Border Crossing, Softballs and Frozen Pizza

Click the slideshow to hear Justin's first "official” call-in from Columbia Falls, MT, Sunday night! Justin rode a couple hundred miles of the Great Divide on a vacation last year, so I had photos of what he's likely seen during this year's race.



Today—all day—I checked, rechecked and triple-checked Justin’s place in the race via the Leaderboard. And all day his dot hovered just above Creston, MT. I pondered. I panicked. I placed an unnecessary call that went straight to voicemail—and left a message (hindsight is 20/20). After a ten hour gap, his dot jumped significantly. What a suspenseful start to the week!

According to his recently updated map, Justin made it to Seeley Lake, MT, where it’s currently 57 degrees and cloudy—a brief respite from the storms that pummeled the racers on the first few days and will continue to do so for a while. The Tour Divide blog says Seeley Lake offers hotels, eateries—even a laundromat! But will he use it? ;)

Just ahead, Justin faces a 26-mile rolling dirt road, flat sections through pasture-land, and a long climb over Huckleberry Pass. He’ll descend into Lincoln (mile 521).

Check out this Day 2 race animation from Topofusion. Makes it look like everyone's riding together:

Tour Divide Replay Day 2 from Scott Morris on Vimeo.

Race briefs:
-Matthew Lee, has a 5-hour lead over the chase group. He skipped stopping at Seeley Lake to resupply because it was slightly off-route. Instead, he stocked up 26 miles later in Ovando.

-Swan River (mile 354), a resupply point, was found burned down.

-John Nobile has been slowed down by intense knee pain.

-Kevin Hall crashed, trashed his bike and will not continue on.

-Bruce Giroux got sidetracked, went off route and will need to backtrack to complete the race.

That’s all for now. Hopefully, Justin’s SPOT will go back to tracking him every half hour instead of every half a day. Oh, and for those who haven’t already, check out the TD blog for all things Divide. Kevin Montgomery took this year off from the Tour Divide and is doing a stand-up job coverig the 2009 race.