Category: Tour Divide 2011

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I don’t normally do kit lists. But, my Divide kit worked out pretty well this year and there isn’t much I would change. So here’s what I took:

The Bike

• Singular Pegasus singlespeed frame
• On One carbon fork
• Hope Pro 2 / Stans 355 29er wheels
• Maxxis Crossmark LUST rear tyre, Maxxis Ikon EXO front tyre
• Hope headset
• Hope 90mm stem
• Easton EA70 bars
• Shimano XT brakes with 160mm Ashima Air rotors and Goodridge hoses
• Thomson seatpost
• Selle Italia Flite saddle
• Hope ceramic bottom bracket
• Shimano Deore cranks
• Velosolo 34t chainring with Velosolo 19t cog
• SRAM 8spd chain
• Shimano M520 Deore pedals
• Race Face grips with Cane Creek Ergo bar ends

Bike Accessories

• SPOT tracker (original)
• Garmin Dakota GPS (tied to the SPOT and around the bars to avoid losing either in rocky sections)
• Cycle computer – the 2nd cheapest in Mountain Equipment Co-Op
• 2x Specialized Z bottle cages (side entry to give more space around the frame bag)
• 2x 800ml bottles
• Spare inner tube cable tied to the bottom corner of the main triangle
• Flashing rear light

Front bag

• 5L Lomo drybag held on with a Wildcat Gear harness
• Rab Neutrino 200 down sleeping bag
• Silk sleeping bag liner
• Terra Nova Discovery Light bivi bag
• Balloon Bed sleeping mat
• Mosquito net
• Spare inner tube
• Toilet paper (with bag to pack out used paper!)

Frame bag

• One-off bag made by my friend David Kleinjan
• Topeak Mountain Morph pump (duck tape wrapped around it)
• Allen keys and torx keys
• Leatherman Juice
• Park pre-glued patches
• Park tyre levers
• Toothpaste tube (for use as tyre boot)
• Cable ties
• 2x brake pads
• 2x power links and spare chain section
• Bolts: chainring, disc rotor
• Spare socks
• Plastic bags to use on feet
• Warm hat
• Sock for chain cleaning, White Lightning Epic chain lube

Rear bag

• Bag made by Revelate Designs, borrowed from Chipps (of Singletrack magazine fame)
• Drybag full of Torq recovery drink
• ACA maps of the route in plastic map cover
• Gore softshell arm warmers and leg warmers
• Gore Alp X jacket
• Spare shorts
• Fox antifreeze gloves
• Hope Vision 1 Adventure head torch
• Singular long sleeve jersey
• Camera strapped to outside
• Bits bag:
  • Toothbrush + toothpaste
  • 2x 9 Bars as emergency food
  • Suncream
  • Nappy rash cream
  • Iodine tablets
  • Ibuprofen
  • Bandages
  • Steri-strips
  • Spare AA batteries

Clothing

• Specialized BG Sport shoes
• Singular socks
• Sugoi bib shorts
• Singular jersey
• No summer gloves!
• Giro Athlon helmet
• Endura Mullet glasses
• Bear spray in jersey pocket until Jackson, WY

NB I also carried a lightweight backpack to keep food in. For the dry sections, I carried 2.5 L of extra water in Gatorade bottles (2L in the front of the saddle bag, 0.5L in the backpack).

My pictures with slight commentary. Mostly taken when riding with Josh (hence not much after Silverthorne):

Robin shows me around his local singletrack in a Banff shakedown ride.

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Josh pushing through snow on the Whitefish reroute. I think it was over 10 miles of snow, but at least it was well packed and we could chat along the way.

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LONG train on a beautiful misty morning at a level crossing in Montana.

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Taking water from a good-looking source. I like to be choosy over where I take it from and drink it untreated wherever possible.

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There was an extra reroute around this flooded road, but we couldn’t understand the directions and just went straight through the water. Josh was pushing in an attempt to preserve his bike. I just rode through like a buffoon (with dry feet!).

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Zooming down towards Polaris with Parker and Rob (the Georgia boys).

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Looking back towards the sunset as we finish off Montana with a 180 mile day.

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After the rail trail in Idaho, some well-earned nice trail.

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The Divide Basin is one of the first big, remote stretches. But don’t get cocky… once you finish the off-road, you’re faced with this flat road, and then another Divide crossing before you reach Rawlins. One of the most mentally taxing sections when it comes at the end of an already big day.

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A couple of pictures of a serious land-slip on the road going from Wyoming into Colorado.

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We pushed on past Steamboat Springs to avoid the gravity and cost of a hotel room. Unfortunately, drizzle became rain and I set my bivi bag next to Josh’s tent sort-of under some trees.

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Getting my frame repaired at Kent Eriksen’s workshop (Kent in the green t-shirt).

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The result of the repair: new welding along the crack, and an extra strut between the chainstay and seatstay.

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The final road to Antelope Wells. Not much fun on a singlespeed and passing this mountain is about the only thing that happens in 65 miles.

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They are constructing a new building at Antelope Wells. That meant there were some workers there instead of the usual emptiness. And that meant, they happily gave me food and beers to celebrate the end of my ride. True Zuni Indian hospitality.

