Tour Divide

I saw him a few times. Had a chat and laughed at Menai while he tightened his chainring bolts - he only had three left after one had fallen out.

I rode most of the route with a guy, Brad, from Minneapolis, he's 50, and rode singlespeed, he kept up with us fine, until he fell and fucked his arm pretty badly in northern NM. The gradients on TD are pretty gentle, and when it's steep, it's so steep you're walking anyway.

It's also less to go wrong. Saying all that, gears are nice on the long flat expanses.

6 hours stop. He's refreshed.

11 hours for Josh, still not moving...

maybe he'll or has packed? He won't be able to achieve what he wanted now.
And not like he's not ridden the route.

Sad, but shit happens in bike racing.

Mike at the lodge, looks alright after 800 miles... http://www.bikepacking.net/forum/ultra-racing/tour-divide-2016-race-discussion-thread/msg83781/#msg83781

No admins on there to sort out the spam?

probably still asleep...

Oh yeah, point.

Shame that he didn't cross paths! Now that would have been cool wave.

Hey @gabes apprently Chris (2nd place on road) is on a singlespeed!

Yeah, he's going for singlespeed record, he'll get it by the looks of things

More Guy Martin rumors, maybe not Terry Smith...

HOWEVER.... there was an interesting man in Ovando yesterday who left around 6 pm. Longish brown hair, average height, lanky, wearing dark glasses and a straw hat [the hat is what got my attention]. Not on trackleaders. Didn't get a name. Didn't stick around long and didn't get anything to eat.
p.s. just talked to the neighbors whose dogs he was talking to and she said definite English accents. So there ya go. Start the rumors!

From the guy taking photos linked a few posts back!

Needs to get mugshots and pass them around.

Occam's razor says it's terry smith though.

Does sound like him though.

Mike's little kit/strategy talk: https://www.facebook.com/245897802144495/videos/1045582428842691/

had wondered what those little stuff sacks on the bars were, good idea to keep it quick.

Nail head on being smart to be faster.
Or not being stupid.

I want to watch him put leg warmers on without stopping riding off-road :)

Josh Kato out of contention, real shitty situation: http://www.bikepacking.net/forum/ultra-racing/tour-divide-2016-race-discussion-thread/msg83822/#msg83822

Can't tell if he's going to push on at a steady pace or not...

Shame...meant to be a nice bloke too.

Really?

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Mike's still crushing it.

Currently stopped near "Lava Mountain".

3:30am and Mike's moving again!

He's about to go over Fish Lake Mountain, I saw a huge alpha wolf stalking an antelope up there. Also, it's a horrible hike-a-bike near the top up ATV trails (fuck american ATVs). And the mosquitos were quite incredible, so many, it's like a fog, and they are hungry.

He's wise to get it out of the way early on, in the day. Seems he's aiming to cross the basin at night, which again, is a good plan. Less wind, less heat. Less roughnecks driving huge oil trucks.

mmm trucks and dust

Looks like he'll catch Guy soon. Sorry Terry.
Who knows!

~30mi behind him at the mo'

waves at Terry

Speaking of Terry, I assume it's a SPOT tracker thing but there's something very funny going on with his trackers between 00:00am MDT Jun 16 '16 and 05:00am MDT Jun 16 '16 when he passes the rider Jeff Lodge. aka showing he by-passed Atlantic City :S

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