Tour Divide Blog 2008

Mary Collier Stockin' In Up in Del Norte

Racer update about:
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)

Tour Divide T-Shirts

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

Ardie Olson Finishes Friday, July 4, 11:46 pm

Racer update about:
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

Mary Collier Reassures Friends and Family

Racer update about:
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)

Alan Goldsmith Reports on the 4 Amigos

Racer update about:
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)

United Nations Team in Grants

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)

Felix Wong Headed back to the Trail

Racer update about:
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)

Ardie Olson shifts into NASCAR mode

Racer update about:
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)

Finish Photos

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

Felix Wong forced off-route to find a Cyclometer

Racer update about:
Hi this is Felix Wong calling on the 4th of July. Its Friday, 10:20. I’m couple of miles from the New Mexico Border. Every holiday it seems like I have some sort of vehicular problem and this is no exception. I had my second crisis. Last night my cyclometer died. I think it has something to do with the sensor, I’m not sure if it is the sensor itself or the sensor battery. It doesn’t really matter because the sensor battery is a very rare 12 volt double A battery. One that I’m not going to be able to find anywhere. Right now I’m heading off to Chama. I’m going to look for a cyclometer. What I have been doing for the last 12 hours or so, I was going from campsite to campsite asking people in RVs if they have a cyclometer on their bicycles. Had no luck there. Then one of the locals me that he sees cyclists biking up Highway 17 a lot. So I actually did wait at the corner of Highway 17 and Forest Service Road 117, which is the road that I’m suppose to go on next to New Mexico. I waited for about 3 hours, no cyclists. So I’m heading down to Chama. (can’t make out next 2 sentences) To see if there is any cyclist with a cycometer. Cyclometer is (can’t make out rest of sentence). Even with a functional one, I get 1-4 miles lost each day. The next supply point for me is El Rito which is about 100 miles away. If I get lost in the forest, it’s a bad, life and death situation. I need to take care of this problem and hopefully I’ll find something in Chama. If you don’t hear from me in the next day and half or so, and it seems like I’m back on course and it means found a cyclometer. If you hear back for me in the next day or so, we’ll see, I will let you know what is going on. But that is the situation right now and I’ll talk to you later. Bye. (recorder time: 2008-07-04 11:25:18 EST)
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