Tour Divide Blog

Hi this is Felix Wong calling at 1:18 on Saturday, July 5th. I’m now in El Rito, NM. Things are going well. After I got the cyclometer in Chama, my spirits have been way up. My legs have been feeling very good. Very strong yesterday, maybe not quite so strong today. I got into NM yesterday finally and the trail was very rocky, very rolling, steep in some sections, very rutted. However, I thought it was actually quite fun to ride on. Any day when I’m make forward progress as opposed to trying to solve problems or dealing with hypothermia is a good day. Its great to be putting on some miles and making some forward progress again. I hope to be doing triple digit mileage for the duration of the race. We’ll see. The next section coming up is going to be very difficult. Probably most difficult part of the race. I think my legs I’m feeling up to it. I’m going to get some supplies right now, some food. I’ll be on my way. We’ll see how far I can get today. Bye. (recorder time: 2008-07-05 14:22:15 EST)

Hey it's Mary and I'm in Del Norte. Last night, I pulled Cochetopa Pass and Carnero Pass. Stayed on top of Carnero Pass last night. It was kind of a slow moving day. This morning I got up pretty early. Woke up in the Aspens so it was really beautiful . Topped out and descended down to Del Norte which takes a little while. Especially when you are under-caffeinated, severely under-caffeinated, no caffeine. Moving down the hill, trucking down the hill, kind of boring. Until I hit probably the best double track, single track that I’ve had in days coming into Del Norte. Super beautiful. Red rocks everywhere. Little rise before town. Good Stuff. It was great. Here at the convenience store. The Shell. I'm going to load up on some groceries. I’m cramming food down my throat right now. I have a huge pass to hit this afternoon. I'm going to go take a bite out that and see where it gets me. Have a good night. (recorder time: 2008-07-05 12:39:22 EST)

Yesterday, I left a box of T-Shirts at the front door of Border Patrol with a note to Tim to give them to each TD Finisher or leave them out for the finishers to get. The T-Shirt was Brendan Collier's idea and I pitched in some. The T-shirt has the route, names of all 2008 racers and Stamstad's now-famous quote "We are the normal ones". Attached is a photo. Matthew, I'm mailing a yellow one to you. Over the next couple of weeks, we will also mail one to the racers who won't make it to Antelope Wells and to our TD buddy, Joe Polk. It's just a little something from 2 Tour Divide Spouses. T-shirt Image

Hey, this is Ardie Olson calling in from the Finish Line, Antelope Wells, N.M. I finished up at 11:46 pm Saturday, July the 4th. Everything went pretty good that day. It was a long day. I'll probably call back in maybe tomorrow sometime its really late here. I think its like 2 in the morning. I'll probably call back in tomorrow and give some final comments on the race other than it was a really tough race. I'll be talking with ya'll later. Again, this is Ardie Olson. Bye. (recorder time: 2008-07-05 03:07:05 EST) Finish Line Image

Hey its Mary. I just wanted to call in and let everyone know that I’m doing OK. Because I’m sure all you junkies are watching blue dot and wondering what the hell is going on. I’m actually good. I had a little layover off route to take care of some gears in my head that were skipping. I’m getting back on track. Got those cleaned up and lubed. So I’m going to push on. Talk to you later. Bye. (recorder time: 2008-07-04 17:30:25 EST)

Hi its Alan, its 10 to 2 on Friday the 4th of July. I’m in Grants with Dominik, Leighton and Adrian. We set out from Cuba last night about 5 and carried on until about 10 and camped just by the road in a ditch somewhere about Pueblo Pintado or something. It was actually a very good nights sleep. My alarm went off at 4, but didn’t hear that. Slept through till 5:00, 5:30. So we traveled across here this morning. We just had pizza. I shared a pizza with Adrian. He wanted to do that. For someone who doesn’t normally eat it, he is very good at that. Now we are heading off on the second alternate, down to Pie Town. I’m not sure we’ll make Pie Town today. Its pretty hot now. But we’ll give it a shot. I guess Ardie’s finished by now too. Good luck to him. I guess we might be seeing the film crew on the way back up here. The Four Amigos heading south. Okay, Bye. (recorder time: 2008-07-04 14:52:23 EST)

Hey everybody, Leighton White here, in Grants, NM. Riding with the United Nations Team. Adrian, Alan, Dominik and I have all met back up again. We are in Grants. Hopefully we will finish one of these days soon. A little hot. Other than that everybody is doing good. Hopefully we’ll see ya’ll soon. Bye. (recorder time: 2008-07-04 14:48:19 EST)

Hi this is Felix Wong calling at 12:11 from the town of Chama, NM. Its about 50 miles off route. I'm calling on the 4th of July. I am in much better spirits. When I got to Chama, I encountered a cyclist and I ask her if she knew any cyclists in town with a cyclometer I could buy off him or her. She led me into a little office that is under construction. A construction worker just upgraded to a GPS on his bike and he had a Cat Eye Cyclometer at home in his garage just 2 blocks away. So he went to fetch that for me and I just mounted it and it seems to work fine. It looks like I'm going to be good to go in terms of navigation. I just have to climb back up a huge pass which I had to descend to get into Chama. That's going to take at least 2 hours to ascend, until I'm back on route, but at least I'm going to on route and I should be heading down through New Mexico shortly. Right now, I'm enjoying a cup of ice cream. I got rocky road which I thought was appropriate. It certainly has been a rocky road, especially the past couple of days for me. Anyhow, talk to you later. Bye. (recorder time: 2008-07-04 13:14:40 EST)

This is Ardie Olson calling in from Silver City, NM. It is Friday, June 4th (July). It is 11:23 AM. Everything is going good. Got rained on pretty hard last night. Had a thunderstorm hit me before I got into Mimbres. But I didn't quite make it into Mimbres last night, But I got up early this morning, made it in to Mimbres and got me a good breakfast and booked it into Silver City. Going to get me some resupplies here and head for the border. Get a little splash of gas and 2 right side tires and I'll be ready to go. Oops, that is the wrong race. How about I just stop at the Shop N' Go here and get me some caffeine and a couple honey buns for the road, that is about what it is going to take. Looking forward to the finish. Hope everybody else is doing well that is out there. Again, this is Ardie Olson (recorder time: 2008-07-04 12:25:53 EST)

TD would like to post any finish line images of racers we can get so friends/family might share in that moment of relief. If in touch with any of the racers, please pass along this request to snap a finish line pic. The official TD podium is the concrete block marked "Limite De Los Estados Unidos" a.k.a. Boundary of the United States of America (courtesy of the International Boundary and Water Commission). Who the heck are they? No matter! So far we have just two finishers but more soon:
Matthew Lee Ardie Olson