It was a pleasure to hear from Lindsay about his personal story in undertaking the world’s toughest mountain bike event. The ultra-endurance event over 4,000km “Tour Divide” leaves from Banf in Canada and traverses the great divide to finish at the New Mexico border. This unofficial race is strictly self-supported, meaning riders must carry all their own gear and supplies and are not allowed to have a support crew.
Lindsay told us the first few nights were spent under cover to try and avoid visits from bears! Over the course of the event, he managed to ride over 200km and climb an average of 3,500 metres each day, completing the course in just over 20 days. He told us planning where to stay each night was challenging because he would need to make bookings (camp sites or other) before lunch without really knowing how hard the terrain might be or what the weather would throw at you on the 8 hours of riding or more ahead.
Lindsay said he was fortunate to meet up with a group of competitors (who have become great friends) along the way. This enabled him to finish at the same destinations each day and they could share some facilities in some instances. Lindsay was adamant that this helped him enormously in what was a very challenging physical and at times emotional journey.
Whilst of the tour Lindsay needed to consume 12,000 calories a day so was constantly on the lookout for food and prepared to eat anything! If he missed meals or sleep, then the riding performance would drop significantly. On completion he had lost ½ kg of weight on average each day of the tour. Remarkably during the 4000+ kms he had no punctures and never needed to reinflate his tyres! Congratulations! Epic adventure
