One month out!!!
That’s it, we’re doing this thing!
Turns into…
No need to worry, we’ve got plenty of time, its 8 months away.
Turns into…
It’ll never get here.
Turns into…
Holy shit! We only have a month left to prepare!!
Truth be told, we’re a few days outside the month-to-go mark, but just a few!
Our ride is scheduled to start on the 10th of June 2026, a couple of day prior to the “Grand Depart” of Tour Divide racers. We decided on this strategy for a couple of reasons. The first is that the “Grand Depart” is no longer so grand.
Riders now are sent out in waves of 20 or so. Starting order is decided by a riders estimated finish time, as decided by the rider themselves. Having started in 2023 with the grand depart, I noted a few flaws with the wave start. One is that a LARGE number of riders/racers wildly underestimate their finishing time, or wildly overestimate their ability! I saw riders on, literally, Huffy bikes, having stated they could finish the divide in 18 days. I’m not in any way disparaging a Huffy, but the odds of that prediction coming true, while a non-zero number, is REALLY close to zero. But there they were, lining up and departing two hours before me, with my hoped for finish time of 28 days. At least 100 riders were sent out before I left, I believe at 0945.
Now one could say that I should be able to overtake many of the “Huffy” class riders, and I did, but that still left me with many, many slower riders in front of me. These riders/racers, at least the mortal ones, are all competing for and securing resources and lodging/campsites well before I arrive at their locations. It makes the event just that much tougher.
So it was, with this in mind, that Luke and I decided on skipping the semi-grand depart, and heading out two days prior to it. This also allows us to make a very early morning depart, say 0500, rather than an 0800-10000 depart. this may not seem like a lot, but with the daylight in the northern reaches of the course coming at 0430 or so, this gives us an additional 3-5 hours of daylight riding. That makes a huge difference! Those 3-5 hours give us a reasonable chance of getting over Koko Claims (a notoriously horrible hike-a-bike) on the first day and much farther along towards the first real re-supply in Fernie either late in day one, or the morning of day 2. Just that is a really big deal as we start out the Tour Divide.
Shane looking especially resplendent on Koko Claims in 2023.
But that’s enough of looking towards the future.
Now, it’s back to our regularly schedule training….
Atop Dripping Springs
As we are truly one month out from our departure from Las Cruces, NM towards Banff, Alberta Canada, what does our training look like right now?
Climbing and more climbing is the answer.
Luke and I are spending almost every afternoon climbing either Soledad Canyon or Dripping Springs. This is “only” a 2000’ climb once you include our daily grind up the Angry Kitten singletrack (The as of yet unnamed connector singletrack behind Tortugas mountain, but we’ll always call it Angry Kitten) towards the decision of what climb we’ll do for the day. On the hot days, it’s Dripping Springs to the visitor’s center because they have a water fountain there. On the cooler days, we opt for Soledad Canyon.
Both climbs are a grind, and prepare us well, though not entirely, for the Tour Divide climbs. But why not entirely?
Having started the TD twice, it is my opinion that NOTHING prepares you for multiple consecutive 15 hour/8000’ climbing days. You can’t replicate it fully and have a life outside of riding. Additionally, putting that stress on your body for weeks leading up to the race/ride is simply dumb, IMO.
The best you can do is gain strength and fitness and nothing does that better than climbing, again IMO. So climbing it is.
We are also looking at completing a fairly long bikepacking trip, say 50-75 miles a day for a few days, in mid May.
Two future TD rider in Indio, CA
After that, it’s re-fit the bikes with new drivetrains and brakes, get some miles in on the new setup, and keep preparing mentally for the ride.
I continue to believe the mental part is the toughest task of the Divide. More on that in the next installment.
Until next time.
Ride On!
Shane
