Letter of Intent - Tour Divide

I did it - I wrote my letter of intent - no turning back now, have to stay in one piece between now and June - July really.  It took me a while because whenever I thought about what to write all that came up was the poem "Uphill" by Christina Rossetti :

Uphill

Does the road wind up-hill all the way?
Yes, to the very end.
Will the day’s journey take the whole long day?
From morn to night, my friend.

But is there for the night a resting-place?
A roof for when the slow dark hours begin.
May not the darkness hide it from my face?
You cannot miss that inn.

Shall I meet other wayfarers at night?
Those who have gone before.
Then must I knock, or call when just in sight?
They will not keep you standing at that door.

Shall I find comfort, travel-sore and weak?
Of labor you shall find the sum.
Will there be beds for me and all who seek?
Yea, beds for all who come.

Christina Rossetti was obviously a cyclist.


With this letter* I state my intent to be at the start in Banff on June 11 and some days later stand on the podium** in Antelope Wells New Mexico being congratulated by the TD podium girls***.  It has been a long time goal for me to ride my bike across**** the USA.   Although I have never touched a wheel to the backbone of North America, I have been training a bit here in Vermont and hope I can translate this to success in the West.  I plan to finish strong and finish happy.   I am looking forward to seeing some snow capped peaks, tumbleweeds, ghost towns, cacti, and sitting under the stars at night frying up jackalopes in a large cast iron skillet.    I have scoped out the competition and this year looks like the year of 100% success rate - so count me in!  I am looking forward to racing with you all.*****

David Tremblay
Moretown, Vermont USA
http://audaxvermont.blogspot.com/

* Actually it was with the purchase of the non-refundable plane ticket that I stated my intent.
**The podium for people named "David" and if necessary the sub category of those from Vermont.
*** Provided my daughters pick me up at the finish.
****The vertical north to south version will do.
***** Even if it is for the first 5-10 minutes of the race.

first crack at snowboarding

Braintree Gap training ride

There is a photo somewhere... 4:35 pm on top of Braintree Gap on Feb 15, 2010.  Third day of riding in a row... DaveB and Geoff Wade off riding the Canadian Ski Marathon.  I figured it was a good day to go long... but a bit of a late start required extra permissions and taking the Ayup light. (mounted to helmet)

Bike after the ride with frozen on mud.

Braintree Gap ride stats:

time out: 5 hours - 2:30pm to 7:30 pm
Max speed ( North Road by Tremblay Rd) 38.9 mph
Avg moving speed      10.6 mph
avg total speed         9.8 mph
total climbing    4167 feet
max elv             2425 feet
min elv                 582    feet
distance                49.6 miles
time moving           4:40 hr:min
time stopped         22:31 min
riding in dark         1:15 hr:min
walking/pushing in snow: 2 miles?
my house to top of bt gap: 25 miles
bt gap: 2.7 mile climb
780 ft to 2425 feet
Tire pressure: 18 psi front, 20psi rear!
water carried: 48 oz
water consumed 31 oz
water undrinkable due to temp:17 oz
food consumed:
choc chip Clif Bar 240 Cal
2 peanut butter crackers 65 Cal
total bike weight at end of ride: 35.4 pounds
clothes:
beat old Hincapi bibs w/ Craft warmup pants over.
vb socks
ss ibis wool bike shirt
ls light Louis garneau base
rain shell
wool hat
Louis Garneau gloves
bandana - for road dust

clothing layers worked well - a little light and began to get a bit chilly at night but good for 20"F and not stopping.

This was a no (little) stop fast (besides the hiking) pace ride at TD race pace... but I ate and drank way too little.  Mostly because I knew I was only going to be out for five hours.  300 calories - should have been 3,000 - though I doubt I could stomach that amount.

Waitsfield Gap

Randy and I did another snow ride - this time with 1-2 inches of fresh snow. We met at South Hill - rode up Moretown Mtn road over the Moretown Gap. Mostly frozen dirt with a few bare ice patches. Flew down the other side into Devil's Washbowl - which had surprisingly been plowed sometime this year. We then rode to the end of Bear Mt Rd and got on the VAST trail over Waitsfield Gap. This would have been ok but only two snow machines had been on it and that was about two storms ago. Here is a great shot of Randy hitting a surprising stream crossing:

Coming down the other side was a blast.  I made a little movie of Randy crossing one of many ice patches:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nP6hiGi3OBw

We then hit Floodwoods road for about 20 feet then got on Elwin Neil's VAST trail - awesome down hill to Pony Farm,  Then a mellow ride home.  A completely normal ride despite the 20'F temp and snow and extra layers and cold feet and frozen water bottle.  Bike remarkably clean for a 18 mile mountain bike ride.  Just a krummholz of snow off the bottom bracket.

stats:

total ascent 2500 ft
max elevation 2208 ft
max speed 34.1 mph
distance 18 miles
moving time 2:13 stopped: 31:18
8.1mph avg 6.6 total ( we had to walk a mile or so)
Like they say - every mile on snow is equal to two.

