Tour Divide 2016 - To Banff and The Rig

I seriously wanted to make a blog entry before leaving for Calgary/Banff.  Time.  Just not enough of it in those final days.

Compared to 2011 and 2014, gear-wise I was not as prepared as I would have preferred.  I decided on my old shoes since I never found anything that really fit well.  I put the best of the bad in my box to Steamboat in case I was hating life.  I'm also not fond of the changes Specialized has made to their helmets.  They now have a fixed piece under the ear that on me, hangs to my chin.  But it's what I have.
At the end of this entry, I'll do a final gear list.

This time I booked a direct flight from Houston.  In 2014, I think it was changing flights from Austin to Houston where my bike was so terribly damaged.  I also thought that making the baggage handlers smile might go in my favor.

Really is such a scary thing handing over the bike

A blissfully uneventful flight, the bike box arrived safely and we both made our connection on the last shuttle to Banff.  

I made a reservation at the Banff YMCA, the hub of Tour Divide activity and where the majority of the riders stay.  To save money, I stayed in the women's dorm for 2 nights and was super surprised that I had it to myself both nights.  I moved into a solo room the night before the race so I could panic in private.  

Morning 1 in Banff is bike build day.  But first, breakfast at Melissa's Missteak; a fave.  I'd made friends on the shuttle with Tim from Michigan, Terry from England, and Nelson from New Hampshire.  We all had breakfast together.  During breakfast, Hal Russel from Missouri came in with his wife.  I'd wanted to meet him - he's like a 3 time vet and a super nice guy.  

On to the build.  I am not a mechanic.  But I paid attention to what I'd need to put the bike back together after having been very well packed by Bicycle Sport Shop in Austin.  I put real tools in the box and was grateful for the forethought.  Only having my small multi-tool would have worked but would have been a pain. 

Once done, Terry, Tim and I took our bikes out for a spin.  The race starts from Banff along the Bow river and we were just going a few miles out to the 1st bridge.  Good thing as Tim discovered a mechanical problem with his bike and would need to make an appointment with the shop in town. Oh, and now there is really just 1 shop and they were slammed with 100+ riders in town.

Test Ride #1

Thursday was another test ride (22 miles) but with the full rig, food and water I'd start with.  Bike weighs about 49lbs with this load for those interested.  No issues with the bike or rigging.  The GPS was another matter.  And not just me.  Several people using the Etrex (20, 30, 30x) were having the same problem of the unit freezing when trying to navigate the track.  This is not something that could have been tested at home.  I looked at the track and verified it was all there while in Texas and just assumed things would work as usual.

It is a super long story with a complicated backup plan being executed from home - Jeff got my .gpx off my laptop and put it in the cloud.  SheilaT grabbed it and divided it up into smaller tracks thinking the unit was overwhelmed. (note: the Etrex can accept a 10k point file and that is what was loaded).  Sheila then put those back up to the cloud.  I was going to go the library, attach my gps to the internet and reload.    I ran into Josh Kato who had the same unit and said he'd not even turned his on yet so walked through it then.  He began navigation differently than I did.  So on my unit, I imitated the steps he had done and it turns out, the unit thought I was already navigating the track and asking it to do so again was too much.  Fair enough.  Lesson learned.  So the 1st time it is told to navigate, it does take quite some time to load up.  But after that it was fine.  I never told it to navigate again.  I just turned it off each night and in the morning it started up where I left off. 

Jared from Como?

Me and Terry not attending the race meeting in the next room.  There will be bears......

The Rig

Naked in Banff

My bike is new for 2016; a 2015 Salsa Fargo Ti (the last of their inventory) size sm.

Firestarter carbon fork

Woodchipper bars

SRAM 2x10  28-42drivetrain, shifters came stock but I replace the cranks/rings with a RaceFace Next 24-38.  

Wheels: Stans NoTubes Arch, DTSwiss rear hub, SON Dynamo front 

Tires: Specalized Fast Tracks

Pedals : Time Attach carbon/Ti 

Syntace Aero bars

Stem Captain compass

Salsa Ti seatpost and Fizik saddle 

Bags: 2011 Revelate seat bag, 2011 Revelate harness refurbished by them this year, 2011 Revelate Feed bag, 2016 Boulder Bags gas tank with electronics port, 2014 Revelate Jerry Can, 2016 Revelate production frame bag for Fargo, 2016 Front pocket (though my 2011 pocket bag is in good condition, the new design adds side mesh pockets that the bear spray fit well in), 2016 Bedrock bag fold down stem bag.  

Sleep kit: Western Mountaineering Summerlite bag, Inertia X-Lite pad, REI Minimalist bivy, REI inflatable pillow, Sea to Summit 2L drybag, underwear, yoga bra, fleece hat, light wool socks.  Daily med kit also traveled in the sleep kit. 

Repair kit: don't want to list it all, but is as you would expect.  I did carry some items in the frame bag such as cleaning, gorilla tape and my multi-tool handy in the frame bag.  The rest along with a spare tube and C02 was seat bag.  

Water: 34oz Platy bladder in the frame bag and 20oz bottle in the Feed bag.  A 24oz bottle on the fork that was used for treating water using tablets. I had the basic capacity of 5 liters + carried an empty Platy bottle in the seat back for longer dry sections like the Basin and NM. 

Electronics: KLite with Standlight powered by the SON hub.  A switch to toggle to a Sinewave USB attached to a LimeFuel cache battery.  Either my iPod or iPhone was charged from the cache.   Etrex 30x using AAs (and I traveled with a full cue set edited for my purposes).  

My kit:

Jersey, shorts x2, arm and leg warmers, sun sleeves

GoLite rain jacket, Patagonia rain pants

Smartwool short and long sleeve shirts

Patagonia Nanopuff vest

Headsweats beanie

Buff

3 pairs of gloves including wool liners + pair of dish gloves

Tyvek mailer to slide under my jersey that acts as a quick vest

Shoes - X-Alp Enduro III no longer made :(

Specalized helmet

EOS headlamp (AAA's)

Oakley glasses - progressive trifocal with transitions.  Cuz I'm old.  

Classic iPod

iPhone

Notes to me - forgot that seat bag is not waterproof.  An actual drybag is needed for clothing.  Shoes have to be replaced.  Use knickers until after Montana - pulling up knee warmers PIA.

#TourDivide2016