Alan Goldsmith

Hi this is Alan Goldsmith again. We are still at Antelope Wells. We are just loading up the sports mobile with all the bikes and stuff before we head back to Silver City. If anyone can give me a ride tomorrow from Silver City from Phoenix, I need to be there by 5PM. Can you contact me on Valerie’s cell phone. She is Leigthon’s girlfriend. She is giving us the ride back to Silver City. The # is 970 819 0873. Ok, that would be great. I still can’t believe I’ve done it. I feel so good. Bye.

Hi this is Alan Goldsmith. I am sitting in the Border Station at Antelope Wells. It is done. We rolled over the border about 9 o’clock this morning. Me, Dominik, Leighton and Adrian. We put in a big day yesterday and pushed through the desert late into the night. Slept in the yard of the old Catholic Church in Hathicta. Set out at first light this morning with a good tailwind. Arrived here about 9 o’clock. So that’s that. What do we do now? It has been an amazing experience. Anyone with a bike who likes the outdoors should do this trail. Maybe not the race, but they should do it. Its awesome. Don’t really know what to say. Thank you to everyone we met along the way. We’ve met some really good people. Its all be good experiences. Nothing bad. Totally, totally enjoyable. We are going to get a lift back to Silver City with Leighton’s girl friend. She is going to be arriving soon with a truck full of beer, and fruit and good things. If anyone is going from Silver City to Phoenix tomorrow, I could do with a ride. I’ve got to catch a plane at 8 o’clock in the evening. Maybe I’ll call back with an number once I’m in hotel. It’s been emotional. Bye. (recorder time: 2008-07-07 10:37:48 EST)

Hi its Sunday the 6th of July, 5 to 6 in the evening. We are in Silver City. Just been to the supermarket and loaded up with supplies for the final stretch down to Antelope Wells. We are going try to do as much in the dark as we can. Maybe catch a couple hours sleep and try to get there before mid-day tomorrow. I’m still with Dominik, Leighton and Adrian. If you haven’t guess, we planned to finish together and further the cause of the United Nations ____ Team. Today was a beautiful day through the Gila. Really nice stretch from Beaverhead Work Station. Very spectacular. Unexpected for me. Hopefully talk to you tomorrow. Bye. (recorder time: 2008-07-06 18:57:08 EST)

Hi this is Alan its 23 minutes past 9 on Saturday, the 5th. I’m at the Beaverhead Work Center camping on their lawn with Dominik, Leighton and Adrian. We came over from 20 miles north of Pie Town. Our big plan for breakfast in Pie Town was shot to pieces when it was shut. The PieO’Neer didn’t open until 11 and we were there at 7:30 and the other one, The Daily Pie, was shut for the Holiday. The toaster house was locked and the woman was away. So pretty disappointing with Pie Town. It was about the only town in America that we’ve been through that we didn’t have Pie. SO BOO! We carried on thinking there was groceries and gas station at the intersection with Hwy 12 which is shown on the new ACA maps as gas station and groceries and that wasn’t there so 3 of us had to detour to a town called Aragon to the shop. Adrian carried on because he had enough bird seed to keep him going for the day. It was a good trip across that. Stayed cool luckily. Pretty canyon along the way. Tomorrow, we are going to try to get a really early start, get to Silver City as early as possible, have a proper meal, hopefully an American Breakfast, an all day Breakfast. We haven’t had a Breakfast since CO and I’m missing it. Then we are going to head out and try to get down the road as far as possible and finish this thing up Monday morning. That’s the plan. OK, Good night. Bye (recorder time: 2008-07-05 22:26:49 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 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)

Hi this is Alan, Tour Divide Racer # 5. Its 20 after 9 on Wednesday evening, the 2nd of July. I’m in Abiquiu at the Abiquiu Inn. I’m with Dominik and Leighton. He caught us up. We sorta had a short day, a very short day, a 12 o’clock finish. I’ve had three meals. A lot of water and I’m ready to go. The strategy is to leave early, get over the last big hill, rest up in Cuba for a little bit then head out in the cool of the evening into the desert night. Today was easy about 58 miles to year. Yesterday was tough over Brazos Ridge, thunder and lightening. I actually got off my bike and lay on the ground at one point. Maybe I was overreacting but I thought I could feel the air tingling. Prior to that we met the Webe family who seemed to be really happy to meet us. They took our photo, gave us a few snacks. I think we made their week and they made my day. Its good to meet people who are interested. Last night we camped at the Hopewell Lake Campground. They were good to us. They gave us some coke when we got there. So its all good stuff.. I had dinner with John Nobile who is leading the Great Divide race. He is nearly on record breaking schedule but needs to really go for it now to match JP’s time. He is planning to get up at 2, I think. The film guy from Britain, Gerald, is here to. So it was a bit party tonight in the restaurant. All good. Anyway, talk to you from Cuba or Grants, somewhere down the road. (recorder time: 2008-07-02 22:26:51 EST)

Morning its Alan calling in from Skyline Lodge in Platoro. Just had breakfast here after another chilly night out in the hills. I think we were up above 10,000 feet again at Stunner campground. They really looked out after us here. They’ve got a score sheet of who is coming through when. We are still third but Ardie is getting further away and Matt’s history. Anyway we got over the hill yesterday without being struck by lightening. It didn’t really rain on us too much either. Apparently, it really rained on this side so it was a good job we weren’t over here. We were going slow for a reason. We are off to Horca today for a second breakfast or early lunch. We will try to get some miles in between breakfast and lunch today. Then up over Brazos Ridge and we’ll see how far we can get. We need to get some kit dried out before we camp again. It looks awfully wet now. We’ll probably lay it out in the sun in Horca. See if we get some offers for our stuff. Maybe give up, drive down to Mexico. No, we are nearly there now. New Mexico later this morning. Talk to you later. Bye. (recorder time: 2008-07-01 08:59:04 EST)

Recently, there has been a lot of coverage beyond our blog on the race. Here is an update: Yesterday, the Steamboard Pilot & Today ran an article about the Tour Divide and featured three of our racers, Leighton White, Dominik Scherer, and Alan Goldsmith. Also, over the past few days, MTBR user MarkInTheBoat has posted trail pictures of Matt Lee and Reuben Klein and Alan Goldsmith and Dominik Scherer. Former racer leader Reuben Klein has also sent in some photos of his ankles and knees, as he indicated he would in his final call-in. Reuben mentioned that he believes he messed up his ankle while hiking through the snow, making his attempt the second victim of the deep snows.