admin's blog
Matthew's Blue Dot NC-side
Posted July 3rd, 2008 by Tour Divide
Racer Update about:
Hey folks, Matthew here. I'm back in NC as of 3pm. In possibly the fastest finish line extrication ever witnessed, I hit the border at 10pm last night (7/2/08) and was on the road to El Paso in trail angel, Don Baumgardt's chariot only an hour or so later. A 6am flight precluded sleeping until I got into my standby/exit row seat en route to NC. Big love for Don for his surgical strike in getting me showered, dressed in borrowed clothes, my bike boxed and me to the airport, all b/f 4am (all while his wife slept down the hall). What a stud he is. Thanks to Rueben for making that connection for me. Trail magic at its best.
Needless to say, I am slumming today.
It all happened so fast I didn't have much time to reflect in AW. I did get to spend some time with Hunter and Mike of the documentary film crew, and with, of course, every divide racer's favorite border officer, Tim Balderston. He let us have complete run of the place. Rolling the cameras and all, doing interviews with us. He has really taken root there in AW (with his 12 dogs) and talks of opening his new pre-fab home there to divide racers on a more organized level. He even has a jacuzzi. His generosity is enough to make emotion-stuffed, broken-walled Divide finishers want to cry. I love that guy, too. Seriously. read more »
start list
Posted June 13th, 2008 by Tour Divide
Everybody's here for the start but Steve McGuire. We hope he'll join our general classification a bit later on but for now he's busy in Iowa saving his home and his neighbor's homes from the high waters plaguing that region. It was a selfless decision to remain on the sandbagged homefront by a guy with a heart of gold. We wish his family the best in the coming weeks and months. We'll be thinking of him while we're out there on our challenge that almost seems to pale in comparison.
Picture of Racers Meeting.
News n' Notes
Posted June 12th, 2008 by Tour Divide
Eve of roll-out: Gorgeous bluebird day here in vertical Banff.
As the press hits the wires we'll update this entry with links to coverage (as we hear about it..until we hit the trail tomorrow morn)
SPOT Leaderboard Is Up
Posted June 4th, 2008 by Tour Divide
After a long row was hoed getting the technology in place to track TD racers realtime with SPOT satellite messengers, the Leaderboard is online. Check it. Flog it. Try to make it crash. Comment if you find it loads really slow on your browser. If something funny's gonna happen, we hope it's before we get on our bikes and point them towards Mexico.
TD 'One of the World's Ten Toughest', says Bike
Posted May 4th, 2008 by Tour Divide
Those who've attempted to race the Divide know it to be the toughest multi-day racing out there (mostly b/c of its grand scale). In June's issue of Bike Magazine, Bring Out The Dread: The Ten Toughest MTB Races In The World, lists Tour Divide first in a review of the top ten toughest races on the planet. read more »
Weather
Posted March 30th, 2008 by Tour Divide
We've added a comprehensive weather resources page.
One of the big questions people have this time of year is, "Are the passes going to be clear of snow by race day"? The short answer for `08 is yes. And for the record, in the past four years of mid-June N-to-S divide racing, there's been only one 50 foot stretch of snow-covered pass, period. That was in 2005 climbing out of California Park, down into Hahn's Peak Basin north of Steamboat Springs, CO. read more »
Tour Divide Partners with SPOT.
Posted March 4th, 2008 by Tour Divide
TD is pleased to announce partnership with SPOT Inc. to provide real time tracking for this year's racing. SPOT recently brought to market the world's first personal satellite messenger. The brilliance of this device as a tool for following self-support racing is in its outgoing-only messaging design. They cannot be used to gain advantage on course. Divide racing has been waiting years for a reasonable alternative to satellite phones to fill the GPS tracking void. Finally we have it in SPOT Satellite Messenger. read more »