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Everyone has to take this picture 🙂

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It’s all over and I came in 6th place. I’m currently staying at Jamie’s house (Jamie seems to know everyone in Silver City) along with Kurt Refsnider. It’s a very nice place to be hanging out post-event. There are all kinds of thoughts, pictures and words to get out there. First, something that I spent a lot of time pondering in the second half of the event:

When I had problems with my frame, I was in 4th place. To get it fixed, though, I had to get a bus from Silverthorne, Colorado to Steamboat Springs. Having found the problem the night before, I didn’t get to Steamboat until about 4pm. The clock was ticking. Fortunately, some of the best Titanium welders in the world live in Steamboat and Kent Eriksen made time to repair my bike as soon as I arrived. Fantastic, I was back on the road.

Race rules and allow you to travel back up the route in a vehicle, but forward movement must be under your own power. Since I had already ridden the route to Silverthorne, I could pedal the road but it still left me with 87 miles to cover and a nearly 3000ft climb on the way out of town. I had to get on with it, though, I wanted to sleep in or near Silverthorne and be just one day behind.

As I rode along in the dark, I had my head light on, a flashing rear light and reflectives on my jacket, shoes, and leg-warmers. Nonetheless, I was stopped by a local Sheriff. He told me that reflectors were required in the US and he was concerned about my safety. So he drove me to the county line – It was kind of tense inside his car. I was overheating after the cool of the night and he seemed pretty humourless. When he dropped me off, I tried not to hum anything from The Dukes of Hazzard.

It was otherwise uneventful. I slept in a rest area, and got up in the morning to make Salida. I was pounding out the miles and trying to figure out why cruising wasn’t enough. The race for 1st was beyond me, and my chase was pointless. But Divide racing as a whole is pointless unless you put your body and soul into it. Only then is it elevated from just being a long ride into being something that can change and inspire you. So I had no choice other than to ride with everything I had.

Had I not had problems, I would have attacked that hard then anyway. Until that point, I hadn’t felt physically ready to kick on hard. And the terrain of the re-routes didn’t favour me. I like mountains, and obvious challenges. I can get disheartened when there’s nothing to deal with. Looking at how it panned out, I may have given Ethan a real push for 3rd place if it hadn’t have been for the delays. Who knows how he, Rob, and Parker would have responded. We’ll never know.

I must pay a massive tribute to Kurt and Jefe, and Ethan for pushing the boundaries of what is possible on The Divide. Their stamina and determination are an inspiration. All credit to Rob and Parker too, for a fine ride in their first multi-day race. They claimed to be no good at toughing it out – you’re not fooling anyone. Best of luck to everyone still on the course. I hope the NM fire diversions don’t take too much away from you.

The Tour Divide is approaching (starts on June 10) and it’s slipping into just about every thought these days. Getting the kit right. Organising logistics for before and after the race. Figuring out the navigation. Training. Fretting. It’s pretty consuming, but that’s half of the fun.

The Divide this year is quite a different prospect for me than anything that has gone before. The only reason to revisit it is to go fast. Yes, there are all kinds of great things on the trail and great people to meet. But if the primary reason was not racing, I could go on a different trip. I could see new people, new places.

So, if the only reason to go back is to improve on last year’s performance, the whole mentality is different. Nature will play its hand and records may be put out of reach by snow, fire, or a hundred other factors so “improvement” means an improved placing. So, now I’m down to beating other people. Or as I would prefer to think of it, finishing in front of other people. I don’t want to negatively defeat them but, instead, to see the best man (or woman) win. The hope is that I’ve done enough to be that best man.

I feel fitter than I’ve ever been. 95 miles of hills and singletrack was a mere 8.5 hours at the weekend and didn’t leave me too beaten up. Last week I ran further and faster than I ever have before (objectively not that amazing, but 8 miles in an hour is good for me!). And then last night, as on a number of occasions recently, I absolutely flew on a 2 hour ride. The numbers from the power meter on my turbo trainer are also higher than I have ever managed before.

Now, I haven’t ridden with some of my quicker friends recently (you know the type, elite XC racers… sickeningly fast) but there’s no arguing with where I am relative to my past self.

So it all looks good to make better progress than last year.

My equipment is also way nicer. The Singular Pegasus is lighter, more comfortable, and even more fun to ride than the Swift was last year. I’ve managed to get some brilliant Maxxis tyres to start with, minimising the chance of another early tyre failure. I’ve got a lighter drivetrain from Velosolo, and ceramic bearings in my Hope BB. A Hope light could turn out to be a crucial factor, expanding the options for riding at night by providing real brightness from AA batteries.

But what of the other racers? Well, I just try not to think about them too much. Judging from history, many people will leave the race in the first week. Some people are going to be mighty fast. But, I’m not going to make one mistake that I made at the Iditarod: I was 2nd to Jay Petervary in my head before we even started. He probably had the better legs anyway, but expecting nothing more than 2nd was no way to race. I don’t disrespect the other riders out there, I just intend to keep them as an unknown quantity until we are slugging it out in the second half of the race.

So that’s the “plan”: Grab the bull by the horns and go hard in the race. No fear about burning out. No worries about riding the whole darn thing by myself if that’s what it takes. Be nice to the people on the trail, but tough on the miles that make it.