Great moment, great riders and great job, kirsten!

Thanks for all the stories about the riders from their families. It shows that TD is not only an event for Kurts, Ethans and Jefes ... but for a lot of other heroes!

An earlier (page18?) link to a Kurt R. interview had a description and picture of his bike which IIRC was a Ti El Mariachi with a rigid custom White (Bros?) Carbon Fork.

More details about Kurts equipment and other valuable info you can find here:
http://outside-blog.away.com/blog/2011/06/the-cycle-life-10-questions-with-tour-divide-favorite-kurt-refsnider.html

Anyone know what frame Jefe is riding? Looks like an El Mariachi steel.

I don't know the frame, but according to some pics Kurt, Jefe, Aidan and others are using rigid forks. Interesting!

looks like Jefe and Kurt are moving on together, Kurt must be tired of hanging with Ethan!

You think, Kurt was waking up Jefe: "Come on, let's go?!" :-))

Maybe Jefe is using a "rival movement notifier" app on his iphone

Gotta say, it's kinda cool being on the other side of the world and watching the noctural race moves unfold.
Go Mike, go! ...

Indeed, I suffer from sleep deprivation (due to online tracking the whole night)
 ... but that's a good preparation for my TD 2012 next year :-)

Good luck for Mike! ... and all others.


(bye the way, Kurt is moving on at half past three in the night, passing Jefe and taking the lead ...)

He's back on track - looks like he turned around near the 4-way intersection shortly before Pinedale. Phew!

Physical outside support is forbidden, but riders get messages of support all the time. Such a message that included something like, "What a bummer you missed that turn-off before Pinedale?" isn't actually much more help than Ethan keeping an eye on this forum with an iPhone. If he was plugged into a team radio, that would be against the spirit of the Tour Divide (I'd have thought).

You've got to wonder how well informed the leaders are of the competition's position and movements. If Kurt knew when Jefe started riding again this morning, that would be quite helpful from a race strategy point of view.

... am not sure, if he did a correct route, he went 189/191 instead of going 352 via Cora ...

Now Jefe starts his day near Wilson,
Kurt passed this location nearly 3 hours ago,
Go ahead, Jefe!
 

Seems like Kurt is closing the gap to Jefe  ... 20 minutes to go.
Will be interesting what happens next hours, when Kurt has tu get some sleep.
According to the spotter, Ethan is back.

I noticed the same thing but it looks like they actually headed north from the route...stores, restaurants up there maybe??

Joel came down 83, he lost the route, ... but Simon went north-bound to get to Condon, correctly.

If anything at this point I suspect EP and KR are more concerned with each other than with Jefe.

There's a gap between Jefe and Kurt of more than an hour (>10K), ... very little distance compared to the whole "thing" ... but maybe a crucial moment

By the way, have a look at the picture from Casey in Butte, Kurt seems to ride on a rigid fork ...

hehe ..... my wife is complaining about Curtis White: He makes short-cuts and very long breaks ...

@moosevt, JK was hanging out at Holland Lake Lodge I bet: http://www.hollandlakelodge.com/

The guy that owns this is TDR friendly!

indeed, according to the facebook entry of the lodge, Jake has been there ...

Cool! Thanks. I'd really like to make it in '13!

respect!! Cool, ... I wish you all the best!

Any word on if Justin Simoni plans to go up the whitefish divide to red meadow lake?
Guess we will know in a bit!
Got to love his spirit!

... was nice to listen to his voice and hear about his "eyes-opening-experience" in flathead.
I made a donation to him some days ago, and  I don't regret this ... quite the contrary

Go ahead and stay tuned!

Now looking like all three have stopped for the night... is there a hut there or something?

Would be interesting how they commited each other to take a stop.
Seems to be a saddle, no hut ... nice bivvy environment
Wish each of them a good sleep. (Seems to be a short one)

Justin Simoni is about to reach Roosville, has been a long and hard day.
Congrats!

I am anxious, if he will ignore any further reroutes ...


And the CTR-trio KR, EP and JP is still moving on ...

Hey Scott M,

Do you think you could graph the avg call in time to mtbcast vs time in race.  ~30secs yesterday, ~45secs today, at this rate they'll be 5mins by the finish

Cheers
Craig

... in my opinion it's possible to make a call in during riding the bike,
so Scott should measure the loss of speed during call-ins :-)

Anyone have any idea how many more kms or miles Justin S has to cover to the clear the Flathead section of the course?

... he has to ride (or walk) 45-50 more miles and 2 passes (Cabin and Galton >6000ft) to reach Rooseville. Will be hard for him. Good luck, Justin!!

it seems as Kurt and Ethan are having a common nap  

... and, concerning Jefe: the fat lady hasn't even started to sing

Good luck to all!


PS: We should observe the TD-rookies Jefe Branham and Ethan, cf. the results of the ctr:
http://www.climbingdreams.net/ctr/