Excuses

                                                         Fracture of the Radial Head.
                                                           (top of lower left bone) 5/1/09

Some days I can come up with dozens of reasons not to go off on a 2750 mile bike ride. Creaky knees, family responsibilities, money, mosquitoes, agrizoophobia, coulorophobia, Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever.... but the one thing that keeps rearing its ugly (radial) head is my elbow. I broke it last spring and it still won't open all the way. When I try to open it all the way - it aches. I couldn't do a push-up with it until about two months ago. I have been working on that. I have also been hanging from the chin-up bar and doing some pull-ups. Pull-ups are palms out - right? I am trying to reach my PB record set in 1975: 13. Of course in 1975 I had an incredible power: weight ratio being just 50 pounds. I now weigh three times that and can't do nearly as many chin-ups. I have had my sports chiro working on my elbow. He wanted it re-x-rayed to see how it has healed. Here's how it looks today - nine months later:

                                                    2/12/10 Healed Radial Head Fracture.

Not too shabby looking - right?  Especially considering I was doing a 240 mile ride four weeks after I broke it.  Thanks Charles Martley and Akhil Kaplan at Three Moons Wellness!   Now if I can just get full extension.

Oh- how did I break it?  Hmmm people don't get it when I explain I'm a 46 year old skateboarder- I have now cut back on the skateboarding but I still love it ... I am just getting too old and too big to fall.  Next year - hope to work on my falling.  Below - me and the skatepunks back in the day:

                         L-R John Champy, John Siudut, me, Mike Seeley, Mike O"Connor  circa 1980?
                                                       On my 1/4 pipe of salvaged wood.

Last day of January snow bike ride

Randy and I went for a little loop - conditions are perfect right now for cycling - anywhere! We did a little single track on Grandma's trails then cut across Erica Dow's fields to the Duxbury VAST trail. Snow not deep enough for snow machine, x-c skiing or snowshoeing but we saw tracks of all three of these. Went down the brook by Harwood where I crashed into a block of ice in a stream crossing then across Rt 100 to the Church o t C. One then Vast behind Simplicity Farm to Small DOg then Pony Farm back to Moreotwn. The climb home was as hard as it has ever been for me! Randy rode his Rawlands with 650b Pacenti's and I took my SS Litespeed with custome ice spikes. No mechanicals no flats. The gear was a bit high - the same gear I raced VT50 with in 5:15 - pretty tough with the slow tires and breaking throw the crust. Strange randy seemed to float on the surface more than me.

More photos here:  http://picasaweb.google.com/parisbrestparis/SnowbikeJAN31#

new LC-142 Vermont Tax Form

Here is the *new* LC-142 Vermont Tax form. This is a bit off topic - but I can't find this form anywhere! Just Gov. Jim Douglas making hard for poor little renters to get there tax rebates.  This form seems to be available only by request for some reason.  Oh and here are the instructions: (click on image to get printable form)

The Vermont Farm Show maple contest 2010

Maple syrup was tasted and judged, And the winner is - you'll find out tomorrow - first time ever for this Best in Show! The three class winners in syrup were all very good. I ended up judging maple products with Hugh Lund but then went to the syrup table for the best in show contest. This was a lot easier than last year when I judged the fancy - hit my limit on drinking syrup. I had a pretty clean pallet going into this and when the six judges all gave two votes to each of the three classes I cast the deciding vote: ________ ! It was an excellent example of this class - one of the best I've had.

Guy Amundsen

photo from the Valley Reporter 'Valley Vetrans Honored" pages.
Guy was in the USMC 1955 - 1959


Guy died today while skiing at Ole's. It was a great day for skiing - the "pick of the week." Guy taught my girls to ski and was always such an inspiring, cheerful face in the Valley. I am glad I had a nice long chat with him while picking up my season pass application at the Waitsfield Ski and Skate sale. But I didn't get out on the snow with him this year - I only had one other brief conversation with him in the ski shop... Our family will miss him.

I was pretty low coming home from my otherwise wonderful ski - listened to Moondog's "Bird's Lamment" twice in a row with the tiptronic on and picked up Hazel. I didn't say anything to her about Guy so I thought it was sweet she insisted we go out for a ski when we got home. It appears the ski bug has jumped into her rosy cheeks out here in a star lit snowy Vermont field, her head lamp forging ahead through the darkness.

