Another Day at the TD ‘09
Another set of reports and call-ins from the Tour Divide. Enjoy;)
- Tour Divide Race: Day 9, The Women
- Tour Divide Race: Day 8, Mud Wrestling and Another Race
- Race Report: Into Day 9
- MTBCast: Episode Tour Divide 9!
- MTBCast: Episode Tour Divide 8!
- MTBCast: Episode Tour Divide 7!
In short, Matthew Lee is still in the lead (Atlantic City, WY), albeit slowed down by this year’s above average rains with clay-like slow-rolling roads and hordes of nasty mosquitos. He is still on pace to match his record from 2007. Chris Plesko and Kurt Refsnider are still riding together and are loading up on some serious calories in Pinedale, WY, almost 11 hours behind Matthew. Jay and Tracey Petervary’s on their “Loveshack” tandem are not too far behind, coming down from the Union Pass, about 6 hours away from Pinedale. Eric Lobeck was able to break away from the Gruppetto of 6 and is distinctly ahead inching his way up the Union Divide. Behind him (5 - 6 hours), somewhere on or past the Togwotee Pass, is a second big group of riders with Steve Wilkinson, Blaine Nester, Cannon Shockley, Adam Goldsmith, John Fettis and Leighton White. I’m glad to report that Joe Meiser was able to get his Salsa Fargo together in Lima and is quickly racking up huge miles to get back in contention. Currently, he is on the Buffalo Valley Road, just past Moran Junction, WY. I wouldn’t be surprised if he caught the Steve Wilkinson’s group in the next 2 or 3 days;)
Great Divide Basin awaits all the riders with its over 200 miles of rolling terrain with limited water sources between Boulder and Rawlins, WY. During his record push in 2007 Jay Petervary rode it in one 225 mile long push!!! I just hope they’ll get some break from rains and mud here. They deserve it.
It really is the AMAZING RACE!!! I’m officially a SPOT dot junkie, checking racers’ progress a few times too many every day…
On another note, the Great Divide race started on Friday, June 19th in Roosvile, MT, but it looks like organizers want to keep it a low-key affair and there’s is just not much news or reports of what’s going on in the race. Only two riders called in so far: Cullen Barker and Tommy Tuite… MTBR.com Endurance Racing and Bikepacking.net Ultra Racing forums are devoid of any discussion related to GDR 2009. I’ll keep scanning though…
Lastly, I want to thank Jon Billman (Outside Online Blogs - Adventure), Kevin Montgomery (Tour Divide Blogs) and Joe Polk (MTBCast.com) for their reporting on the TD ‘09 race. Without them it would be lot less entertaining;) Thanks guys.
