Tour Divide

Mike's pre-recorded some little videos about each section for release as he races: https://www.facebook.com/245897802144495/videos/1042657349135199/

... and they're off!

Guy martin aint on trackleaders, did he even show up?

Mike is aiming for 13 days, thats fucking madness, 210 mile per day average.

Amazing considering they have pressfit BBs and Jay P destroyed the BB last year.

I wonder how many times this last year he thought about the time spent trying to get it replaced and the time he lost the race by!!

Rumours he was spotted in Banff and is racing, possibly under a fake name/off trackleaders to avoid fans or something...

heck they're a lot of 'em

Would be impossible for him if he was on trackleaders.
A shame, but people are weird and annoying. And would go bother him.

Mike's tracker is up to something? Currently in last place

I was actually looking for carbon 29er frames with similar geo to the cutthroat - there aren't many...closest I could find was a hardtail spesh rockhopper. All the rest had long top tubes, obviously designed around risers.

Not sure what they were thinking with pressfit. I wonder how many riders have a spare BB with them...and some field solution to changing it out. I think I saw some people on that list swapping it out for aftermarket alternatives in the hope it lasts longer.

https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=1043488645718736&id=245897802144495

Broken apparently...

Friend's been riding his Cutthroat with a Hope BB, seems to have survived a fair amount of miles in around the Peaks/Pennines and 80km up and down the Rochdale canal pretty much every day in prep, will have to see how it holds up over there though...

Sounds like conditions have been pretty rough, cold and started pissing it down after a couple of hours. Lots of riders gone for motels by the looks of things.

Greg's very cold, seems to be stopped with Tom Rowntree, another Brit who won the HT550 last year.

Greg right? I think the Hope BB is the only option that will last. Do they do a ceramic version? My ceramic x-type hope BB has done close to 10000 miles, runs perfect.

Mike Hall's tracker was dodgy on Trans America couple of years ago too. I wonder if he just turns it off to save batteries or so people don't know where he is.

Josh Kato is nearly at the border on day1, which is craziness, and I heard from my friend Nigel they've had freezing rain most of the day, it's been harsh.

Yep, Greg. They do a ceramic one, assume he's gone for that over stainless, might check with LBS next time I'm in if I remember.

Just seen Nigel's post on Bearbones. Sounds grim!

Rumours are he's ITTing and left a couple days early, possibly as "Terry Smith" currently in Ovando, MT

Sounds pretty legit rumour.
Same nationaltloty, same age.
20 day target.

Josh is shifting.
Shame we can't see where mike is. I do wonder if he'll find his touring legs, having been out for a year.

He'll need more than his touring legs if he's going to hit his 13 day target!

Bunch of discussion on bikepacking.net forums, Mike was first into Elkford (mentioned on MTBcast too). Not sure where he's at now. Matt Lee trying to sort out a SPOT handover...

Hello, this is Valerie Kato. I saw on a facebook post by JD Pauls that Mike Hall was first coming into Elkford. He was there and got some photos of the racers. I am not sure if he or Josh is in first at this point. According to JD, Mike was only a few minutes in front. I know Josh was planning to just ride hard and not look at the tracker so I don't think this will change his race strategy.

"So the latest is Mike seems to be up front, possibly even out front. News from various sources so I'm confident. He should be getting to Buts cabin soon where he may sleep for a bit? Its cold & wet in Canada so Mike will be used to that. :)
Watch Josh Kato's dot for an idea of what Mike might be up to.
Putting the dot watching devices down for a while now to get back to packing and hope Mike takes the opportunity for some shut eye."

For sure.
I don't know how else to refer to touring legs. But for me, it's what happens when you're super fatigued, but you start to bounce back and feel good again. Maybe ultra legs!?

And @andy_k I saw Anna (mikes GF) post on FB that he's up there with Josh. Edit: As @bananaskid said

The fast guys won't be looking at the tracker, so won't matter. You just go as fast as you can. Shame we can't see.

@skinny I would call that the 'diesel effect'. Slow to steady, but can go on and on.

Mike called in from the border in just under 24h, SPOT's dead, gives a general update on conditions... http://mtbcast.com/site2/category/td16/

Josh also over the border, maybe 20-30mins behind from the timings...

Tracker now working. Out front.

Long way to go.