Hi All, Great news!

The Cordillera Volume 3 Is now For Sale!

I'm very excited to let you all know that The Cordillera V3 is now available for purchase. This year's book is just terrific. Anyone with an interest in the Tour Divide will find it exciting, inspirational and educational. Paul Howard was our editor this time around and he really kicked it up a notch... we have pieces by Kirsten from Brush Mountain Lodge, an interview with one of last year's toughest riders Justin Simoni, two first hand descriptions of the Golden Spoke, fiction by Joe Polk and much more. It's a great read.

We're benefiting the college education of Linnaea Blumenthal again this year (daughter of fallen Tour Divide racer Dave Blumenthal). All proceeds go directly into her College 529.

Here's the link to purchase:   http://www.lulu.com/shop/eric-bruntjen/the-cordillera-v3/paperback/product-20209730.html

Below is this year's cover (photo by the incomparable Eddie Clark, design by future TD racer Scott Thigpen):

Good luck to everyone racing!

Just an FYI, there will be a Cordillera V3 this year. I'm just waiting for a proof copy from the printer before I post the link to purchase. It's a terrific book again this year, Paul Howard was our editor and he did a great job.

We will be benefiting Linnaea Blumenthal again in 2012. 100% of the proceeds go directly into her college 529 plan. Thank you all for your support, it's a worthy cause and the Blumenthal family is forever grateful.

For those of you not yet familiar with the Cordillera, it is a collection of the best short stories, memoirs and artwork from Divide Racing. Linnaea Blumenthal is the 6 year old daughter of Dave Blumenthal who died in the 2010 TD. Last year we raised over $9,000 for her college education. It is one of the best things the small but wonderfully motivated Bikepacking community has ever done.

More details coming soon!

Eric Bruntjen

[thecordillera@gmail.com]

Hi Everyone:

There will be a third edition of the Cordillera coming out very soon but we need a little help with the cover. The person who did our awesome cover last year is unavailable and we're caught in a bind.

Would any bikepackers with Photoshop skills be able to help us out? The cover is not hard to make up (I've been told) but neither Paul Howard nor I have any PS skills whatsoever and we need help.

We'll send you pictures, text, detailed instructions from the printer and last year's cover files as an example so it should be pretty clear what needs to be done.

The Cordillera will again be benefiting Linnaea Blumethal (who's father Dave died in the 2010 race) so aside from boosting bikepacking/Tour Divide lore your work will be greatly appreciated by a wonderful family who needs support right now.

You will of course be given credit inside the book.

More info here:  http://www.thecordillera.org/
See last year's book here:  http://www.lulu.com/shop/eric-bruntjen/the-cordillera/paperback/product-16163086.html;jsessionid=0D64BB10A1B91DA1186F4E376A2926D8

If you have any questions or want to volunteer please send me an email:   thecordillera@gmail.com

Thanks!

Eric Bruntjen

[Please send an email to thecordillera@gmail.com if you are at all interested in submitting. We can help in many ways and we want your work!]

Call for Submission for the Cordillera, Volume 3.

I'm very excited to be able to post this!

There will be a third edition of The Cordillera in 2012 and we're looking for content!

As most of you already know, the Cordillera is a not-for-profit Literature Review devoted to the sport of Divide Racing. We print stories, poems and artwork that glorify Divide Racing in a professionally bound softcover book.

In only two years The Cordillera has become a great ambassador for the sport of Divide Racing as well as Bikepacking in general, we've raised a lot of money and spread the good word about a sport we all love. This year we're hoping to continue that tradition with an exciting twist: Paul Howard (Eat, Sleep, Ride and other works) is taking over the job of Editor while I continue to work in the background. Paul has a lot of energy and experience to bring to the Cordillera. I'm sure it will be our best one yet.

Last year the Cordillera Volume 2 raised over $8,000 for the college education of Linnaea Blumenthal whose father Dave was struck and killed by a truck in the 2010 Tour Divide race. This year we will again be benefiting Linnaea, all of the profits go directly into Linnaea Blumethal's College 529 Savings Plan.

But we need your help folks, in order to make the Third Edition a reality we need your stories, features, poems, interviews, art, etc. Please send an email to thecordillera@gmail.com if you are at all interested in submitting. We can help in many ways and we want your work!

