Tour Divide Blog 2008

More Bike Repairs needed for Stephen Gleasner

Racer update about:
Hello Steve Gleasner calling from Absolute Bikes. I did not depart at 10 o’clock. I’m still here. It is after 10. That little interruption by the mechanic was saying that my rear wheel is splitting in half so I’m replacing that. That’s the gist of it.. (recorder time: 2008-07-04 11:13:40 EST)

Stephen Gleasner getting some Bike Repairs at Absolute Bikes

Racer update about:
Morning, Steve Gleasner calling from Absolute Bikes in Salida, CO. My bike is on the stand and Absolute is giving it to her. They are putting new rubber on the back and fleshing up the new brakes. I should be out about 10 or so. I can’t say enough about the people here. They get right on it. They make a priority out of these crazy people that come in all sketched out. Noah Dimit (sp) is also here. He is having work done on his bike. So we have dueling bike stands going on here. Yesterday was great going over the Pass from Breckenridge. I had a wonderful time on the climb. I felt like Superman and on the downhill side it was great as well. (I’m on recording. That was the Absolute Bike guy.) Then the rest of the day was all sand and washboard out in the desert with lightening storms chasing me. There it is, down the Road. See ya. (recorder time: 2008-07-04 10:56:31 EST)

Mary Collier's Unique Sleeping Quarters

Racer update about:
Hey its Mary Collier. Its about 8 in the morning, July 4th. I'm in Sargents, CO. I made it last night about 9:30. Last couple days have been pretty awesome. Two nights ago, I stayed in a children's playhouse in Harstel, CO. Pulling Boreas Pass to get to Harstel actually was not that bad. Got in pretty early to Harstel. I was sleep deprived enough and homesick enough that I decided to stay in Hartsel after not covering too many miles, but I’m happy to live with that decision. I woke up early in the morning from Harstel and headed out towards Salida. Made it to Salida yesterday. Had my bike worked on at Absolute. Changed out my tires. Really just did a look over, my bike is actually looking pretty good. Everything is going well. It was late in the day when I came into Salida, but I decided to go ahead, up over Marshall Pass in get into Sargents. I got here at about 9:30 last night. It was raining a little bit, dark and cold. They were out of cabins so they hooked me up in a Tee Pee last night with a campfire looking propane heater in the middle of it. Pretty rad. I never slept in a Tee Pee before so it was pretty cool. The last couple of days have been pretty cool. Coming into Salida. I met up with a good friend, Canon. He rode up Marshall Pass to greet me and rode down with me...having worried that I had been homesick and lonely. It was really good to hear from, see him and have someone to ride with and chat with. When I got to Salida, my twin sister, Julie and her kids were there and greeted me. Made me feel like a Rock Star. Pretty good. That gave me a lot of energy to best up and over Marshall Pass to get here to Sargents. Had a good nights sleep last night and I'm headed out on the road to get to Del Norte tonight. Have a Happy 4th of July. Bye, Bye. (recorder time: 2008-07-04 09:20:45 EST)

Adrian Stingacui and his 3 Amigos

Racer update about:
Hello this is Adrian Stingacui. It July 3rd 9:10 pm calling in from Pueblo Pintado on the Chaco Alternate. Last night I caught up with Leighton White, Alan Goldsmith and Dominik Scherer in the motel in Abiquiu. Crashed their party around 10:30 p.m. Dominik had some wheel issues but he got those resolved. We are all rolling out today. We all started at the same time this morning around 5 am and rode a little together then we kind of got split up. then we stopped in Cuba. We regrouped again on the Chaco alternate. We've been riding off into the sunset. Beautiful day today. Several local thunderstorms. Just a really beautiful day. We just stopped to get something to eat and we are going to press on into the night and see if we can finish sometime on Sunday. Who knows we might even all finish together. It has been really nice riding with Alan, Leighton and Dominik. It just makes all of the pain go away. You forget about the mileage, you forget about everything. You are just out here having fun with friends riding your bike. Its what its all about. Its just really nice riding together and we've become really good friends out here. Good night everyone. All my love to family and friends back home. (recorder time: 2008-07-03 22:13:33 EST)

Dominik Scherer is lovin' his borrowed Rear Wheel

Racer update about:
Hello this is Dominik Scherer, calling on Thursday, 3rd of July. Its 4:30 pm. I’m here in Grants, no not Grants, just before, Cuba, NM, that’s he place. I wanted to call in to thank Bob Morgan from Albuquerque. He is he man. He brought me his own personal 26” rear wheel yesterday evening. He drove all the way from Albuquerque to Abiquiu and brought me his wheel. So I have his 26” wheel now in the rear. It made it very very well over these last few hills we had to do this morning. Thank you very much Bob. This is so very, very good. Thank you. We just had some food, Alan and me and we are stocking up on supplies and we’ll be on our way towards Grants in the next half-hour or something. We did sort of lose Adrian and Leighton on the climbs. We started out together this morning. We sort of lost them. But I think we’ll meet again on the way. That is what I hope for that we will see them again. All you people out there be good, be safe. You people at home, I’m almost through. It is good to know that you are there. You are giving me strength every day. Thank you. Bye. (recorder time: 2008-07-03 17:34:13 EST)

