2024 Tour Divide Debrief: Days 7-8

As of this writing on Saturday morning, somewhere on the order of eight days, or 190 hours since the start of the Tour Divide in Banff, the leading man, Justinas Leveika has covered some 1,670 miles. According to his Trackleader’s history, he’s been moving 148 hours during that time period, which leaves approximately 42 hours for sleeping, eating, doing bike maintenance, and general faffing. As dot watchers, in those eight days, most of us have gone to work for probably six of them. We’ve eaten somewhere on the order of 24 meals, and slept about 64 hours. We’ve most likely gone out with friends, spent time with our families, maybe watched a Netflix show or two, and carried on with our normal lives, whatever they may entail.

Meanwhile, the riders, who are now stretched from Silverthorne, Colorado back to Whitefish, Montana have done nothing besides focus on moving their bikes and bodies forward as fast as they can, regardless of the time of day or weather. Most of them will have probably seen bears, maybe a moose. A vast majority will have eaten a lot of really bad gas-station food, including frozen burritos, french fries, and more candy than they will ever admit to their dentists. I suspect there has been a lot of coffee consumed. But regardless, every moment of every day is focused on forward motion.

As spectators to this event, we may tune in a handful of times a day (if you’re refreshing more than that, you may want to seek help… I hear Dot Watchers Anonymous is a great support group), the riders are having a lifetime of experiences during every 24-hour period. And while all we see is a line of dots moving down the spine of a mountain range, they are having countless unique experiences and making endless decisions in every moment that could make or break their races.

And the leaders are only a bit over halfway through.

Women’s Race

Two nights ago, Hackinen camped at Flagg Ranch in Yellowstone and had a solid six-hour stop. She arrived there fairly late and didn’t get moving again until nearly 7 a.m. Meanwhile, Ana Jager, ever consistent, had stopped at Mack’s Inn at Island Park, about 80 miles back. While up until this point, the paces of the two women seemed fairly similar, Jager seemed to pick up the speed a bit over the course of the day, which included the mosquito-infested ride from Idaho into Wyoming, the tourist-clogged paved road ride from Flagg Ranch south toward Jackson, the bear-inhabited climb up to Togwotee Pass and descent to Brooks Lake, and then the hike-a-bike over Union Pass to the cowboy-infused town of Pinedale. It’s a section of the route that travels through several seemingly distinct areas, each with its own challenges. But nearly every bit of it is visually stunning.

After leaving Flagg Ranch, Hackinen hopefully enjoyed some relatively quiet miles on pavement before the summer Yellowstone and Teton National Park tourists woke up. She posted photos of blue skies as she made her way toward and over Togwotee Pass. Of all the places on the route, the descent down to Brooks Lake can have the worst peanut butter mud of all.

Several years back, during a particularly atrocious weather year, riders started detouring around the section, calling it “impassable” and taking the highway instead of the dirt road descent. This was the start of Trackleaders turning dots of people who’d detoured off the route yellow and calling them Alternaters — the yellow color a play on the thru-hiker term of “yellow blazers,” or people who would leave a long trail hike (like on the Appalachian, Colorado, or Pacific Crest Trails) and walk the road around a difficult section instead, following the yellow blazes of road stripes instead of the white blazes on trees that mark the trail.

Hackinen stopped at Lava Mountain Lodge for an all-you-can-eat buffet for $10, a true gem of a find on the Tour Divide route. In an Instagram post she made there, she said, “I’m starting to feel a bit out of breath by the high elevation, so I’m focusing on being more consistent and taking a few more breaks.” The Canadian lives in Kelowna, British Columbia at an elevation of about 1,100 feet, so the 9,600-foot Togwotee Pass probably felt reasonably high.

She continues in her day’s recap, “Today, just trying to ride really steady and not push it too hard because it’s really high, man. The last pass was almost 3,000 meters. I’m just trying to keep moving forward without putting my body under too much stress, if that is possible.” She laughs at the absurdity of the last statement.

She seems to have stuck to her plan, as she made short work of Union Pass and made it to Pinedale around midnight. She left just shy of 7 a.m., another solid stop with sleep banked.

The field seemed to have another reasonably good weather morning on Friday, right up until the afternoon thunderstorms hit. Unfortunately for Hackinen, the storms arrived just as she prepared to leave Atlantic City and tackle the Great Basin. And anyone who has been out there in the Great Nothing that is the Basin will tell you: it is the absolute last place you want to be during a thunderstorm, both due to mud and exposure to lightning.

So with clouds building, followed by rain coming down, Hackinen chose to stop for a rest from 2:30 p.m. to nearly 7 p.m. to let the storms pass before heading out in the evening. In an Instagram post, she says, “I’m going to hold tight, get something to eat, and see if I can find a place to shelter and maybe sleep a bit, because it’s not good riding weather.” This stop has allowed the Lael Wilcox record dot to get ahead of the MH dot, but it didn’t stay there for long. By morning, Hackinen was back ahead of record pace and closing on in Wamsutter.