Killington Stage Race 2010 is on!

Just saw race director Gary Kessler at Ole's - the race is on:
http://www.killingtonstagerace.com/index.php
Still no sign I will get a job out of the gig....

The boy who rode to Perham and back

..is in.
Kent "Mountain Turtle" Peterson  is in for TD2010.

http://kentsbike.blogspot.com/2009/06/i-dont-know-whats-wrong-with-me.html

plus:
"While I am going to be ramping up my training in March and yeah, I'm spending the month of June racing the Divide, .... First off, it will take a lot of prep, a ton of luck and something of a miracle for this old guy to crack Chris Plesko's amazing 19:00:21 record for the 2741 mile course. My old record of 22 days and change was for the 2500 mile border to border route. Jake makes it sound like I'm just going to ride up and take the record back. I'm going to ride like heck (at a persistent, old turtle pace) to see if I can do it, but it's by no means a forgone conclusion. I'm racing to find out if I can do it."

Says it all... much better blogger than me.  27 comments and followers galore.

51 years old and aiming to win and break the SS record!  Inspiring... maybe I can do the TD in 2015?

Go Kent!

Mr Lamb ride

Six gaps in one 222km day.
Moretown 1590 ft
Rochester 2109 ft
Brandon    2170 ft
Middlebury 2144 ft
Lincoln        2410 ft
App Gap     2365 ft
total: 12,000 feet?

plus the un-named:
Northfield Gulf
Granville Gulf
Baby Gap


I just got a nice note from Don Nolte about the 2009 MR LAMB ride. It was a fun day - the politics/business part of the ride soured things for me and kinda tainted the memory of what was a really cool thing to do. It was great to raise a chunk of money for the PTN and the Safe Routes to School program at Moretown Elementary. But when our project was delayed and nasty letters to the editor written... I threw up my hands and thought "why bother?" But hearing from Don made me look at the photos and re-think the whole thing. The Bolgers did a great job supporting the ride and the after party at Randy's house was excellent - especially with the deput of the Red Hen Pizza!  MR LAMB 2010 anybody?

Start at Moretown Elementary School

Rochester Gap (aka Bethel Gap) 2109 ft

                                                                       Brandon Gap

Middlebury Gap

Lincoln Gap

Appalachian Gap

Red Hen Pizza!

Biggest snowstorm in Vermont ever (that we missed)

33" in Burlington, 3.3" in Moretown

Hiked to top of Baldy with Annie and Martha plus dogs Posey and Oscar.
It was spectacular.  I am always disappointed how un-spectacular my Vermont photos are... esp compared to blogs out west.  But I assure you: it was spectacular.  In the link below is a view of the clouds dumping a record setting snowfall west of the the Green Mountains!
more photos here.

First place woman

Suzanne M Marcoe

"This summer I plan on becoming unemployed and catching up on all the mountain biking that I have been missing out on in recent years. I think 2745 miles should probably cover it, so I will be lining up under Mt Rundle on June 11th. It’s time to leave behind the mind (and soul) numbing boredom of the 9-5. See you in Banff."

 

 

 

Hard to tell with Suzanne... she comes right out and says she has been missing out on mountain biking in recent years.  That works for me... and certainly her unemployed angle might work for me!  ( at least for a little while) Not much to report otherwise.  This could be her ... looks a bit young for a long distance rider:

another short track rider!

"It's a friendly, no drop ride, right?"

About  Brian De Groodt





Brian De Groodt - makes it easy for me: nice website!  Very funny letter of intent - I'd say he is already in the lead of contenders, certainly on the LOI podium.  BUT what the heck went down at Leadville last year??!!  Interesting.  Very interesting.  Demons and baggage and witches.  Did he learn his lesson?   Sounds like he'd be fun to ride with anyway.

Damn hard to see all these people signing on while I have to sit on my hands.

Once in a blue moon ski

skiing under the big blue moon at Ole's.

dark - but bright enough to ski.

Tour Divide or Tour Denied?

Asked the big boss about taking time off to race the Tour Divide.  He said it was a lot of time at a busy time of year... isn't looking good for me.  He said he would have to present the idea "upstairs."    Damn ...  I know I can meet my quota's and have Doug cover emergencies.  Chance of there being a radiological dirty bomb in Vermont those 4 weeks are about as likely as me setting a new record for the Tour Divide.  And if I did that I would only need 2 1/2 weeks off anyway!  22 years of working every deer season, every sugaring season, every winter spreading ban first week, every January thaw.. and don't forget the army worm invasion!

