Of the four people I know who planned to ride tour divide this year, only one made it there. He’s riding a surly disc trucker fixed. I’ve been following him with excitement. He’s currently mid-pack and without doubt is havin a good time. If you’re interested in seeing how a fixed bike goes up and down those hills, his dot is DM, Drew Mcintosh.
This legend is also racing South -> North: Bill Bryson is a Pussy | Full Time BadAss
Melbourne duo Jesse&Liam are truckin’ along in 3rd and 4th, Jesse appears to have dropped Liam currently.
The tracker link is: Tour Divide 2013 live tracker by trackleaders.com
yeah! I just had a good look through the dots, go Melb! far out, bikepacking centre of the world if top5 (and top 2 rookies) of TD is the gauge.
I find this tracking thing ridiculously addictive, and the “race flow” graph is awesome… check the women’s graph, one on one, long sleeps and speed vs short sleeps and a bit slower… its so bloody good to watch!
Yep, very addictive! Jesse and Liam are up there with the big guns - Stappler (currently 1st) would have won last year if hadn’t busted a pedal on the last day, Mike Hall (currently 2nd) broke the around the world cycle race record last year, then there’s Jesse, then Liam. Two more weeks to go - a lot can happen - but it’s looking good for the Aussies so far.
Nice work Drew Mcintosh! The race has only been completed once before by a fixed rider and that was just last year. It took “Fixie Dave” six attempts at riding it fixed before he finally made it. Hard. Core.
I’ve been checking in with the blue dots everyday, good watching.
The kms they clock up is crazy 4400 over ~14 days for the front runners = 315 a day on average, everyday.
Tour Divide is nuts… fixed is a special kind of nuts.
TD 2013 Bikes Photos by StevePuerzer | Photobucket
Some bikes.
That krampus looks good.
Seems rigid 29er is de riguer, makes sense.
Contrast between the ‘messy’ packers and the all tucked away ones.
Liam got going againt at 3:37am! I love this 
Jesse had a good crack into the night, too and made some ground on the leaders. Dude with that fugly black sheep in sydney is leading the SS. Go Aus!
And holy shit, that anthem with the canada stickers is LOADED! Some nice rigs in there.
yeah 4 bottles on the forks…
This wins the internets.
zoom down and see the awesome moonscapes they’re riding through…so addicted.
Anyone done it? Wanna do it?
this is absolutely insane… so much respect for those finishing it, let alone smashing it.
I’d like to do it as a tour, as a race no way.
Next year? #FoATourDivide? Not even joking though?
Hell yeah Harry. Chuck some 2.2’s on that firefly!
Gonna need to do some serious shopping though.
Minister for war and finance has approved already…too easy?
the blue dot addiction is in full force amongst my WNR crew.
anyone who is FB friends with JimSeng (Liam) and JaySee (Jesse) will also know that they are having a fair bit of fun with regular FB/instagram shots of their riding. there were a fair few pub/snacking/laughing shots in the first few days, but it looks like Jesse has decided his legs are warmed up now (as if the ride from Valemount to Banff in the lead up to the race hadnt done that) and is now ‘on the tusks’.
they both got caught in a crazy lightning storm at about 7000’ a few days back.
If you’re approved, don’t say a word about it until the day we leave. I’m thinking a little bit slower than the actual race, maybe over 2 months. Speedy right here.
So Drew had kind of a bummer of a day yesterday with the bead of his front tyre separating from the carcass for about 10cm and exposing the tube. He fixed it with a load of tape and 5 or 6 zipties around the tyre n rim and rolled into the next town for some new tread. Today has been a good one and he’s again making good progress. He’s super laid back and sounds like it didnt bother him at all, other than apologising for his dot not moving so much. Legend.
Up front the two leaders are now together, Jesse has pulled away from Jay’s old course record, Liam is settling back to 6th. The two front dudes are on course for a 13day trip.
That’s insane, JP went on around 4 hours sleep a night when he set the last record…
Maybe TD or CTR 2015 for me depending on uni.
There is also this bikepacking adventure, somewhat closer to home and less crazy
Kiwi Brevet 2014
8 day limit, 1100kms. As much dirt roads as possible and even a little single track.
If money/time/fitness align I might try do it.
So many carbon Niner forks.
From the link on the 2013 bikes.