Tour Divide 2025 - Race Discussion

[jjmundt]

Oh yeah, I know it's a bit early and I know the official route has yet to be published, and I suspect there's still some snow lingering on the sections of that route, but my excitement has been building and I won't wait any longer for this thread to appear.

Let's have some great discussion around this year's epic!!

All the best!

Joel

[jjmundt]

We still don't have an official route for this year's event, but it can't be too far away...

On a personal note, it's good to be on the bike again.  A cycling accident early last September resulted in a broken left wrist (and I'm left-handed) that took four months of healing and rehab to reach the "I-can-use-it-again" point.  My early rides have been short and have shown the wrist to still be a little tender, but it's time to start pushing!!

[jjmundt]

Alright!  The forums are back!  Thanks Scott!!!!  Let's see if we can get some discussion going...

[jjmundt]

First comments, early into Day 4:

Holy crap!  After last year's record, I did NOT think anyone would be in front of Justinas' mark.  But Robin Gemperle's speed has simply been astounding.  He's at 13.5mph as a moving average.  Justinas Leveika's average last year was a whopping 11.1mph, which blew my mind.  So Gemperle's pace is...well...that number is fully 20% faster than Leveika.  That doesn't sound like a lot to a normal person, but us cyclists know that's an enormous increase given what we know of the terrain and the strain on the body.  Come up with your own adjectives for that pace, but as I type, he's nearing Polaris, MT.

It has to be a strange feeling for Svein Tuft...to be ahead of the record pace and 70 miles back of the race leader.  But it's early...and this is the Tour Divide.

I'm heartbroken for fellow Iowan Matt Miller, forced to dropped in Fernie (after a 20-day finish in 2023 on his first try) due to illness.  He's an accomplished rider with very good pace, so it's a shame.

Is that Ms. Houchin out there riding on a bike with gears?!?

Add your thoughts when you get here.

All the best!

Joel

[jjmundt]

Scott, can you speak at all to the route change in northern Colorado after Brush Mtn Lodge?  I wondered if maybe traffic on 129 from Clark to Steamboat Springs was getting too heavy.  Or is there construction that's going right now along that part of the route.  Is that change intended to be temporary or could it be a permanent alteration to the route?

Thanks for any light you can shed.

[Two Tired]

Cameras along the route:

https://www.banff.ca/1065/Traffic-Cameras

https://images.drivebc.ca/bchighwaycam/pub/html/www/196.html

https://video.nest.com/live/xJPIRIe9d7

https://www.togwoteelodge.com/webcam/

https://eurekawebcam.com/

https://livefromsilver.com/  (this is about a block from the route - thanks salsola)

[ScottM]

Scott, can you speak at all to the route change in northern Colorado after Brush Mtn Lodge?  I wondered if maybe traffic on 129 from Clark to Steamboat Springs was getting too heavy.  Or is there construction that's going right now along that part of the route.  Is that change intended to be temporary or could it be a permanent alteration to the route?

Thanks for any light you can shed.

It's intended to be permanent. You guessed it, too much traffic on 129. Steamboat locals pushed for the change and created the new route. Quite a gravel scene developing around there, I guess, and the new route is good roads, we hear.

Dodged a bullet with that change this year -- Sand Mtn is closed, fully, for lambing here in late June. So something would have had to be done about it.

[jjmundt]

Scott,

Thank you for the info.  I never like changes to the route (because I'm a staunch traditionalist at heart), but this one I understand and agree with.  129 has a decent shoulder, but traffic on that section is quite heavy with more than a little truck traffic.  The section I most dislike is the 13-mile stretch of Hwy 50 from Sargents to Doyleville.  The speed limit on that road is 65mph, it sees more than 100 vehicles/hour (with a goodly percentage of trucks), and while there is some decent shoulder, there are other parts with very narrow runoffs.

Anyways, just thoughts from the peanut gallery.  Back to the race!

[WatermelonSugar]

Good to see the forum is back up  I though we were going to be without it this year.
I haven't being following the race over the weekend so looking at trackleaders this morning I was amazed to see how far the leaders have gotten already. I thought maybe they the hadn't slept, but no, they've got tent marks on their tracks so they've been getting at least a few hours. Crazy!

[jjmundt]

As morning dawns and evening fades on what will shortly be Day 5, Robin Gemperle has increased his moving pace to nearly 14mph.  He's taking a rest just north of Island Park and - at 1,000 miles into the route - sits comfortably in front of the course record.  The English language isn't rich enough to adequately describe his run so far.  Of course, this is the Tour Divide, so even being prepared means you aren't fully prepared.  A hundred miles back, Svein Tuft is resting in Lima, and Jens Van Roost is again showing his pace, having passed the course-record marker and riding less than 40 miles adrift of Tuft.

Let's see...among the ladies, Nathalie Baillon has forged an hour ahead of the woman's course record and is about 2 hours ahead of Lael Wilcox.  Another hour back is Ana Jager, resting in Butte.  Right now, it's a three-way race among them...but Alexandera Houchin has a history of getting faster as the race progresses.  We'll see what happens.

Andrew Onermaa continues to yo-yo with Chris Plesko's remarkable single-speed record, currently sitting just a few miles back.  Houchin's single-speed record remains comfortably intact.

Weather along the route looks very "hands-off" at the moment, satisfied to let the riders just duke it out.  Of course, we know how weather is...