I guess I should start shopping around for another event.... suggestions?

Tour Divide Contender or Pretender?

Who is competition and who is dreaming large?  Where do I stand among the others.  What do I look like to other racers?  Who is qualified and who has trained?  What is enough experience and how much is enough training?   Who is sitting in front of the computer dreaming and who is out riding in the snow? Beside those who have completed this race - who can say they can do it - and then pull it off?




It is really hard to guess who is going to make it and who more in love with the idea than the riding.  I always wonder if this might be me ... but I do love riding... and I have always loved riding.  My camping skill are rusty - but with a little help fro DaveB I have come a long way!  I did spend a whole summer working for the ATC/ AMC as a ridge runner - caretaker.  I did ride 1200k of the Paris Brest Paris in 73:50 and a 600k in <27hrs.  I spent six nights out last season out bikepacking  - I did the 6 Gap MR LAMB ride last year and did plenty of dirt road exploring.  I won the Millstone SS open age (pretty good for a 46 yr old racing against plenty of 20 and 30 somethings)  And I have always loved the VT50.


Then there are the counts against me:  last season was the first time I ever rode my mtn bike over 100 miles in one day.  I still suffered from the effects of my concussion from the 2008 Vt 50.  I broke my arm in April and it still doesn't quite straighten out.  I am starting to build strength in it again - but it is far from where  it was.  I rode on it 24hrs in the NE fleche  - six weeks after the break ( thanks Charles and Three Moons Accupuncture) Work is being uncooperative with time off.  It costs money to get there and back.  I am old! - yeah - years of crashing are adding up.

These quotes from bikepacking interest me:

"Preparation – with time constraints (work & family) I rarely rode more than 10-12 hours per week but mostly at higher intensities. Riding long distance at steady pace is easy no? I only did a couple of long weekends in the lead up to TD. Better to arrive in Banff strong and healthy than tired / stressed from trying to fit too much into your busy life. But follow Jay’s advice – you have to decide what will work for you."  Fettis (?)

"And now some inspiration for rcktfanatic; you can absolutely ride TD on seven (now almost six) months preparation. Of course your goals, and reality, have to mesh. See caveats above. But it can be done. In '08 I rode TD on less than 650 miles of training in the six months leading up to the race. Life, a monstrous winter, and a lack of motivation to ride the windtrainer conspired to deliver me to Banff in pathetic shape.  Since I knew I wasn't going to be setting the course on fire, my mantra became "I'll take whatever the gods and my body give me." I ended up turning in a semi respectable sub 24 day finish.."  Leighton White  

Of course Leighton White's day job is a professional firefighter ( and the real kind - not like me only responding to dirty bombs and other radiological incidents.)

So I blog on scoping out the competition.  Please provide me with more details on yourself if someone actually reads this and I got yer info wrong!  Or I can just shutup all together if my google-stalking you creeps you out too much!

Latest addition:

"Hi my name is Phillip Fogg,
I'm an ex Pat. living in germany. Came over here during the cold war(1987), met a girl, fell in love and well, I'm still here!
I started biking when I was a kid, around 1970. At nine my first bmx bike. At 16 I got my first motorcycle and bicycling took a back seat for a few years. In 1996 I bought a used Rockhopper and from then on I've never looked back. I've done numerous endurance races here in Germany.
As far as Bikepacking goes, I'm a greenhorn, never done it but I'm so intrigued by it that I'm collecting gear and getting ready for my first trip.
You all will think I'm nuts but I'm planning on doing the Tour Divide next year.  So I will be asking alot of questions about gear, training and othe TDR related stuff. "

A greenhorn and this will be his first bikepacking trip!  But coming all the way from Europe: ten points! Grüß Gott Phillip!

Merry $3 XMass

Ole's 7 km ski map

The 10 km open at Ole's (really 7 km)

I guess the reason why I could do 10km in 45 min so easily was that it was really only 7 km that I was skiing.  I got suspicious when I did this entire loop in 30 min (including two ski dismounts and avoiding a couple of bare spots) 


It was nice to get to Ole's with the sun shining!  But it didn't last long...  days still short here.

Latest Tour Divide racer:
Christian Vedder
41 years old
This guy probably serious contender.
raced in Portland, OR short track MTB in '08 (maybe that's a strike against him)
Also finished about a third of the way back in the 40+ category in TransRockies '08
won Grand Columbian  (Oregon) Ironman tri in 2004    11:10  That is a big effort in race mode.
His LOI is short but to the point: "I need to suffer. I'm in!!" At least he's not likely to talk your ear off....
Is this Christian Vedder?  Looks vaguely familiar........