Looks like there could be some more escapees - Kai Edel, Josh Ibbett, Kim Raeymaekers and Lael are on the move after a leisurely breakfast.

The 5 who escaped Brush Mountain Lodge have made it over the pass and are now descending (slowly) towards Steamboat.
For the ones who are still there it's becoming a bit like Hotel California.

Yep, I'm interested to see who finishes and who decides to quit.

For me the number one goal was to finish, but I can definitely understand those who feel that their objective is now out of reach and therefore quit (especially if they are already veterans).

Boredom is an interesting reason for quitting. I found that the changing scenery, weather and trails kept me interested as well as my own state of mind and body. The changes are quite gradual though, and in some ways they are "type 2" entertainment. You can't necessarily appreciate them as...

Josh Lael and Evan must all be pretty much together, and speed has dropped to roughly walking pace now they are on the snowy/muddy bit after the top of the pass.

Now that trackers have updated I can see that Steve Halligan was a few minutes up the road, so it must have been Lael coming out of the hotel with Evan.

That must be Evan Deutsch and Steve Halligan (came out of the hotel) and Josh Ibbett who just came up the trail.

Interestingly Josh crept up on the other two from behind and then put a turn of speed on to blast past them! The race is on!

Plus it brings the race down. A few more incidents like that, and the park authorities might act to restrict the race. The place where that incident happened is not on the race route, and is just to the west of Banff, off the highway. No suggestion this incident is in any way connected to the race....

any film couldn't be as bad as Ride the Divide ... that was a truly awful depiction of self-pity / importance I've been wondering if I was missing out having never watched it. It would seem that I am not. Watching the film was one of the things that made me get out there and ride it. I suppose I'm ...

Lael seems to have started the climb out of Helena, then dashed back. Wonder what was going on there?

There was a fast guy called Andrew Kulmatiski last year who was doing a NoBo ITT last year. He looked set to break the record until he scratched just past halfway. I think there is a chance of the record being broken, but there are not many people who are capable of it, and you can only realisticall...

I'm guessing that it's not really feasible to just be following a line on a gps display for that duration of time

It is completely feasible to do just that. I did it with an Edge 1000. I had it set up to give me an off-course warning so that if I missed a turn it would beep and wake me up!

jameso - do you have any particular recommendations for close fitting boxers that don't have seams in the wrong place? As mentioned above I always use bib shorts, but I do find these can cause problems of multi-day rides. The pad tends to get squished and cause rubbing in places where there shouldn'...

From the photos of Sofiane that have been posted on the bikepacking.net forum it looks like he's not wearing bib shorts (I thought these were the staple for all serious cyclists, and personally haven't done a proper ride in anything else for a very long time). Also he seems to have a baseball cap on...

Ouch, that is rubbish. I really don't understand why people carry so much cash though. When I left Banff I think I had about CA$100 and US$100 plus a couple of credit and debit cards.

And they're off!

Good luck to all - hope you have an interesting ride!

added 325g to my “bicycle”

Best to keep it on your person rather than on the bike. That way if you're off the bike for some reason (going to the loo/stopping to admire the scenery) you will still have it on you rather than having to go back to the bike before trying to get it out.

@dlovett (wanted to type lovell for some reason) Yes I don't imagine it will cause much problem for pointing a telescope at one tiny part of the sky - it's more the big picture I'm thinking of. Looking at the sky and struggling to tell which points of light are natural and which are not. If there ar...

One good aspect of all the internet satellites going up is that eventually all the ground based mobile phone masts will become redundant so they could all be taken down.

As many of you lot are folks who take to the hills for a bivvy I'm sure that you probably also enjoy the wonder of the night sky when you get a clear night. For me this is one of the best things about spending a night out. With the launch of SpaceX's new Starlink satellites having commenced, the amo...

Regarding the cankles/kankles/tankles the cold and wet definitely makes them worse as the body isn't sending so much blood down there, focussing on keeping your core warm.

Fond memories of 2015 keep coming back to me. Shivering myself to sleep in Carnmore bothy was a particular highlight.

Jenny only seems to have covered about half a km in the last half an hour, so definitely not the speed you'd be expecting. A bad case of cankles maybe? 3 other riders coming along who will catch up with her in a couple of hours if she stays at that pace.

she's on the move again!

Hope Jenny is ok. It seems a little worrying after all that to-ing and fro-ing last night and now she hasn't pinged for 9 and half hours. I was wondering if the dithering last night was her trying to decide whether to bail out to Poolewe or stay on the trail. Maybe a mechanical or a minor injury?

There is some good suffering going on out there this year, the like of which hasn't been seen since 2015.

This is making me think that it could be a good idea to have another crack in 2020.