Tour Divide

@skinny done.

Will be good to see how Guy Martin gets on. And Mike. Wonder if it'll be a good year and he'll be in shape for a record.

Josh Kato is racing again, and I think Jay Cheatervary, and possibly Jefe Branham too. Strong field at the front.

Jay Cheatervary,

Is there a story behind that?

Yep
http://lacemine29.blogspot.co.uk/2015/10/an-open-letter-to-jay-petervary.html

Wow, did not know. Cheers.

Getting excited now. 10th June start.
I'll race this one day, though maybe slowly to take it all in.

http://trackleaders.com/tourdivide16

Tracker is live (maybe not updated yet though). http://trackleaders.com/tourdivide16

Bring it on.

Bet @gabes is having big withdrawal symptoms!

Friend (greg may)'s bike hasn't made it to Calgary with him... hopefully arriving today and they're going to shuttle him over to Banff rather than riding as he originally planned.

Mike Hall and Guy Martin both absent from the tracker but in Canada ready to start.

Mikes looking mean and focused.

Mike's popped up on the tracker. Greg's bike is arriving in Banff today... hopefully...

What's the long range weather looking like?

Not looked but info here: http://tourdivide.org/route_forecasting

Thanks. Didn't even bother to look there! Duh.

TD riders' rigs http://bikepackersmagazine.com/2016-tour-divide-rigs/

chris plesko's attempt should be good. I like his setup a lot.

Good to see there's guys at the upper end of their 60s racing! One singlespeed too!

Cutthroats, cutthroats everywhere. Looks like Salsa had a bit of a marketing win there.

Handy preview of the race: http://bikepackersmagazine.com/2016-tour-divide-preview/

Weather and Snow
Unlike 2014 when racers dealt with significant snow, and even blizzard-like conditions, last year was nearly perfect and it showed in the results. Not once did racers actually need to run over snow, they saw it but never really needed to walk on it or ride it over. That is nearly unheard of on the GDMBR in early June. This year looks to be similar, however, racers will likely need to trudge through a little bit of snow. Whitefish Pass typically holds snow, but it has been warm and it may have cleared by now. There are reports of snow up on Red Meadow Pass in Montana, and likely a bit of snow on Richmond Peak. There also is confirmation of snow up on Boreas Pass outside of Breckenridge, but we still have over a week before even the fastest riders will make it down there. In any event, the snow looks minimal but like every year, you can count on rain, especially as the monsoon season ramps up in Colorado and New Mexico. So far, there are no signs of large fires either… http://activefiremaps.fs.fed.us/

Thanks. I'm excited for this now.

I'm excited to see what Guy will do.
He has pedigree in MTB ultra racing. And we all know he's nuts enough.

He talks about it a lot in last year's book. I think he's looking to finish in 20 days max according to start list projections.

Which book? didn't read, probably should now.

Called - When you dead, you dead - mainly about motorcycles, lust for life and all the filming stuff he's done for telly - a good read.

Thanks will get that then. Did see it. Apt title.