Records smashed - Tour Divide and Trans america

[mrcharly-YHT]

Mike hall has done it again, again.

He'd already broken the Tour Divide record, but because the course had been diverted around forest fires, the time wasn't official. So he's gone and done it again to make it official.

Meanwhile, Lael Wilcox has become the first American and first woman to win the trans america race (but not beating Mike's record).

http://bicycletimesmag.com/records-fall-in-two-cross-country-races-this-week/

[JonBuoy]

As I understand it Guy/Terry was doing the Individual Time Trial as opposed to Mike's Mass Start.  Guy/Terry started something like 3 days before Mike.

[andrew_s]

Terry/Guy's ITT time (18 days 6 hours) would have seen him finish 8th on the mass start event

[mrcharly-YHT]

That's impressive.

It further underscores how much Mike dominated the event: he finished in 13days 22hrs

[woollypigs]

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/jun/30/grizzly-bear-kills-cyclist-riding-forest-trail-in-montana

[marcusjb]

Truly horrific, but reading http://www.dailyinterlake.com/news/local_montana/grizzly-bear-kills-mountain-biker/article_89cd1f02-3e57-11e6-9318-63787aeb876e.html?mode=jqm not a TD rider by the sounds of it. But there are plenty of TD riders in the park currently. Hope they all stay safe. 

[Cudzoziemiec]

Mike hall has done it again, again.

He'd already broken the Tour Divide record, but because the course had been diverted around forest fires, the time wasn't official. So he's gone and done it again to make it official.

Meanwhile, Lael Wilcox has become the first American and first woman to win the trans america race (but not beating Mike's record).

http://bicycletimesmag.com/records-fall-in-two-cross-country-races-this-week/

Being the first woman to win the TransAm is more impressive but being the first American is more surprising!

[mrcharly-YHT]

Looking at the distances and times, I think Amanda Coker could wipe a fair bit off that.

She's regularly clocking up 220-240miles a day - Lael was hitting 235mile days to win the transam, sustaining it for 18 days. I think Amanda could beat that, she's a heck of a machine.

[marcusjb]

^ there's much more to ultraracing than just riding a lot of miles each day.

Whilst clearly she can ride a lot of miles, can she do the whole self-sufficiency thing, navigation etc.?  I am not saying she can not and I don't want to put a downer on your idea, but some people just wouldn't be able to handle something like TransAm even if they are a very talented long-distance rider.

[mrcharly-YHT]

She rode Florida to California, I think by herself, so yes, can do the navigation.

It's still a lot harder to do when hammering out the miles like you said.

[teethgrinder]

Amanda isn't doing anywhere near the climbing. So where Amanda is doing the daily mileage of the race leaders, she's not trashing herself or going without sleep to do so. Similar to myself last year. When I was after the Audax points in 2007, I was riding at about the same speed as I was last year, except that last year I wasn't riding over the Welsh mountains every other weekend.
I agree that Amanda would be a contender on paper. I understand that she doesn't want to ride on roads with traffic, probably because of her very bad accident 5 years ago has scared her off. I expect that she'll do the whole year in the park she is riding in. It seems to be working very well for her in many ways.

[Frank9755]

^ there's much more to ultraracing than just riding a lot of miles each day.

Whilst clearly she can ride a lot of miles, can she do the whole self-sufficiency thing, navigation etc.?  I am not saying she can not and I don't want to put a downer on your idea, but some people just wouldn't be able to handle something like TransAm even if they are a very talented long-distance rider.

Lael's ride was an amazing achievement.  One thing that took the edge off it was that she rode with the third placed rider for two weeks, so it was not truly a solo effort.  Would she have won without that?  I can't be sure.