Notes from the start

On the evening of the first day, Kent is pretty much right in the middle of the pack, which is exactly what he expected. He was very eager to start. There's a lot of climbing in the first/new/Canadian section. (The entire route is 200,000 feet of climbing.)

I do want to remind everyone that Kent is on a single speed. Even if he's as successful as he hopes, he's not going to ever be in the lead on the leader board. I'm going to work on finding a list of single speed racers so we can set up a leader board of just those people. Meanwhile, keep an eye on him in the middle of the pack.

On the Tour Divide blog (see left hand side of the blog) they are posting as podcasts the calls in from the field. (They will not be transcribing them this year.) I'll post a permalink on this blog when Kent calls in, as Christine said, that's probably not going to be tonight.

Last night on the initial general TD podcast they had an alert about the SPOT trackers, they said that, while they are VERY accurate when on, they have an unfortunate habit of turning themselves off. So don't worry if they don't post for a few hours -- or longer than you think he should be sleeping.

Kent has ridden over 130 hard miles today. I got 24 in the city.

Hasten Slowly.

Mark