more reposting other peoples stuff.
Just saw the guy who was in 2nd pulled out.
Holy crap! Stappler OUT :
MTBCast: TD13 – Craig Stappler called in to say he is OUT |
JC sounding chilled as ever :
MTBCast: TD13 – Jesse Carlsson called in from Steamboat |
With Stappler out he’s now in 2nd place (!) about 100miles behind Mike Hall. Hall is apparently riding like a scared rabbit.
Jesse crossed paths with Cjell the other day and took a happy snap for us fans :
Sobo Jesse meets Nobo Cjell TD 2013 by king of fishes, on Flickr
Legend…
Cjell$!!
This just got posted by jesse’s carlsons(?) sponsor Curve cycling
“In all seriousness I just got word that Jesse was knocked off his bike. He was found by a passing truck driver who picked him up with his bike and drove him to Como. Jesse “woke up” in the truck. He is now camping for the night with Kerrin Walker in Como. Still a little dazed and confused. Everyone send him lots of encouragement for the closing days. Thats an order!”
I hope he’s doing alright. Such a bad thing to happen at a bad time
He’s rolling again, on course and still ahead of current record time, so must be alright. Love to hear what actually happened - apparently lightning was involved?!
Yeah that was the other story. Tough nut!
Mike Halls bike and kit…
News - Mike Hall of the UK on the TDR & his LES! | Pivot Cycles - Mountain Bikes for XC, Trail, Downhill
There was a major electrical storm just outside of the town and it appears Jesse got directly caught in it after stopping to fix a flat. As above he was found riding a flat rear tyre, very disorientated and showing signs of a crash.
He spent a few hours resting up and as angry said got back on it (after some encouragement from the other rider and the internet). He says he is still hearing thunder, but there is none around. definitely shaken but not deterred. He stopped in the next town to get some wheel issues dealt with (he rode 16km on the rim - rim was still good but there were some sign of delam so he talk the precaution of getting it replaced). Definitely a HEAVY experience
Looks like he is winding it back up again to catch back up to record pace.
As he said ‘we arent here to get our nails done’…
Looks like any chance of a record for MH is gone due to fires and a reroute. bummer.
hell-man.
In fixie news, Drew camped on Jackson lake last night, was cool knowing what it was like where he was. Still knocking out decent days, still seems pretty good. I read he is also brakeless, which is a pretty big deal… I thought he’d just be unclipping on long, easy descents and using his brakes. Pumped for him.
I have trackleaders open full time at home…along with mtbr’s list of bikepacking bag makers, and a few of the makers windows. I’m not even getting bored. Western states this weekend, the tour, Ronda del Cims last weekend…I’m elbows deep in the best 6 weeks of sport following that i can remember.
yeah, its a bummer.
i wonder if he will be back for the record?
apparently his next ‘adventure’ is the ‘london-to-istanbul’ race in august (yes, august… just over a month after he finishes this).
but the bigger news is how much of a severe clusterfuck the NoBos (north-bounders) face at the border. with the massive flooding southern alberta has faced if you can even make it to banff, its going to be via big-ass roads (and many of them are currently closed to bikes).
mother nature cant be effed with, thats for sure…
Following this is so cool, the recordings of the riders calling in are great for imagining their frame of mind whilst so deep into the race. Must be so hard mentally.
The flooding for the nobo’s and the fires for the sobo’s are also kinda poetic (in a harsh way) in illustrating the polar opposites of route choice.
Really enjoying learning more about the race/route/conditions as it’s my first time following it. Support cars and Domestiques are sure gonna look weak as shit throughout July in comparison!
This is fucking rad. Have never gotten into this sort of racing, but this is next level awesome.
not sure if linked to earlier, but the Half Past Done blog is covering daily updates pretty well in a quick read, that plus the MTBcast site has been what I’ve been following, (sorry if I’ve just regurgitated someone’s prior posts)
Half Past Done - Day 13
Tour Divide day 13
MTBCast - Day 13
Tour Divide 2013! |
Jesse called in and told how he arrived at Como :
MTBCast: TD13 – Jesse Carlsson called in from Abiquiu |
He’s still riding strong, only a couple of days to the finish. Unreal.
Jesse is back in front of record pace (as much as that matters now). He smashed out the first of the two NM detours. Knowing Jesse, I think he will wind it up a bit to come home even faster. NTBD for a 2x world bmx champion with a PhD in physics.
Mike Hall apparently took it easy so he could make the Pietown stop in daylight (amazing pies by all reports). He is saying that after Craig Stappler pulled out his lost some impetus and then the re-route for the fires took even more wind out of his sails. He has the win and would be record pace, but isnt going ‘full gas’. He is still holding just above a 200mile/day average apparently (320km/day). So basically greater than the longest tour stage, every day, for ~two weeks. He was then going to ride back to Tucson to catch a plane…
Liam did another monster day to hold his position… I’d like to see him reel in another place but I think he is settled in his pace. Monster effort either way. They are all getting into the heat after some time in cooler climes.
So Jesse finished with a strong last day
Liam teamed up with 2 other dudes after some monster last few days to dig back from 6th to them and on very little sleep.
his group of 3 had a gentlemens agreement to sprint for the last mile. he ended up 4th (2nd in the sprint) and said it might have been the funniest sprint in history (imagine three grimy dudes on loaded bikepacking rigs after long days in the sun and 4500kms of riding). apparently his jersey contained more salt than fabric at the line. 
Totally amazing effort from all of them… the last few days were in 40+C temps and with limited access to water.
This might be the best garmin file I’ve seen - Just a little jaunt along the continental divide