Otherwise, here are a few suggestions and reminders:

1) Preference will be given to work not previously published.
2) Authors retain full copyright ownership of their work.
3) If you are a racer please don't feel limited to simple recitations of your race; we're not a cookbook! We much prefer wide ranging, deeply personal submissions over factual descriptions of the route.
4) If you are a fan please don't hesitate to submit something. Some of the best work from previous Volumes came from people who had never entered the TD or GDR.
5) Be creative, be wide-ranging and courageous. The Cordillera is about the Divide more than any specific race experience. Send us anything from the heart!
6) The submission deadline is April 20th, 2012.
7) If you are unsure about an idea feel free to contact Paul or myself at thecordillera@gmail.com. We will be glad to offer editing help, suggestions and encouragement.

You can still purchase Volume 1 and 2 at Amazon and Lulu.com (links below):

Volume 1 (benefits the Adventure Cycling Association): https://www.lulu.com/product/paperback/the-cordillera-volume-1/11051486

Volume 2 (Benefits Linnaea Blumenthal's college education):  https://www.lulu.com/product/paperback/the-cordillera/16163086


If you have any interest in writing for The Cordillera then please send us a note, Paul and I will be more than happy to help out.

Best,

Eric Bruntjen
thecordillera@gmail.com

[$8,000]

The Cordillera is #1 in Sports and Adventure on Lulu this week. Volume 1 is #7 on the list. I think that's pretty awesome and just wanted to share.

That seems as good a reason to make a final Cordillera post as any so here goes:

The Cordillera Volume 2 is a great book if I do say so myself (I only edited it, the writers get the credit). The effort was first and foremost a creative one but I'd be lying if I said that fundraising didn't become my primary goal at some point. It's obvious to me that many of you felt the same way and we couldn't have sold nearly as many books without your help. I guess you could say that we succeeded then because we've raised over $8,000 for Linnaea Blumenthal's college education. That's a huge number and it will only grow from here because it is going directly into Linnaea's college savings plan. In 14+ years that little girl on Dave's blog that we all teared up over will unwrap a wonderful present: opportunity.

That total includes the matching funds. Having someone come forward with that was totally unexpected and in a way it reaffirms everything I believe about cyclists, adventurers and the immortal class. He reads this forum, he even posts to it, so I want to send out a very public and very sincere THANKS to him right now.

Will there be a Volume 3? Who knows, there's been talk so check back next year.

Thanks everyone!

Eric

I've been away from Internet Access for the past week and I'm just now catching up/digesting Justin's accident.

Of course I'm glad he'll be OK but it's really a crushing development. I'm fairly depressed about it.

Justin: I hope you're reading all these notes from your fans. You have the respect of your peers and a heart of gold! Thanks for inspiring so many of us, helping us sell piles of Cordillera books and showing the world that hard things are worth doing.

I'll post a few notes about Cordillera sales tomorrow for anyone interested. I'll also be donating on Justin's website. Until then there's always Teddy Roosevelt:

"It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again; because there is not effort without error and shortcomings; but who does actually strive to do the deed; who knows the great enthusiasm, the great devotion, who spends himself in a worthy cause, who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement and who at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly. So that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat."

Thanks Justin, you dared greatly.

Eric

And up in the engine, Dejay pulled in to Antelope Wells station at about 2am! Ben and Justin Voss are in the coal car not far behind about to finish.   Toooot Toooot!

Engines, Coal Car, Caboose... I love it. It fits the TD perfectly.

E

So if Jefe and I had turned our SPOTs off in Colorado, no one would have minded? It's a tough nut to crack - thousands of people online want to be virtual spectators, and we as riders tend to be fine with that, but the stalking thing is a bit of a drag. On the other hand, the SPOTs also do have some added advantages for riders since some bike shops, lodges, and other establishments follow along and will often be waiting and ready for incoming riders, whether it's during normal operating hours or not. Thus, going stealth would stand to impact both racers and virtual spectators. It's not as simple as leave it on or turn it off.

You're right, people would have been royally p*ssed. You'd have been called out for being sneaky and nobody would believe that it was because of the stalkers and not to gain some advantage in the race. When you put it that way its far from simple. I suppose if we wanted simple though, we'd be watching NASCAR.

I was being sarcastic about you being scary. I thought that thanking you for the pics first would highlight that but maybe not. You're not scary Bounce, on the contrary it's pics like those that make this forum buzz. I love to see the riders in their native habitat and so does everyone else. I was having fun with you as a scary SPOT stalker who took those pictures of the obviously terrified racers << that's sarcasm again.

A secondary point was that if you don't want to be spot stalked just don't give TD any info from your SPOT. I mean really, it's a satellite locator device posted on a public website voluntarily.

