Tour Divide

The wheel was about 20 feet from his bike when we turned around after hearing a massive crash. He was between the wheel and the bike, out cold with about 5 feet of blood and flesh on the gravel. It was really nasty. And it had just started snowing!

Grim. I'll stick to dodging cars and trucks.

Did he recover ok?

All I know is that he overtook us in an ambulance on the way to Elkford. We left him being looked after by a fellow racer who is a doctor. The doctor finished the race an hour after us, and we spent the next day or so with him and he seemed to think the guy would be fine, but probably some face scars.

I wast very sad that hearing crash news in Tour 2015. This is not good sign of cycling. As professional rider we have to careful about crashing cycle in this type of events.

He probably should have secured his front wheel properly, then it wouldn't have fallen out of the fork!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/northern-ireland/34679984

The 2016 and future runnings may get a lot more popular and harder to get into.

I dunno, did a load more people enter that Scottish 24hr because he raced it?

All depends how much coverage it gets I guess.

I hope it gets loads and other adventure racing get's popular.

Look at it this way, RAAM gets Z listers racing it all the time, not exactly mainstream. I know with TCR you have to prove worth for entry, I guess TD will get the same. It's good diea.

RAAM gets more coverage in the US and is still well known across the cycling world. Pretty much every ultra race is compared with it.

PBP doesn't do any advertising and it's always been very popular.

I figure if I knew about any events when I lived in Mildura then they're pretty 'well known' in cycling terms. Normal people will never give a shit though.

But it's still all niche. There's a limit to how many people want to race a bike for 2 weeks +

That's my point, normal people wont suddenly give a shit. They do give a shit when TDF rolls around.

Or when the Ride 100 means they can't drive 800 yards down the road to get their mocha latte.

TD doesn't have entry criteria, and I think Matthew Lee is really proud of that fact. But if it gets really popular, they may have to introduce it. Highland Trail Race has entry requirements (have to have done Lakeland 200, Bear Bones 200, Welsh Coast to Coast (N>S) and a few others like Colorado Trail Race, Arizona Trail Race or Tour Divide). Alan introduced these criteria because HTR is dangerous, and some noob caught in bad weather could get hypothermia and die pretty bloody fast!

I've qualified for it, hopefully I wont die.

Finger's crossed eh? :)

The film Ride the Divide is on in Kensington on the 27th November details here https://www.lfgss.com/events/1187/

^ a.k.a "Cried the Divide"

I made this pretty map of the route today:

^ if you'd have just gone to the right a bit, it would have been a lot less hilly...

That puts it in perspective.....when I talk to non cyclists about the kind of riding I like, they can't get their heads around it.....this would blow their minds!
I'd love to do something like this, and am capable of being a headstrong/stubborn git, and not give up (unless serious injury or mechanical), but am probably a bit scared to. Fair play to all those who aren't though, as I love reading about it, longingly!

"I landed wrong, fractured my fibula, tore my hamstring, and gashed the back of my leg which subsequently got infected. I rode until around mile 1,100 before I called it quits."

"It got to the point that I had to lift my leg to the pedal by pulling with my hand a length of strap wrapped around my foot, like a lasso."

Josh Kato interview

Do we all know Mike H is racing again this year?

Will be good to watch.

puss

Yeah, and Jefe Branham, and Guy Martin!!!

This was posted in the touring thread, riding (not racing) the Great Divide in winter:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oa_28YltsuY

This makes me want to race the divide less (planned in 2018), and just ride it at a fast and comfortable pace and enjoy it. I'm so torn! It's a big trip to plan, and part of me feels like the landscape would be wasted by just racing it on no sleep =S

I say do it twice, first time as 'recon'; take it at an easy pace and soak it all in. Second time smash it.

Or do it once, pretty fast, then go back and do it faster. The scenery is endless, and sometimes, dare I say it, boring, and you just want to smash out the miles and get it done.

Hipps maybe a title change?

Getting really excited for this now. Can't wait to watch it.