at the northern grand depart and are riding the route south cyan markers are people who started at the southern grand depart and are riding the route north yellow is ITT (people who started whenever their schedule allowed) |
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Post by rsmith on Jun 14, 2011 19:53:05 GMT -5
Very cool link !!! Thks.
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Post by Mark Y on Jun 14, 2011 21:44:09 GMT -5
Dustin, how long do you reckon it would take someone of average skill/conditioning to do that as a "tour", not "race"? I assume as they go the stamina would improve day by day. I'm just trying to get a yardstick to measure the elite against the average.
Let's define average as someone who could do FATS in a day.
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Post by dgaddis1 on Jun 15, 2011 6:36:49 GMT -5
Dustin, how long do you reckon it would take someone of average skill/conditioning to do that as a "tour", not "race"? I assume as they go the stamina would improve day by day. I'm just trying to get a yardstick to measure the elite against the average. Let's define average as someone who could do FATS in a day. I would think an average person couldn't do it, not without a lot of training that took them beyond average anyways. Not unless they are just incredibly hard headed (and bottomed) and too dumb to quit. The current record is held by Mathew Lee. He did it in 17 days, 21hrs. That's about 150 miles a day. For 2.5 weeks. So if you could do, say, 50 miles a day, that would take you 3 times as long, or 54 days, nearly two months. It's mostly gravel roads, not singletrack. But the condition of the roads can vary wildly. And it's still 2700+ miles on a loaded bike. And then there's the weather....some of the racers are taking snow shoes with them this year!  EDIT: Oh yeah, and another BIG, but not as big, ride that is much closer to home: the Trans North Georgia. 350 miles from the GA/SC border across the mtns to the GA/AL border. 56,000ft of climbing. It has everything from paved roads to super technical singletrack - the Snake Creek Gap race course is part of the route LOL. TNGA is a fairly new route, only a dozen or so people have ridden it, the first 'race' was last year. Local (Atlanta, GA) Topeak/Ergon team pro Eddie Odea won in a little over two days. He only slept like, four or five hours or something crazy like that. |
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Post by dgaddis1 on Jun 15, 2011 7:35:30 GMT -5
Oh yeah, here's an article Eddie wrote about his TNGA experience last year. Excellent read. Starts on page 40. Never did figure out why it was put in Florida Racing Magazine tho  |
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Post by seenvic on Jun 15, 2011 10:19:52 GMT -5
Oh yeah, here's an article Eddie wrote about his TNGA experience last year. Excellent read. Starts on page 40. Never did figure out why it was put in Florida Racing Magazine tho My guess is.... One year over half of the ORAMM entries were from Fl. Florida is second to CA in number of IMBA members. |
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Post by brianW on Jun 16, 2011 6:26:08 GMT -5
"I always like going South; somehow, it feels like going downhill." -Treebeard
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Post by dgaddis1 on Jun 24, 2011 12:10:32 GMT -5
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Post by mudonthetires on Jun 24, 2011 22:14:43 GMT -5
So where is the Matt Lee guy? Isn't / Wasn't he the favorite?
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Post by dgaddis1 on Jun 25, 2011 11:10:29 GMT -5
He's not racing it this year. I can't remember why...want to say he and his wife just had another baby, but might be wrong about that. I do know he isn't racing.
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Post by seenvic on Jun 25, 2011 20:50:21 GMT -5
First two now together at mile 2562. One SS, one geared.
They'd been switching positions a few days ago, then the geared rider opened up 30 mile lead for a couple of days. SS closed it back today and now together with about 180 miles to go.
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Post by seenvic on Jun 25, 2011 21:13:23 GMT -5
Looks like the Northbound rider, Attalla is going to have the fastest finish time. He has 135 miles to go and the Southbound leaders have 185 to go. Perhaps the NB riders will now have to deal with the snow and be slow going. But I would think the NB riders would have an advantage of riding the snowier parts a week or 2 later than the SB riders.
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