Behind her, Jager continued to hold the gap, and perhaps even shrink it. It appears that she made it through Yellowstone and Togwotee Pass and spent the night near or at Lava Mountain Lodge before starting her morning with the climb up and over Union Pass. Hackinen’s mid-day stop in Atlantic City allowed the gap between the two women to close significantly. Jager, after arriving to Atlantic City around 11:30 p.m. decided to bed down for a long sleep, and as of 6:45 a.m. hasn’t restarted.

Trailing the leaders, Marie-Soleil Blais is cranking after being slowed by bike issues early in the race. We can’t forget that she’s raced on the road professionally and has a huge aerobic engine with which to power the bike. While the 300+ mile gap up to first seems insurmountable now, all it takes is one storm or bit of bad luck to bring even gaps that big down to something that can create an exciting situation.

Men’s Race

With Lauren Ten Dam’s tire debacle outside of Jackson, the front end of the men’s race had turned into a two-man showdown between Justinas Leveika and Ulrich Barthomoes. Both riders still hold a significant lead on the Mike Hall record dot, as well as the rest of the field.

Leveika continues with his erratic sleep schedule and clearly felt the pull of Brush Mountain Lodge strongly last night. So strong, in fact, that he rode all night to get there, arriving at the Tour Divide haven around 5:15 a.m. and was surely greeted by a giant hug from Kirsten Dirksen and fed a giant breakfast made with more love than you could ever imagine going into a set of pancakes.

Leveika finaly departed the vortex that is Brush Mountain just shy of 10 a.m. It’s a difficult place to leave. Back during the 2012 Tour Divide, this author had maybe the best shot of whiskey in her life during her pass-through and would have gladly stayed if she wasn’t in a 2,700-mile hurry. Leveika’s timing was impeccable as Barthlomoes, who’d slept in Wamsutter the night before, rolled around the corner to Brush Mountain less than an hour later.

In his Instagram stories, Barthlomoes reports no mud through the basin, but a headwind. And he also reports that the infamous port-o-potty that he shared with Leveika and Jens Van Roost last year while stuck in the mud is no longer there.

After a brief stop at Brush Mountain, he was off to chase, the gap now down to less than 30 miles.

Behind him, Ten Dam seemed to be having a rough time in the basin. In an Instagram story, he says, “Blisters on my hands, I have a wound on my ass, I also feel every stone in my Achilles heels and my wrists.” He then follows up with, “I’m almost ready to lay down right here.”

His spirits were saved when a bystander in a truck offered him a sandwich. Advice I’ve often offered to bikepackers consists of, “You can’t change the weather, but you can change your attitude. And if you can’t change your attitude, you probably need a snack.”

It seemed to have worked for Ten Dam who resumed his strong pace post-sandwich.

Further back, Tomas Fabian continues his march in fourth place, and according to photographer Eddie Clark, got absolutely hammered by an electrical storm during his early hours in the Great Basin. Bad timing, for sure.

In front, Leveika pushed through Steamboat, crossed the Colorado River at Radium, and made it to Silverthorn around 2:30 a.m. For the next bit, he’ll get to enjoy the trappings of touristy Colorado, complete with plenty of food choices, bike shops, and other services.

It appears Bartholmoes, somewhat surprisingly, detoured into Kremmling for about a four-hour stop. Kremling is far enough off the route that most skip it unless they are out of food, as there’s not much there in terms of bike services. He now is a full mountain pass, and about 30 miles, behind Leveika.

Ten Dam got properly stuck in the Brush Mountain Lodge vortex overnight, arriving at 8 p.m. and hasn’t left as of 7 a.m. Hopefully he’s getting some proper TLC from the crew there.

Singlespeed Race

Oh, how we love the single speeders. Not only do they voluntarily choose to ride across the country with a single gear, they have some of the best shoe choices out there, including Jake Colantonio’s Crocs and Alex Kowalski’s sandals. Meanwhile, Johnny Price made the last-minute decision to run clips instead of flats on the suggestion of Andrew Strempke, a single-speed Triple Crown finisher from last year. In fact, Price’s shoes come directly from Strempke, who somehow acquired them at the end of the AZT800 last year when a racer had bought them in Flagstaff and ridden in them to the finish but then didn’t want them anymore. The details are fuzzy, but the shoes, which I believe are a size 14 or something similarly big, have a story and history. Surely they’re bringing Price good vibes.

After having a bit of a slower start to the morning in Lima, Kowalski, Price, and Zachary Del Greco took off toward Red Rock Pass and Idaho. Kowalski and Price left first, with Del Greco following about an hour behind. The lead pair rode the morning together before Kowalski pulled away later in the afternoon after passing through Island Park. Kowalski rode until 12:45 a.m., making it to Flagg Ranch. Del Greco and Price came in together around 3 a.m.

Kowalski then got about a two-hour jump on the pair in the morning, leaving at 5 a.m., and seemed to open the gap gradually over the course of the day as he made his way over Togwotee Pass and Union Passes.

But as is the theme for this single-speed race, all three came back together in Pinedale, with Kowalski arriving at 8 p.m., followed by Price two hours later, and then Del Greco at 12:30 a.m.

Colantonio stopped somewhere in the Union Pass area for the night.

Check out the 2024 Tour Divide Tracker page to follow along on the live tracking map, find our Rigs of the Tour Divide roundups, and stay tuned in for more event coverage. Find it here.

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