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Yeah, I think the transparency that Rue displayed was quite reassuring and she made a real effort to stay out of Lael's way and not intervene in any way. That's much more respectable than other film crews etc. Even in the original Ride the Divide film, the protagonist racer Mike Dion bivvied with the film crew, but there were only 16 racers and no keyboard warriors, so it wasn't an issue (plus he scratched).

Everyone should ITT, and there should be a global curfew during the race. solved.

Maybe it will do JP good to be a privateer for a bit and forget about selling flat brim hats. Or maybe he's just an asshole regardless. It's very subjective. Personally I don't like the guy, he's a salesman that is prepared to cheat to get coverage for his sponsors, that's shit.

Just gonna leave this here https://lacemine29.blogspot.com/2015/10/an-open-letter-to-jay-petervary.html

That's how you celebrate a win https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=480617862767550

He should be doing whatever he wants to be doing

Sofiane's interview on Bikes or Death was really good. I really appreciate his approach and his attitude, really down to earth.

Yeah, trust me, it didn't feel flat! Most of Colorado is nice gentle rail grades, even if they go on for 4-5 hours straight. The Gila is short steep punchy hills, much like down here in Devon, except very hot, loose sandy shit and lightning storms everywhere! yay! The Gila was easily my favourite part of the whole route, I have a thing for hot dry places though.

What's not to like

The road to Pie Town

San Augustin plain

Gila house

The second half of the Gila after Beaverhead work camp is not flat, it's brutal sawtooth. But after that it is plain sailing from Silver City

Yeah, I guess. But if I was racing I wouldn't want to be in the spotlight. To me (and a lot of divide purists) I think you want to be out there to escape modern life in lots of ways. I was definitely mid pack (38th out of 150). Being at the sharp end of the race you're bound to be more used to trailside attention, etc etc.

Not sure I really have a point other than keeping TD pure, free and uncorrupted. Interest rose steadily after Ride The Divide was released, but there hasn't been another documentary about it since that I can think of.

John Prolly rode the first 3 days in 2015 with a salsa film crew, he got heckled a lot.

Thanks, had just got back from a very hot ride and was being extra thick.

I have no idea what that means.

Yeah, group-think can do some crazy shit. I guess they were convincing one another that it was impassable, then the tourist came from the south on a heavy bike and some started having doubts. Lael had her reasons for quitting, but it seems using her film crew's e-bike for a reccy should probably be included in that. I doubt Matt Lee will be happy about the film crew having influence over the race at all, even if that meant riders quitting. I suspect that will be the last documentary he allows. I certainly hope so.

If you want to experience the divide, go ride it. I for one get enough Wahoo advertising on strava, I don't need paid 'documentaries' with product placement.

https://dotwatcher.cc/race/tour-divide-2019

Meanwhile, back at Brush Mountain Lodge, the racers faced the
indignity and reality check of Reid Passmore, a tourer on his heavy
touring bike, riding solo NOBO over the "impassable" trail from
Steamboat to Brush Mountain Lodge. It seemed to be a wake-up call for
some of the racers who were convincing themselves that the track was
"not passable" - despite 4 riders having already passed it. That from
a group of 11 racers, no-one would harden up, suck it up and start
hiking with their bikes on their backs, was surprising to many
veterans in the bikepacking community.

Embarrassing!

From Kim Raeymaekers post you can hear that they were relying on
hearsay and someone doing a reconnaissance ride on Lael's film crew's
electric bike:

That sounds like cheating to me.

Josh Kato is likely out :(

Josh Kato posted on Facebook

"I don’t normally log into Facebook while racing my ultras. However,
this Divide is turning more into a survival march for me. Last night I
awoke vomiting, shaking and coughing uncontrollably. I was able to
point my bike to Del Norte. Feels like my body is on auto-pilot right
now. Can’t really make it do what I want it just does what it knows it
should. Not 100% sure what is wrong. Feels like multiple things at
play. Perhaps I pushed too hard and found my limits or maybe something
simple as bad food. Who knows, I’ll see how the Del Norte hospital
rates things. (Nurse humor: it will be sort of fun to walk in and tell
them I feel like I might die) This race tests you in ways you can’t
imagine. Before I set out this year I had two objectives. Chase and
catch the Mike Hall record flag (just for a bit) and to complete the
race as fast as I could in memory of a friend who can’t be here now. I
intend to honor my promises. I don’t know at what speed my legs will
now carry me but I shall continue forward. We can do more than we
think we can and we can be better than we are. Sometimes unexpected
stuff happens and we have to figure it out. Believe me, you are
tougher and more resilient than you think! We can all be better and we
can all do more."

And then:

"Well folks, this is a bit more serious. I will remain in hospital
tonight and transport somewhere else. Won’t say much now as I need to
contact my family. I want to say this- Remember, if you can be out
there do it! Don’t waste time thinking of doing things. Get out there
now! Chase your dreams!"

Totally. That's the point of being out there anyway.

I'd guess I had no reception for >80% of it.

Found this the other day, gives a nice overview of the route

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=11w6DkH0A1Y

@hippy I think the thing you'd struggle with the most is the lack of internet so you can tweetrant about the mosquitos and punctures.

27.5 x 3"

TD doesn't really warrant suspension I think, the worst thing is the relentless washboard. I had 6 months of nerve damage in both hands after. I would add more padding to my grips, get better gloves perhaps. I think a Lauf fork would just bounce around as it's undamped and a normal fork would probably be fucked after 2000 miles in the dust/mud.

I'd also think about having aero bars (but not too low) so you can just rest your hands on the really corrugated sections through CO and NM that go on for hours.

here's my existing one just before I set off for TD in 2015

These days it's set up like this

Slacker head angle as I'm going to run a longer travel fork (120mm as opposed to 100mm travel). Generally I ride quite steep technical stuff, TD is the exception to this really. I'll probably run a rigid fork when I ride that again.

I'm getting another Triton from Dmitry in Moscow, full custom similar to my TD one, but slacker head angle and pinion gearbox.

Not everyone likes the pinion, and I'm not sure I will, but I generally let off the gas before I shift anyway to save wear on components and I'm not that fussed about the weight. I've broken upwards of 6 rear mechs in the past 2 years, and I get through about a chain every 2 months on the MTB because it's so muddy around here. I'd rather just not have to deal with that shit!

Not much hike a bike, just the top of some passes, and always where there are clouds of hungry mosquitos.

There's a mandatory CDT (continental divide trail) section in New Mexico that isn't part of the GDMBR, that has some hiking but it's also some welcome singletrack after lots of boring roads in NM...