Interesting, the Mezcal is still popular. They are pretty robust.
There is a new fkt on the BC Epic 1000 route from Rob Britton, one of this new breed of retired pro roadie sandbaggers dominating the hippies. He smashed the old fkt by over seven hours, time enough to get a great hotel sleep. I loved watching his dot as he rode through many places I knew from my youth in BCs Interior. Honestly the panache and strength on display in this run really inspires me.
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excellent and good idea bike racers
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there was more weather than usual this year, right?
I wonder if there will be a mandatory qualification for events like this in future. The Silk Road race had a not quite requirement that you demonstrate that you know how not to die in the mountains, we might see more of that in future.
Between this and media rules, I’m guessing that the days of just naming a route and keeping a little website that lists fkt are probably numbered.
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yeah the weather was like historically horrible for this time of year- some record-setting precipitation levels
a lot of locals joined the facebook group to troll being like “THIS IS JUST HOW IT IS IN CANADA” and like, I get the sentiment but nah, not quite accurate
plus it seems like there’s a huge influx of donations to Fernie SAR from divide participants and grateful rescuees- they are splitting the donations between all the valley SAR groups, which are woefully underfunded by the BC gov’t apparently
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Yeah, the dread hand of liability insurance closely follows a normal accident at an event like this.
What if they have to close and monitor the course
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One of the guys I know has gone through multiple sets of brake pads in a couple of days. I can only assume he’s using the right pads. Another guy’s Lauf fork has shit itself so he has been waiting two days for a new fork to arrive.
Looks damn cold to me. We don’t get this kind of weather here but so far all the kiwis are still riding. This guy plodded into a top 10 one year but he’s mid pack currently I think.
how does a fork shit itself?
How does a Lauf shit itself? I don’t know. I haven’t looked at any of his vids but I am sure it’s in there.
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Not sure how you categorise this, but about 3 months ago, as the webmaster at my workplace, I got an email from this kid looking for sponsorship. We are not that kind of place and I have no idea why he would even try, but he sounded pretty mature for his age. I don’t think I realised he was only 17.
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“The glass fins went spongey”
I feel like one of the cardinal things you gain with experience is knowing when to just not effing do the thing.
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The gear selection for the really fast riders in the Tour Te Waipounamu was only finalised with the final weather forecast. I’m not into taking those kind of risks so I carry all the shit.
poopers should start trying the Barkley Marathon
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At least use the Barkley Marathon Model. Invite only. No cameras except for two spots. No support except one spot.
If people cared about Barkley the way they care about the divide, it’d probably get ruined though. Luckily there’s no money to be made from ultra running.
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I’m genuinely Curtis about the scale of money in bikepacking races. Is it just standard marketing category coverage or are big brands genuinely trying to make it into A Big Thing?
I think it’s because gravel is big right now and those people make great subjects for gravel ad campaigns.
But actually I think what’s big right now is slick low budget mini documentaries. Folks eat those up. And loaded bike packers on dirt roads make for great slow-mo shots.
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FTFY
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Some nice pix in this piece. That top piccie is my buddy Geof doing a NOBO singlespeed effort. I think thats his 4th TD. He came 4th one year, and has done it on a tandem with his wife. At least three of the 13 kiwis had to pull out with covid this year.
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