Looks like Mike has met (or will do so in the next couple of miles) the first of the northbound riders.

its mike hall's last td according to bikepacking.net

im sure he will beat jk record and hold it for a few years?

htrider wrote:According to Bikepacking.net Terry Smith is using 2004 edition paper maps and following an old route hence the various deviations.

How come he took the new route across the basin through Wamsutter then? Doesn't add up

Pass - just paraphrasing what was written on there...

Picture of guy(terry) here https://instagram.com/p/BG3RmF7D3Co/

jay91 wrote:Picture of guy(terry) here https://instagram.com/p/BG3RmF7D3Co/

I'm struggling to understand why he would make all that effort to go out for the grand depart and not ride the current course.

Not sure but there must be a good reason.

Unfinished business with a previous route?

Is 'Terry' riding on his own or with full camera crew?

I don't think he's got a sat nav with him!

If 'Terry' really is Guy, then I'm struggling to see what the point of the exercise is. It's a lot of effort for no reward. I don't see that it would even make good telly ... Watch as Guy Martin enters the worlds toughest bike race then follow a different route to everyone else. Gasp as he gets lost numerous times and has to backtrack before yet again going the wrong way ... unless it's a comedy, what is the point to it all?

I agree and disagree.

If it is with full crew in tow then maybe he wanted to avoid the mass start as he's not exactly 'unsupported' (even assuming he does 100% of the riding without any actual help) and didn't want to annoy those who are 'doing it properly'???

Then, once you're already not doing something 100% fully then why not just do a great big ride that has TV friendly elements (getting lost, different bits of trail that might look better on film than others etc...)?

At the end of the day he's still riding a few thousandsl miles on a bike which is more than most of us have managed (though not a much as some of you lot have).

Just my thoughts.....

I see what you mean Gairy, if they just gloss over the facts and ignore the details, then it should indeed make reasonable TV

That's the point I suppose. If they make out that he's 'done it' then there'll be a load of us who get annoyed but if they just make some nice TV about a bloke doing some bloody hard bikepacking then I've got no qualms with it.

We'll have to wait and see what happens.....

cycleshed@bikepackersmag with or without a film crew?
bikepackersmag@cycleshed he was all on his own.

If the instagram comments are to be believed hes on his own.

Perhaps Go-Pro footage from on board with Guy combined with link ups with the TV crew at suitable points along the route? I can't imagine he would ride his own version of the TD if there wasn't another factor involved.

I'm stunned at the continual high average speed - yesterday I did a 40 mile event at just under 10mph, Mike Hall has been doing that pace for nearly 2000 miles OK, I'm not super-endurance, high-speed compatible and comparing different trails is futile at best but even so.

What's a typical elevation gain per 100 miles on the TDR?

whitestone wrote: What's a typical elevation gain per 100 miles on the TDR?

About 200,000 feet in total, which my shonky maths says is 740 feet (225 metres) per 100 miles.

It's about 14m/km so nothing huge except the climbs are usually very long and you have the altitude to contend with.

Pirahna wrote:

whitestone wrote: What's a typical elevation gain per 100 miles on the TDR?

About 200,000 feet in total, which my shonky maths says is 740 feet (225 metres) per 100 miles.

That seems like remarkably little elevation, doesn't it?

Pirahna wrote:

whitestone wrote: What's a typical elevation gain per 100 miles on the TDR?

About 200,000 feet in total, which my shonky maths says is 740 feet (225 metres) per 100 miles.

You are out by a factor of ten 200000/2700 = 74ft/mile so for 100 miles that's 7,400ft per 100 miles.

Is it really 200,000m? I thought it was around 160-170,000m though I don't have a gpx file etc.

But if you add up each individual ripple of -----ing washboard, you double the height gain of the route..

Anyway, it's got some big climbs but I found 100 miles of local terrain far harder on the climbing legs than the Divide. Although not easy, it's more like moderate Alpine road gradients, or less. Very little genuinely steep climbing. That said, I have hero levels of respect for Chris Plesko at the moment. Both for the climbing as well as sticking out the spinning on all those longer, faster sections. Dave Nice took how many attempts to do it on a fixed wheel, 5 or 6?

Edit - I meant ft .. not m. Damn mixed units. ..checks bike drawing files for likelihood of container full of 453" reach hardtails..

My final strava came in about 170,000 feet https://www.strava.com/activities/341380125

It's generally shallower gradients than round here in east devon, or anywhere hilly in the UK, and less climbing per mile. Some people find it tougher due to the high elevation though.

Also, some of the climbs do go on for an age. Like the one Mike Hall is literally about to start now, out of Del Norte, that's the highest and I think longest on the route. I really enjoyed all 4 hours or so of it!

jameso wrote:But if you add up each individual ripple of -----ing washboard, you double the height gain of the route..

Amen to that.

I was in no way suggesting it was easy!

We tend to have short steep climbs in the UK but that's generally atypical for big elevation gains. I've done some washboarded roads in Peru but only a few tens of kilometres which was bad enough, can't really imagine hundreds of Km of the stuff.