Keep a watchful eye on southern Colorado and Mexico.  The route from Salida to the CO/NM border and the entire route from Cuba to Antelope Wells sits under Red Flag warnings.  That means any fire that kicks up has significant chance to grow and force re-routes.

[mjc]

Hi. Thanks Scott for getting the forum up and running again!

You know how on Trackleaders under 'All Riders' it constantly updates to show riders in order? It would be awesome if it would do that when you go to categories as well. Being a lady I would love to be able to go to the women's category and see where Lael is now compared to Nathalie or Ana or Alexandera.... Those pink dots get lost among the sea of blue on the map. Anyway, it's me just dreaming.

The other odd thing to me is that instead of a Canadian flag next to a Canadian name it's a BC flag or an AB flag etc. That should change too.

Anyway, nothing of substance, just enjoying the race again from the comfort of my office chair. Not getting a lot of work done.

[WatermelonSugar]

Code:

It would be awesome if it would do that when you go to categories as well

You can go to "riders by category"  >> "women" and check the box for show only this layer.

Who needs work when you have bike racing!

[mjc]

Hi yes I can see just the women if I go to categories but it doesn't show them in race order. It would be nice if they were in race order, showing what mile they are at the same way that it does for all riders.

I didn't know about the show only this layer though, thanks for the tip. I was referring to how under all riders you can see what mile they are at and see them in order without having to click on individual dots. So I can see that Robin is 103 miles (or whatever) ahead of Svein and Svein is at mile 950 without having to click on dots. In my ideal world the category section would display the same way as all riders.

Lots of ladies this year!

And yes, work definitely comes second to dot watching right now. Hopefully my boss doesn't read this.

[ScottM]

Hi. Thanks Scott for getting the forum up and running again!

You know how on Trackleaders under 'All Riders' it constantly updates to show riders in order? It would be awesome if it would do that when you go to categories as well. Being a lady I would love to be able to go to the women's category and see where Lael is now compared to Nathalie or Ana or Alexandera.... Those pink dots get lost among the sea of blue on the map. Anyway, it's me just dreaming.

The other odd thing to me is that instead of a Canadian flag next to a Canadian name it's a BC flag or an AB flag etc. That should change too.

Anyway, nothing of substance, just enjoying the race again from the comfort of my office chair. Not getting a lot of work done.

In the upper left corner of the All Riders tab is a dropdown that lets you filter by categories, routes, etc. That would give you the list of pink dots, sorted by race mile.  Think that's what you're after.

Agree that for TD the province flags don't make much sense. Probably just CA flag is better. I made that change for UK riders -- instead of England, Scotland, etc, I went to UK flag. Versus a race like BC Epic, with mostly Canadians, it makes more sense to have the province flags. Thanks for the comment.

[ScottM]

As morning dawns and evening fades on what will shortly be Day 5, Robin Gemperle has increased his moving pace to nearly 14mph.

Good summary. Robin is lighting it up like we've never seen before.

And a very exciting women's race.

Just getting started here!

[mjc]

That's exactly what I wanted. Thanks Scott!!

[Two Tired]

There is also the nifty Race Flow graph. Here's the Women's graph :

[cramil]

Glad to see some discussion happening here! I too have been stunned at the pace that Gemperle has been sustaining. On the rider profile flags I don't mind seeing the province flags, along the same lines that the US riders have their state flag represented vs the US flag. Also, noticed that looks like Lael passed up Nathalie today. Nathalie had been crushing it. Overall the conditions this year seem pretty ideal.

[cramil]

Also note that as I watch the Blackfoot Angler Nest Camera I am surprised that Ovando doesn't have an official 'dot' mileage marker on the route.

[jjmundt]

It's nearly the start of Day 6 and Robin Gemperle continues to defy description with his ride.  If the hounds of Hell were giving chase, he'd be walking away from even them.  He's completing his Day 5 with a rest in Pinedale.  Pinedale.  Pinedale, WY.  One thousand, two hundred miles...in five days.  His 13.8mph average has dropped ever so slightly from 13.9 yesterday, but that is a staggering accomplishment given how long he's been doing that and the terrain over which it's happening.

As I type, Svein Tuft and Jens Van Roost are neck and neck at Colter Bay Village, about 140 miles back of the leader.  They are also chewing up the miles and remain on record pace.  The gap sounds large, but with the distances these men are covering, it's less than a day's ride.  They are what we could call "lurking."

Nathalie Baillon (resting) and Lael Wilcox (on the move) are currently challenging each other on the north side of the Lima Reservoir.  It's somewhat difficult to know where they are against the women's record because I think this might be the period of time when Ms. Wilcox lost her Spot during her record run in 2015 and didn't get a replacement until somewhere just before the Flagg-Ranch Road.  So we may not see updates on that banner for some time (depending on how Scott's software manages that).  Like the men, Ana Jager is about 100 miles back (south of Polaris) and lurks.

In the single-speed category, Andrew Onermaa is now slightly ahead Chris Plesko's record-marking flag.  I still think - for all the speed we're seeing this year - Onermaa's performance with just one gear to use is very hard to top.  Alexandera Houchin's single-speed banner is 100 miles in front of its nearest competition, and the first half of her record run was slower than the second half.  That dot is going to be hard to catch.  But no record can be considered safe at this point.

Currently, the weather remains very "pro-speed", with no rain falling anywhere on the route and morning temps mostly in the low 50s...great cycling weather.

Let's see how the dots move today.  Keep stalking and all the best!!