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It locked up in July, I've had the NHS pass me around 4 people to 'feel' my knee. Finally an MRI! Probably keyhole to clean up a frayed meniscus that occasionally gets trapped in the joint and locks the knee for about 4 days until it frees itself. And fuck it's painful. Basically no races until it's fixed :(

I feel like a fool. I might cry. I have an MRI on my fooked knee today though, so there is hope.

I just watched the "Divided" docu from Adventure Syndicate, what a waste of fucking money. Cringey annoying bollocks. How many times do you need to see someone dancing like an ADHD child next to each state sign.

To be fair, I should have known not to spend that fiver, my own fault I guess.

Yeah, I barely follow the threads these days. I followed you and skinny on TCR and a friend of a friend on instagram, that was it. Once skinny finished, I switched off :p

What we really need is a goochcam

Haha, I knew my opinion would wind people up. I'm not saying other people shouldn't want to do it with all the fanfare, and I understand that it's more interesting for the dot watchers. I personally quite like the lack of coverage from tour divide, and really just watching dots, and having to guess/speculate what happens when someone goes off route or scratches, until they call in or there's a local that posts. I like the mystery and suspense, not the instant info fix. I guess I also like TD because I have ridden it, so it's closer to my heart, I'm sure you guys who've done TCR/TABR feel the same about those routes too.

@hippy, yeah, don't need it to be a race to ride fast, and I haven't finished a race since TD, and not entered any for 18 months. I do prefer riding my own routes, untracked. Maybe I just don't enjoy racing (neither do you judging by your twitter, lol)

Cordillera books, published every year.

Instagram launched before the TCR even started

Ultra racing started before the TCR

I think they're all getting too slick these days. I love that Tour Divide is not really organised, and the website is terrible and part of the challenge is finding stuff out yourself. Same goes for Highland Trail Race. No fees apart from Trackleaders tracking, that's it. Keep it simple, make the racers do the hard work and scare off lesser humans.

Having a branded car following racers on tour divide would ruin it, part of it is being out there, away from all that fanfare. Each to their own I guess. For me this is the reason I haven't joined TCR etc.

Instagram ruined ultra racing.

Plant based whole food vegans have their very own five-a-day 💩💩💩💩💩

It was just Kristof, his Curve Cycling titanium bicycle (that he has named Natascha), and his credit card. No one else.

Not subtle, really annoying. Curve is pretty tedious for this relentless product placement and spamming.

I got the impression from that indypac doc that he doesn't like be bothered when he's racing, so makes sense to keep this relatively low key and not publish his location or the route.

See the Omnom thread or those countless 'which GXP BB is betterer' threads.

Simple, hope or chris king, with an adapter shim. Running one of each on my two best bikes

My old klein, just remembered this shot.

Yeah, totally. Singlespeeding the divide is next level. I rode a lot with a guy from Minnesota riding SS, it would have driven me nuts.

Bring on the pinion.

Scott you still planning to do it?

also thinking about 2020 myself

Amazing!

He's the fastest rookie I can think of so far

EDIT: Neil Beltchenko 2015 14:12:23

Yeah, he does loads of miles (this year he's averaged about 400 a week), but there's a lot more to it than that, Some people didn't do those crazy miles, Mike Hall for example. It's also about consistency, panning, mental fortitude, etc. I've been super fit and had lots of time on the bike for several events and my head has total let me down on the day(s) and I've bailed due to a small issue that really shouldn't have stopped me pushing on. All I can do is learn from these experiences, and go back and try again!

I think I want to race again in 2020.

I see Lewis Ciddor is racing and is in lead position. Met him many years ago in Karlsruhe for a polo tourney when he was just a kid. Vegan and killing it now.

Yeah, of course. Gentleman's agreement etc etc.

If you're read the rules, then don't do the whole route, you've broken that agreement.

Trackers aren't that accurate. Some races require full gps recording on completing to verify route completion (like the Highland Trail 550). This means there is no question. But that also assumes the organisers are happy for scan over thousands of miles of gpx files.

I know it's very different to a DIY route type race like TCR, and therefore I don't think they should be compared. It's pretty simple, if you miss a turn, go back to that turn and ride the entire route. If you ride a long way before noticing, you should pay attention more!

However using terminology that is perhaps emotive like purism, is a little absurd. All rules are applied subjectively by referees trying to be as objective as possible. I’ve said before that a lot of the rules that I’ve read seem slightly ill thought out. This will undoubtedly change as they evolve.

Fair enough, maybe a bit too emotive, but I think that allowing any small detours and mistakes, and not being absolute about riding the ENTIRE route, has opened doors for leniency that other races like Tour Divide have not opened. That's entirely up to the admin of TABR, I get that.

Obviously if there's a road closed or bridge out, then detours are allowed, as all racers or at least all racers around that time period, would have the same route, but individual deviance is breaking the rules in my books.

Also

Rule #1: No complaining about the rules.

The purpose of the rule as I see it is that everyone rides exactly the same route, with the same (zero) level of support. Level playing field. Deviation changes that, however small.

This kind of racing is for real purists, if you don't like it, meh.

I don't feel bad for her, it's part of learning how to race these races. If you miss a bit, go back and do it all, end of.

She missed multiple bits, so is clearly shit at navigating, and like has been said before, it's more than what you've got in your legs.

If you're unsure of the route, plan for it, pore over it in every detail, make your own route files with cue points that will work on your garmin so that you know how far the next turn is, how far the next town is, etc etc. I must have spent dozens of hours doing this for Tour Divide, I had zero navigational issues. I had 2 garmins and back up paper maps. One turn every 30 miles is hardly rocket science either when you're used to densely populate Europe.

Don't use routing, just follow a gpx. Learn how to use the garmin before you do a race like this! Some of these mistakes are so avoidable. Also Garmin 1000 for this seems like a poor choice, terrible battery life.