Tour Divide Blog

Hey this is Ardie Olson. It is June 26th, Thursday, at 2:16 pm. I am in Silverthorne City, CO. Everything is going OK. Going to get me a couple of meals here in town between here and Breckenridge. I hope. Maybe camp outside of Breckenridge tonight. Hope everybody else is doing well. I'm doing good. Hanging in there. Looking forward to the end. Bye. (recorder time: 2008-06-26 15:18:22 EST)

Hi this is Adrian Stingaciu calling in from Rawlins, WY on Thursday, June 26th at 1:33 pm. I just stopped in at Murray's Bike Shop to get a rear deraulier adjustment and probably change the chain as well. Doing pretty good. Starting to get a little head wind out there so see how much more distance I can put in today. Yesterday, was a really nice Epic day riding through the Great Divide Basin. In a moment of clarity while riding on the crest of the Continental Divide I finally figured out what is wrong with me. What is really wrong with me ironically is the very thing that is really right with me. I think I have the Dreamer's Disease. Before they find a cure for this I hope to infect as many people as possible with it. (recorder time: 2008-06-26 14:34:09 EST)

Hi this is Reuben Kline. My choice comes today with much self introspection. It was one which I wish not to make but after actually taking the time to look at my ankle and knee, I have decided not to go on. Pretty crazy to realize that even though they had been bugging me for a while I really haven't had the time to evaulate them fully. When you are crawling into a bivy sack at 11 o'clock at night you really don't have much time to examine yourself. Now that I look at it my knee is causing the most pain. My achilles is also swollen. Yesterday, the whole leg just felt bad When combined with the fact that I am already dealing with a lot of fatigue it makes it rather difficult to believe that it is in my best interest to push it any further. It is sad to pull out. I apologize to all of you who have been so supportive of me and thank you all for following the race. I hope you all continue to follow the progress of the other riders. I have had a great experience and no regrets having started the race. It has been a great pleasure to ride with Matthew in this event. I can't imagine it is possible for someone to have more passion and knowledge about racing the divide than Matthew. e knows every turn on the route and has lot of great stories and information about the areas. This race means everything for Matthew. My regrets to Matthew for not joining him to the end. Sorry buddy and thanks for everything. I enjoyed riding with you. I had some photos I was going to post of my knee and ankle but I am not really sure on how doing that on the internet so if someone wants to make comment and tell me how to post those photos I am more than happy to put a couple of photos on the blog. Thanks everybody. Bye. (recorder time: 2008-06-26 11:36:11 EST)

Hello this is Steve Gleanser. Lanterne Rouge. I think they call this in the Tour de France. Holding that last position. I'm in Coulter Bay, which is in the Grand Tetons National Park. It is very pretty but it is more like an international city, and bit of a culture shock for somebody who has been backwoods, cheap hoteling it and tenting it. It has been good. I had good day and shooting for another good day tomorrow. I started out at Macks Inn this morning and got to the Grand Tetons. So tomorrow I'm hoping for day with less muck, but I don't think that is what I am going to get. Onwards, down the trail and so forth. See you later. (recorder time: 2008-06-25 23:14:47 EST)

Hi this is Reuben Kline. Its about 5:30. I think the 23rd. I don’t know what the date is. This morning Matt and I put in about hundred miles to get to Silverthorne. That is where I am now. During which time I asked Matt a couple times to go on without me. In great sportsmanship and friendship, he didn’t want to do that. He wanted me to come with him still. I feel like I need to take some time. Stop and collect what I am doing here in Silverthorne. My knee is pretty swollen and my Achilles in the same leg. Its not helping with my overall fatigue value. Anyway, I’m going to hang out in Silverthorne and try to get some rest this evening and see how things go. See what I think about tomorrow. Not feeling very hot at the moment. Thank you all for support. I will call back again. Bye. (recorder time: 2008-0)6-25 18:28:20 EST)

