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Saturday, June 15, 2013

Tour divide and Sunday's ride

Hi all,

One of the guys that rode last year's Oppy with us was Liam Crowly, he also worked in Abbotsford Cycles with Andy. Liam has taken on the challenge of riding in the Tour Divide which is a 4400km race across America, wich started at about midnight last night-our time.
Jesse Carlsson is also entered in the race and has provided some links and some info on the race for anyone interested in tracking the riders progress or wanting to know a bit more about the race.
There is a ride planned for 9am from Lannie tomorrow morning, hope to see you there.

Cheers,
Steve

Jesse's post:

Hi everyone!

The time has finally come to do some bike touring with a sense of EXTREME urgency from Banff, Canada to Antelope Wells on the US / Mexico border in New Mexico. A few of you have been asking for ways to track the race, so I thought I'd put this email together and give you some further info about the race they call the Tour Divide.

The race kicks off at 8am Friday morning. That's midnight on Friday night for those of you on the eastern seaboard in Australia.

For those who don't know, the Tour Divide is a solo, unsupported race of about 4,400 km. That means riders carry all the gear needed to survive. The course criss-crosses the continental divide starting with the Rockies in Canada and then moving south into Montana, Idaho, Wyoming, Colorado and New Mexico. The course has deep snow and heavy rain in the northern parts of Montana and desert conditions (mid 40s deg C) in New Mexico. Interestingly, about 1,700 km of the race will be above the elevation of Mt Kosciusko, with the highest passes taking us up above 3,600 m.

To add to the fun, the course passes through the highest concentrations of grizzly bears in North America, including regions where problematic bears from Yellowstone have been relocated. Hopefully my whistle and music will be enough to scare them away before I get too close.

There are a few Aussies in the race this year: me, Liam Crowley (VIC), Arran Pearson (NSW), Hugh Harvey (VIC), Gavin Wright (NSW), Nick Hutton (QLD), Adam Kiem (QLD). I don't know the last two blokes, but I'm sure we'll meet before Friday. This TD thing is a big undertaking so please give all the Aussies your support and encouragement. Feel free to forward this email along to others who might be interested as well... We'll need all the support we can get to keep us rolling! Don't be shy... Make some noise for us!

Now... Onto the race tracking...

1. Race Tracking Website

You can track the race at the following website. You can choose different map layers for a bit of a laugh. If you like, you can check out the snow depth or weather radar to see how bad the conditions are. I'd feel ripped off if this supposed Banff summer was as summery as it got!

2. Forum Banter

Someone usually starts up a Tour Divide race discussion thread on the following forum. There, arm-chair fans will speculate about weather, food availability, snow depth, cheating, etc...

3. Rider Call-ins

TD riders are given a toll-free number to call to leave 3 min messages to update the world about how they're going. The call-ins are posted on this site. Not sure if I'll use it, because I'm bound to sound like a tool, but I've had fun listening to call-ins in the past. There's always one or two comedians...

Finally, I've attached a few photos of our (Liam and I) trip touring across Canada to get to the start line...

Wish us luck! Here's hoping we all have a safe tour!

Cheers,

Jesse




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