Italy Divide.

[morbihan]

Wot a classic.
 All the hallmarks of TDF circa 1910. It just needs Sofiane to bellow Assassins! at the media car at the top of the last climb.

[psyclist]

James is 2.5km behind Sofiane. Been closing the gap over the past couple of hours, slowly. Feels like they'll be pushing on through to the finish now, but it'll get dark before the summit of the final climb. Hopefully the path is clear.

[JonBuoy]

It is about 10k to the top of the climb and they have over an hour before sunset.  The descent might get a bit murky.  Local webcams show a bit of snow on the tops but it doesn't look as bad as the previous lump.  It looks like James is catching Sofiane and is now about 10 minutes behind him.  Exciting stuff!

[quixoticgeek]

Just over 30km to go for Sofiane. James' tracker is showing him stopped, but in a weird location. His tracker has been quite erratic in it's updates, so it may be that it's just not had updates in the last 30 minutes, or it could really be that he has stopped. Once they get into the clear of the descent, it's going to be an interesting sprint finish. Can't be more than 2-3 hours of this left!

J

[Phil W]

James' tracker now updated.  I'd say there is about 700 metres between James and Sofiane. They are both moving at walking place.

[mattc]

They are both moving at walking place.

Is it possible you guys have misread the parcours, and in fact this may finish with a bike-pushing sprint??

[quixoticgeek]

https://twitter.com/JamesMarkHayden/status/1122933460451110919

"We finish together. Respect. #italydivide https://t.co/2Wb8GJsRvi"

He's caught Sofiane. They are going to finish together.

J

[psyclist]

I wondered what was happening, James’s tracker hasn’t updated for a while.

After all that has gone on over the past few days, much respect for that call.

[quixoticgeek]

They seem to be off course tho on the latest reading, with just 2km to go!

J

[quixoticgeek]

Bouncing dot! They've made it!

J

[psyclist]

Superb. What an exciting race to follow.

[JonBuoy]

Excellent!

I see that Levente Bagoly is still pressing on over the penultimate climb in third place.  There is a fair amount of snow on the ground, it is dark, it is 1degC and there is a 30kph wind blowing.  Rather him than me.

[Phil W]

Excellent stuff.  Third placed guy really depends how he is equipped. I see Sifiane had a duvet of some sort on hence ability to jeep climbing high in the cold and snow.

[Phil W]

[cygnet]

And from Sofiane:

https://twitter.com/TheUltraBiker/status/1123280561190125569

[paddyirish]

James' blog is a great read- starts here

[morbihan]

this Years event pushed back to later in the year for obvious reasons.

[psyclist]

this Years event pushed back to later in the year for obvious reasons.

Indeed, I was waiting for this news as it seemed inevitable. Unfortunately I cannot make the new date as it clashes with the French Divide, so I’ll be opting to ride the Italy Divide next year.

It must be hard for the organisers, but at least they now have a new date to work to.

I have a pre-paid room in Pompeii for 30th April if anybody is travelling that way ... suspect nobody will snap that one up!

[rob]

this Years event pushed back to later in the year for obvious reasons.

Indeed, I was waiting for this news as it seemed inevitable. Unfortunately I cannot make the new date as it clashes with the French Divide, so I’ll be opting to ride the Italy Divide next year.

It must be hard for the organisers, but at least they now have a new date to work to.

I have a pre-paid room in Pompeii for 30th April if anybody is travelling that way ... suspect nobody will snap that one up!

Sorry to hear that, but I think you were expecting it.