Most likely there will be SPOT units to borrow for any CTR racers.  No promises yet, but SPOT hooked us up with a number of units for TD and the understanding is that they will do the same for CTR.

It has been the intent of the TD organizers to lend units to all CTR racers as we did in 2008.  If you want to own a unit for your own personal reasons, by all means purchase one, otherwise you can expect to be lent a demo unit.

Even though I'm fairly confident in what I'm bringing, I'd also be pretty interested to hear what some of the vets of this course have to say.

  Wonder what's up -- that's quite a bit off course and nearly back in Canada!

Looks like Ray Porter got lost as well.

Rumor has it John Nobile got sick and had to rest in Eureka.  It appears he's back on the trail and riding up the Whitefish Divide with Jill Homer.  Glad to see him back out there.

Looks like Matt will be hitting the singletrack within an hour.

Scott--He isn't through it yet.

It's 2:30 AM and Matt is still pedaling through the Flathead Valley.  Unknown terrain + the most dense deadly animal country of the entire route?  #nuts

It looks like Dave finally made it out of Grants.  Good to hear--I was worried he wasn't going to find any tubes.

I'm out.

The business is booming and 4-5 days away from email is impossible right now.  Maybe next year. 

Singletrack +1

Definitely a good deal.  I also find it surprising they have the marketing budget to be the title sponsor of a NASCAR race team.

I find it interesting that a lot of people are using foam sleeping pads vs. inflatable thermarests like you find on the GDMBR.  Anybody have some insight?  Could it be because of the cold and worrying about freezing inside the termarest?

Also, we might as well start getting the carpool thing out in the open.

Does anybody have any room in their car from Phoenix or Tuscon to the start?  I'm considering driving down and abandoning my car somewhere or flying into town.  I figure it is pretty easy to hitch hike my way back to PHX from the finish but getting to the start could be hairy.

Thanks for the GPS unit advice.  I'll ask my SF locals if they have any I can borrow to play around with and see what I think.

Also, I took the liberty to make a Leaderboard, as I plan on carrying my SPOT http://tourdivide.org/azt300/leaderboard  If anyone else is planning on carrying their unit and would like to be put up on the leaderboard, let me know.

I am sure this topic has been hashed out pretty throughly in the past, but how do we feel about doing the race using just the CUE sheets?  Doable or is a GPS unit really necessary?  I've personally never even attempted to operate a GPS unit and I sort of like it that way; that said, getting lost out in the desert doesn't sound like my idea of fun.

I don't have a lot of disposable income right now.  Anyone have a loaner?

Worth noting: http://www.grenzsteintrophy.de/?p=112

Aero bars and bar ends would be better in my opinion.  For future endurance riding, I'm considering switching to using cyclocross bars, possibly with aerobars.  I personally like the variety of hand positions you can get with a cross bike better... the only potential issue I see is that you are basically forced to use cable brakes.

Looks like there is a lot of dirt based on your pictures.  Their website's gallery seems to verify this: http://www.transandalus.org/index.php?option=com_ponygallery&Itemid=65&lang=en

Some proper mountain biking.  Nice.

I'm surprised this hasn't made it onto the list yet:

http://www.amazon.com/Catfish-Mandala-Two-Wheeled-Through-Landscape/dp/0374119740

I don't know if there will be enough participation to make it meaningful enough.  But, it doesn't cost us anything to try, and part of the idea is to increase participation.  We could always reevaluate after a year or two.

Exactly.  As I said, I am not opposed, just rattling off all the negatives I have thought of.  I do feel that the access issues potentially associated with the series wouldn't rear its head for a few years, so a trial run could be done fairly safely.  I feel that individual race websites/blogs could just neglect to acknowledge that they are even remotely associated with a series, which would probably undermine threats to access associated with the series.

Theoretically, anyone could just start the points series with or without the permission of the promoters, as the events are really just group starts of ITTs.  Maybe being that divorced from the individual races is ideal.  As MikeC pointed out, keeping the burden of hassle off the event promoters should be both a goal.  Clearly no one wants to be so rude as to include a race in a series without the blessing of those who organize the event, but there is a solid middle ground.

As for including the Divide, this is a hard one.  On the one hand, posting a good time on the Divide shouldn't be ignored, but it shouldn't be allowed to trump multiple strong finishes on shorter courses.  The truth about the Divide is that it makes participating in 2 of the 4 races difficult (Grand Loop is during the Divide and CTR shortly after).  Then again, if you are racing the Divide for series points, you're out there for the wrong reason (although you could make that argument for all the races).  Maybe it's the commitment required for the divide that should force it off the list, as its length and intensity make it an entirely different event.  The Divide is notably harder to even show up to (for cost, time off, etc) and it is a race more about surviving for 17+ days than hauling ass for a shy 3.

And honestly, if you are committing yourself to ride 100-150miles a day for weeks on end, you're probably willing to forgo a points series.

Can you elaborate on this?  Are you worried there won't be enough participation in events people have already done before?  That may be the case and might render such a ranking system meaningless.  So far there haven't been too many repeat customers.

You nailed it.  Basically, I don't ever see a self-supported endurance series ever resembling anything like Norba's NMBS.  The self-support events require an incredible time commitment and there certainly are not any professional endurance racers, so you're unlikely to see racers return year after year to many, if any, of the races.  With the precious little time we have to participate in these adventures, I suspect most will look for the next course to conquer.

Additionally, until the sport grows massively (assuming it ever does), I suspect you'll only see a handful of racers participate in more than 2 of the listed events.  I believe this will basically make it impossible to rank the "champion" for the year.  Theoretically, given what has been discussed so far about "weighting" races, someone could finish the Tour Divide in 22 days in mid pack and still have more points than someone who came in second or third in the CTR and set a course record on the AZT.  In my opinion, the latter racer would more of an endurance champion, but it might be hard to reach that labeled position without participating in one of the big races (The Divide, Freedom Trail, AK Ultrasport).

I've thought about this a lot myself, and I'm certainly not opposed, but these are some of the negatives I've thought about:

As Mike says, the issue has to do with legitimizing the events as races.  If the Tour Divide was an official race, it would be illegal (the start is in a national park).  The park officials are aware of the event, but since it is technically a group of friends ITTing the route, they don't really care.  I would be concerned that having it be a part of a point series would just give them more cause to label it as a race and shut it down.

The AZT 300:

It's simply a group of friends out to ride their bikes on the same route at the same time. We'll probably compare times afterwards, but more importantly, we'll compare experiences -- the highs and lows the trail and mountains offered us.

It seems to me that having a point series seems to be directly opposed to that little disclaimer.  Again, the informality of these races is what keeps us in the green.

Side note: I would also argue that the endurance race scene changes from year to year.  2008 saw the addition of Trans Utah and Tour Divide, 2009 could see an event in the UK and people will likely start ITTing Sheltowee Trace, so who will get the final say if they are part of a series? The Divide route will always remain a classic because of its size and legend, but I am concerned that as more races/routes are established, people who participate in the "smaller" races will likely be moving to the next big thing.  After all, his sport is about exploring new territory, right?