Hi this is Ardie Olson. It is June 25th, Wednesday at 1:35 p.m. I am in Steamboat Springs, CO. Everything is going pretty good. Had to hike through some more snow this morning coming over the Pass into town. But kind of used to that by now. Stop by bike shop here and get a few things. A couple of my water bottle holders have broke from the vibration and rocks and everything. Other than that everything seems to be holding together. I had to buy a few more plastic zip ties so that I can use those to repair things. Other than that I'm doing good. I'll be headin out of town today. Hopefully, I be at the next call in which I think is Silverthorne. Hopefully I'll be there tomorrow some time. Again this is Ardie Olson. Thank you. (Recorder time: 2008-06-25 14:37:24 EST)

Hi this is Felix Wong calling in at 11:30 on Wednesday, June 25th from Pinedale, WY. Yesterday, I went up Union Pass and I thought I climbed it pretty well but afterwards I was just utterly exhausted. Probably the most tired I've been during the entire race. I did press on until 11pm. Camped at a campsite in Bridger National Forest. Had a good nights sleep. Woke up late today. Started at 8:25a.m. Feeling good and moving pretty well but because of my late start I'm gonna have to get going. I'll talk to you later. Bye. (recorder time: 2008-06-25 12:36:52 EST)

Update: Wednesday 25th @ 6am. Reuben Kline has waited for Matt Lee and they are trailblazing again. The information they have given back points to some more snow, and plenty of mud, into Colorado. There are racers spread back ~600 miles to Idaho, and all are moving well. Mike Dion has pulled out of the race, but is still riding. There is alot of thoughts and emotions going through your head when you get to sit by yourself 20 hours a day, so we will try and get further comments from Mike. By: Alex Field

Hello Stephen Gleasner calling in from Mack Inn. The call before wasn’t feeling very good. I guess it would be safe to say that I felt as bad as I’ve felt. I don’t know why. I thought it might have been the cough that I still have. But I feel great today and I made it to Macks Inn. The cough is not something that bothers me but I thought that may it had tapped something with my fuel core, my energies that felt like they had been completely and totally zapped. I thought it seemed logical maybe some immune thing. Now I rode all well all day. Felt good all day. Felt happy all day. Left Lima late and got to Mack Inn in enough time to have some pizza, set up a tent and get a shower and hopefully off early in the morning. Down the road. Until next time. Goodbye. (recorder time: 2008-06-24 23:27:57 EST)

Hey its Mary Collier. Its day 13, June 24th. Today was a sad day in WY. My riding buddy, Mike Dion, had to drop today. I think all things considered he had a day yesterday with very little food and a whole lot of stress. So I think that was a kind of breaking point for him. So I will be sad to say goodbye to Mike. Wish him luck in all his future adventures. I’m sure he has some fun stuff coming up. But for myself, I made it 80 miles today to Flagg Ranch. Seems like I have yet to have a day go as expected. 80 miles wasn’t what I wanted. I wanted to get in more mileage than that. My legs are doing OK. I started out at a descent time. Got about 10 miles down the road before a seal tore in my rear shock. I tried to just re-inflate it, didn’t work. So I started heading back to a bike shop that was there when I started today then realized that they wouldn’t be opened for few hours. So I opened up my shock and shoved a sock in it which gave me a virtual hard tail for the day. Which wouldn’t be bad because I know there are people out there doing this on a hard tail. BUT It was the longest section of the washboard rail bed that I’ve ever ridden. It made for fun morning. Not that bad though. Just getting tied up with time taking care of it. Beyond that the rail bed was fairly uneventful. It was beautiful but somewhat monotonous. Until I got to the tunnel, which was actually not as bad as expected. Hiked around that. I’m getting better at carrying my bike on my back. Beyond that was the snowy pass coming in Flagg Ranch. It wasn’t too bad. I had my share of walking in snow and ending up on puddles. Props to the guys that came before me. Because I saw in lots of dry areas I was riding through I was riding through and over ridges that they carved in the mud. Props to them for carving the way for us all. Here I am in Flagg Ranch. Just had some dinner, I’m going to crash out. Hopefully tomorrow I can get down the road further. Have a good night.