Alan Goldsmith Making Bets on Next Year's Race

Racer update about:
Hi this is Alan. It 4:30 on the 3rd of July. I'm Cuba. We came over from Abiquiu this morning. We left at 5 o'clock, the four of us. Me, Dominik, Adrian (who showed up at 11) and Leighton. It was a bit of surprised to see Adrian after all these days, weeks. He wanted to get into bed with me without a shower. He hadn't had a shower in two weeks, but I have standards so I made him shower. We came over the hill which was a very nice ride. We got breakfast and then moved to the smart end of town and had lunch. We sat out a monster storm which is now pasing through. I think we are going to try to get a way down to Grants now. I guess we won't be taking the off-road official route since its pretty wet around and dangerous out there. I guess Matt Lee is finished now and probably Ardie is not too far off. I'll get him next year though. Happy Fourth of July. (recorder time: 2008-07-03 17:28:22 EST)

Felix Wong Inspired by Messages from Friends

Racer update about:
Hi this is Felix Wong calling at 12:58 from Platoro. I just wanted to thank everybody for their messages. I just listened to them. They are very helpful. About 20 minutes ago when I called in I was feeling very demoralized. Now I'm feeling inspired again. I'm going to press on. Listening to the messages really helped especially since it is still raining and there is thunder and lightening in the distance but I'm going to see what I can do today and I'm going to continue on. Talk to you later. (recorder time: 2008-07-03 14:00:46 EST)

Felix Wong has a Rough Time coming into Platoro

Racer update about:
Hi this is Felix Wong calling at 12:39 on Thursday, July 3rd from Platoro, CO. I've had some great days in the race and I've had some bad days. You can definitely classify yesterday as one of the latter. First there was Indiana Pass. My legs weren't there. It was a very long climb, very steep, but worse once I got near the top of the climb a storm rolled on through. It was pouring with freezing rain. Within an hour even though I put on all my clothing, I became very hypothermic. My teeth were chattering. My hands were completely numb. I couldn't operate the shifters or brakes and it was still four hours to Platoro. By 6pm, I was doing so poorly, shivering so badly, that I decided that all I could do was pull over, set up my tent right away and crawl into my sleeping bag. So yesterday was a really short day and even though I went to bed early it was restless night for me. All of my clothing was wet. Because I have a down sleeping bag, I had to strip off all of my clothes, sleep in the sleeping bag naked and it was cold in the sleeping bag. the sleeping bag was slightly wet. Any time some of the freezing cold air would get into the sleeping bag, I would freeze. Consequently, I also had a late start this morning. I was just not willing to endure another cold morning in wet clothing. So I started late. I got to Platoro. It started raining about 20-30 minutes ago. Fortunately, its not raining hard now. I hope it passes through. I looks pretty gray up there. I'm pretty demoralized I have say but I’m almost to NM.. There is just one more week hopefully to go. I hear Matt Lee finished last night. Congratulations to him. I hope to be done within the week myself, but I realize that there is a lot that can happen in the 744 miles I have to go. I'll talk to you later. Take care. (recorder time: 2008-07-03 13:43:46 EST)

Matthew's Blue Dot NC-side

Racer update about:
Hey folks, Matthew here. I'm back in NC as of 3pm. In possibly the fastest finish line extrication ever witnessed, I hit the border at 10pm last night (7/2/08) and was on the road to El Paso in trail angel, Don Baumgardt's chariot only an hour or so later. A 6am flight precluded sleeping until I got into my standby/exit row seat en route to NC. Big love for Don for his surgical strike in getting me showered, dressed in borrowed clothes, my bike boxed and me to the airport, all b/f 4am (all while his wife slept down the hall). What a stud he is. Thanks to Rueben for making that connection for me. Trail magic at its best. Needless to say, I am slumming today. It all happened so fast I didn't have much time to reflect in AW. I did get to spend some time with Hunter and Mike of the documentary film crew, and with, of course, every divide racer's favorite border officer, Tim Balderston. He let us have complete run of the place. Rolling the cameras and all, doing interviews with us. He has really taken root there in AW (with his 12 dogs) and talks of opening his new pre-fab home there to divide racers on a more organized level. He even has a jacuzzi. His generosity is enough to make emotion-stuffed, broken-walled Divide finishers break down and cry in their vulnerable finish line moment. I love that guy, too. Seriously.

Stephen Gleasner has a Plan

Racer update about:
Hello this is Stephen Gleasner. I'm in Frisco. Just south of Silverthorne. Spent the night in Silverthorne. It almost 9 o'clock. Having some breakfast then hit the road. Plan is to make Salida and do some drive train work and maybe some new tires. So that's the plan. Things are going pretty well. Had a high speed run into Silverthorne last night so I could make it to the Target before it closed. So I could get some cards for my camera. Just taking a lot of pictures and running out of space. Got that and a hotel and someting to eat. Feeling refreshed and ready to go. Done the road. (recorder time: 2008-07-03 09:49:09 EST)
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