Of course this was a breakthrough year for the TD and the leaders had no way of knowing that there would be so many stalkers/super fans out there. I wouldn't expect racers to stop what they are doing (kicking butt) and reset their SPOT accounts to be private this year but maybe next year those who don't want to risk being located won't publicize their locator beacons. Until then, there's always that power button. I don't want to minimize the scariness of fans behaving badly, there's no excuse for that.

Of course, you are right that if a fan was so inclined they could camp out on the route and find a racer when they went past just by the virtue of two moving points intersecting on a line sooner or later. It's an awful long line though and if that happens then fine, SPOT wasn't even involved.

Sorry for the confusion.

Thanks for the pics Bounce.

Look at those smiles!

I'm with Slow-Dave on the Spot stalking. You don't have to link your SPOT to TD, SPOT gives you your own private page if you want, just link your friends and be hidden to the scary stalkers out there like Bounce if you want. It's pretty simple in my opinion.

I loved our super fan in 09. He was practically wearing a clown hat and definitely had cowbells. He was in the Gila, in a VW bug. I have a picture of him so I know it's a real memory. Anyone see him this year?

Some of the guys I caught up to later didn't like him though. I had no problem but of course he was only one guy dancing alone in the wilderness. That was the Rainbow year so I saw a lot of that. I guess it's different now.

Still, I wouldn't want there to be any rules conjured up to discourage spot stalking. Less is more in my opinion, even if it means frustration in the field.

The race is growing and it will be interesting, and probably frustrating, to see how it changes. But change it will. Hopefully TD organizers are letting history be their guide and trying to learn about what worked (and didn't) from other events.

A quick Cordillera note...

If you already have a Cordillera Volume 2 in your possession hold on to it. It's going to be a collector's item.

One of the riders mentioned in Jon Billman's excellent piece didn't like the way he was portrayed. He's since contacted the printer and forced them to stop shipments.   That explains why some of you have had trouble placing orders today.  

I rebuilt the book without the alleged mis-diagnosis that caused the drama and set everything up again so sales can resume now but without Jon's contribution.

The Cordillera is not intended to be controversial nor does it want to hurt feelings in any way so I'm going to resist calling this guy out for jeopardizing the fundraising effort and just move on.

It really is a great book, this is just an unfortunate distraction.

Click below to purchase your own copy of the new revision:

http://www.lulu.com/product/paperback/the-cordillera/16163086


Eric

Great ride Kurt and JB! In the end the reroutes didn't mean anything (to us). It was tons of fun to watch!

Here's the link. I wonder if they were down this morning. I can get there fine.

http://www.lulu.com/product/paperback/the-cordillera/15659154

Thanks

Eric

Here's the Cordillera Contest Winners

Sorry I don't know their BP.net handles.

1st place (early by only 13 minutes) = Cooper B
2nd place (over by 66 minutes) = Mike P
3rd place (early by 76 minutes) = Travis


Thanks to everyone for playing.

Eric

You guys are incredible!

Yes, you... the Bikepacking community: 114 Cordillera Volume 2 books have been sold since the matching donation was announced. 69 on June 25th alone. That's a record for us.

Over $2,440 has been raised for the college fund since the match was announced. We're well over $4,000 total, more than I'd ever hoped to raise.

Can someone get in touch with Justin Simoni? He needs to know his role in this as well.

Eric

Great Race!

I'll announce the winners of the Cordillera Winning Time contest on Monday.

Please don't forget that we have a matching donor for Cordillera V2 sales right now. http://www.bikepacking.net/forum/index.php/topic,2179.msg21823.html#msg21823

I just have to say that the TD is one of the most impressive human spectacles out there! Reroutes, weather, tragedy, controversy... nothing can bring this race down.



Eric

Looks fantastic compared to the rail trail through ID

I've heard several groans about the rail trail this year. It's always dusty, bumpy and boring but what was it like this time around? A sloppy mess?

Eric

 he may have done many hill repeats on said overpasses

That's a funny image.

Considering his home topography he's doing especially well.

maybe I should just have them sent to juvenile halls

Maybe that guy who stole ML's bike last year would end up with one!

I keep a few in my glove box and give them out to touring cyclists I see, at events, etc. It's pretty easy to find people who are interested. If you have some extra though and really can't give them out I'll give you my UPS number and you can ship them to me. I do a little outreach from time to time.

Mattinausting just PM'd me with this tip: use the coupon code SUNSHINE305 for a significant discount.

Using that won't take anything away from the fundraising but it will save you money.

Thanks

Eric