Tour Divide

[cat-i]

Alex Harris is currently 10th on Tour Divide; 3rd rookie.

 

follow them here: http://tourdivide.org/leaderboard

[cat-i]

Alex moved up to 6th; fifth is just ahead of him (about 5 miles). Leader around 100+ miles ahead.

 

It looks like it's cold-ish out there ... 51 degrees in their language is about 11 degrees Celsius (where they just passed)

[Kranswurm]

Went to the tracker and website.One seriaas race this.

4thousand something km.....****!

[Johan Bornman]

Went to the tracker and website.One seriaas race this.

4thousand something km.....****!

 

68000m climbing!

 

Alex is on a 29" Linskey hardtail with Shiano stuff, tri-bars and in-frame panniers.

[Kranswurm]

68000m climbing!

 

Alex is on a 29" Linskey hardtail with Shiano stuff, tri-bars and in-frame panniers.

Thats just plain silly......:-)

[Johan Bornman]

As of now Alex is 3rd. His plan is for a podium finish but with a win within three years. His biggest challenge is that he doesn't know the terrain. These guys memorise the terrain in order to minimize map-consultation time. It is one of those sleeper sports but fascinating to follow. My favourite insanity-race moment was when two Freedom Challengers were discussing strategy in my workshop. Glenn said to Retief: "The best way to avoid the mud is to get some sleep. Sleep until midnight and start riding when the mud is frozen."

 

I have great respect for these guys. Go Alex!

 

Edit, misread the sequence.

Edited June 17, 2013 by Johan Bornman

[V12man]

"The best way to avoid the mud is to get some sleep. Sleep until midnight and start riding when the mud is frozen."

 

 

That trick nearly killed a couple of FC entrants last year.... severe hypothermia.. had they been alone and not riding in a group, they might well have died.

[cat-i]

Alex in fifth now. If i read the stats correctly, the previous record time till butte was 4 days 9 hours:51. Alex was in at 4:02:48 - meaning that the first 5 people on this race all broke the previous record.

[Johan Bornman]

Alex is still 5th.

[word]

Just checked the Tour Divide update. Alex is now lying THIRD!! He is 32 miles ahead of fourth place but 184 miles behind second place. This race is nuts. He has already covered 1,785 miles (2,856km). There are 11 guys doing this on single speeds!

[Moriarty]

Wouldn't surprise me at all if AH ends up winning this event, he is seriously hard and prepared and races very intelligently.

[Rob Mortimer]

It is riveting - I spend way too much time on the tracker looking at what is going. Alex was looking at a podium in the future and looks like he could get it this year - he is in a almighty battle with James Olsen for 3rd though. He rides later in night and get ahead and then James starts earlier and catches him.

 

Mike Hall (chap who broke the Round the World record) is way ahead (up to a few days ago he was averaging over 200 miles a day ....off road!!!!!) but he did go off course this morning/last night so not sure what the implication of that is in terms of the rules. There was some mention of forest closures due to fires so perhaps he was instructed to make the detour

[Rob Mortimer]

Bit of research - official rerouting, so no disqualification but he cannot take the record (and he was well ahead of it as well)

 

 

 

[DJR]

Nuts! BIG ones! Without them you simply aren't nuts enough to do something like this!

[word]

Just checked - first 2 finishers are in. Alex is currently within 1 mile of Liam Crowley and James Olsen. All have 120 miles to go (at least they did at 3am this morning).

 

With a push Alex can finish third!!

[Chro Mo]

This is an amazing race!!