Great Divide Route and Race

Getting hooked

I read the Adventure Cycling Newsletter and found a reference to the Great Divide Route and Race. Then I searched some more and found Matthew Lee's blog. After I had seen his photos, I was hooked.

Getting started

Plans are firming up and I started to get ready. First question was what kind of a bike I could ride. Given the fact that I never owned a mountain bike and my interest in long-distance cyclocross, I felt compelled to ride my cyclocross machine (Felt F1X). The route is mostly forest and gravel roads plus a good chunk of pavement. But the question which remained was, would I make over the mountains with all the gear on a 34/27 gear ratio?

The Adventure Cycling include elevation charts for the route, but not details on the grade levels.

So I started to have a closer look at what seem to be the harder climbs using DeLormo Maps. As usual I hit the limitations of DeLormo maps and could not map all of the climbs, specifically the ones from the first and second day are missing.

Shopping spree and training rides

I went shopping: tent, sleeping bag, touring tires, paniers, ..., and bear spray. When I asked at REI, "I have a weired question, I need bear spray", the dude just took me to the Bear Section. And there it was all the bear stuff: bear spray, bear bell, bear whatever.

I started to do longer rides with some gear strapped on the my bike. Communiting to the office is not a bad ride: 70km each way with some hills and rollers and usually plenty of head wind on the way home.

Post mortem

I thought I would be fine on my crosser, but Usal Rd taught me differently. 5000 feet of elevation gain distributed over several climbs with 10% average and ramps well above the average turned out to be pushing the limit. It would have been ok for a day ride and and without the 20 pound gear, but so it wear me out. Also the steep downhills turned out be slow and painful.

So I decided to bite the bullet and buy my first mountain bike. After some research and feedback on the GDR forum, a 29" hardtail with mechanical disk breaks seems to be the instrument of choice. Gary Fisher's X Caliber seems to be a good candidate. Let's see what Chris from Roaring Mouse Cycles got to say.

New bike, more things to worry about

As of yesterday I'm a proud owner of an X-Caliber. Yesterday, I took her out here out for a spin in the dirt in Arastradero Park - my cyclocross playground: I didn't do much better when climbing up the tight single-track hairpins, downhill was so much more comfy, but I never got into a racing mood - the seat position seems to be plush to really ride hard. But sprint won't be an issue at the GDR I suppose.

Today Dorit and I went out for a city ride to the Golden Gate Bridge. I was somewhat pleasantly surprised about the rolling resistance of the fat tires, but I'm still considering to put on the 700 x 35c Schwalbe Marathon XT. Still got a few weeks to finalize the set-up.

I tried to put on the rack I had on the cyclocross bike and of course it didn't fit due to the disk brakes. So I had to order a new one. Just hope this will be working out.

I also got a good tip for handle bar mounts for extra bottle cages made by Minoura and ordered a couple of BH 60.

Departure

The bike is packed and everything else, too. System weight 117 kg (around 259 pounds).I'm anxious to go!