2024 Tour Divide Debrief: Day 9-10

The major news of the past 48 hours has been the arrival of the Golden Spike moment, when the lead southbound rider crosses paths with the lead northbound rider. There have been several historic meetings out on route, including the arrival of southbound Mike Hall and northbound Cjell Monē of Monē bikes at Brush Mountain Lodge. Legend has it that Mone snuck a few good-sized rocks into Hall’s framebag while he wasn’t looking, and it took many miles for Hall to realize the extra weight on his bike. We can only assume that jokester Mone had a good laugh about it all.

In 2012, this author ran into Mone in the Great Basin. He was riding his singlespeed in his signature tank top, and with his wild eyes and wild hair, he seemed like more of a hallucination than an actual person. He is, in fact, a real person who builds some really beautiful bikes out of his shop in Silver City, New Mexico—right on the Tour Divide route.

This year’s Golden Spike moment occurred around 8:30 p.m. between southbound leader Justinas Leveika and northbound leader Mark Williams on Marshall Pass just south of Salida. At that time, Leveika was somewhere around mile 1,800 of the route. With about 900 miles to go and with a significant gap over the Mike Hall record dot, it seems, barring disaster, the men’s record from 2016 will be broken. It’s just a matter of by whom.

Men’s Race

Many people consider Colorado the easiest of the states on the Tour Divide route. While it has the high-altitude factor, complete with the course high-point, Indiana Pass at an elevation of 11,910 feet, Colorado generally has much more predictable weather than Montana, lacks the grizzly bears of the northern miles (but still has many black bears and mountain lions), gentler grades of climbs and descents, and maybe most importantly, a lot more services. Vegan and vegetarian riders who have suffered through the very non-vegan-friendly states of Montana, Idaho, and Wyoming can now find health-food stores galore. There are also abundant bike shops in Steamboat, Silverthorne, Breckenridge, and Salida for those who need a tire, brake pads, a chain refresh, or more serious bike work.

Leveika took a nearly four-hour break in Silverthorne, arriving around 2:30 a.m. before continuing down the bike path to Breckenridge and over Boreas Pass. He faced the singletrack descent of the Gold Dust Trail down to Como, one of the original singletrack additions to the Tour Divide route. He made quick work of the relatively flat lands to Hartsel and onto the big descent into Salida.

The night before, while Leveika was sleeping in and then departing Silverthorne, Ulrich Barthlmoes took an off-route stop in Kremmling for a four-hour sleep. In his Instagram post the following morning, he said, “What a contrast to last year when I tackled the passage to Silverthorne in the dark, utterly exhausted and sleep-deprived! This time, at sunrise, I discovered the breathtaking beauty of that stretch.” Ulrich seems to be enjoying his time through Colorado, going on to write, “After Silverthorne, I treated myself to an extended breakfast with delicious croissants and an abundance of cookies.”

From Silverthorne, Salida is just a half-day ride away, and most riders take a significant pause there as a mental reset. But not the leading two, who seem to have done a simple resupply and carried on. From Salida south, the route returns to feeling much more remote again as it winds over Marshall Pass (10,846 feet), down to the one-gas-station “town” of Sargents and then down through the Cochatopa Hills toward La Garita and eventually Del Norte, where riders face Indiana Pass, followed by La Manga Pass. At this point of time, they bid farewell to Colorado.

After leaving Salida, both Leveika and Ulrich Bartholmoes slept at Sargents, missing each other by a mere 30 minutes, with Leveika departing just after 1 a.m. and Barthlomoes arriving at 1:50 a.m. Barthlomoes stayed until 5:40 a.m., yet again taking a longer sleep than Leveika, a consistent pattern that has been repeated since the start of the race.

Leveika made it to Del Norte in quick fashion, arriving just before noon. Bartholmoes was a bit more than three hours back. Both stopped briefly before tacking the monster Indiana Pass. Leveika stopped for an extended break at the Platoro Lodge, known for its high-calorie food and site of Matthew Lee waxing on poetically in 2008 during the filming of Ride the Divide about how his life was about to change with the imminent birth of his son. Leveika stayed from about 6:45 p.m. until 10:30, spurred to movement by the arrival of Bartholmoes, who stayed until approximately 2 a.m.

By daybreak on Monday, Leveika had crossed over into New Mexico, and Bartholomoes was a mere 17 miles behind.

In third place, Laurens Ten Dam seems to be trailing Leveika by about 24 hours and nearly 90 miles. He finally got a pair of proper riding gloves after dealing with blisters on his hands and looks to have had a rough go in his Instagram stories. But the man is Dutch and hard as nails and continues on. It’s hard to imagine that anything Tour Divide can throw at him will match up to winter cycling and racing in the Netherlands, but it’ll be interesting to see how be thinks the two compare when all is said and done.

The race between fourth and eighth has been close all race between Cade Reichenberger, Tomas Fabian, Christian Dupraz, women’s leader Meaghan Hackinen, and Aidan Lampe. While the group of five had significant gaps between them coming through the Great Basin, they seemed to all come back together somewhere in Savery, potentially for ice cream. If you believe the Trackleaders race flow, it seems like they all rolled into Brush Mountain Lodge together, making for a busy and late night for Kirsten and crew.

Fabian made an early escape from the vortex, while it seems like everyone else stayed the night, with several of them departing together just before 6 a.m.

After another full day of riding, fourth through tenth all made it into Silverthorne for the night/morning, including Reichenberger, Fabian, Hackinen, Ian Dusome, Jager, Lampre, and Dupraz.

Women’s Race

At one point, the gap between current women’s leader Meaghan Hackinen and Ana Jager stretched nearly 100 miles. This would seem like an insurmountable gap in any race besides Tour Divide. But this is Tour Divide. And right now, 11 days in, we have a close women’s race on our hands.

After sleeping out in the Great Basin while Jager snoozed in Atlantic City, Hackinen made it to the interstate truck stop of Wamsutter, Wyoming, around 10 a.m. and looks to have taken a bit of an extended break there to regroup. For as rough of a place as Wamsutter feels on the surface, after riding across the Great Basin, it’s a welcome site in all of its truck stop glory to riders looking for a bit of shade and a meal.

Wamsutter is another unique bit of the Tour Divide route, as ACA’s Great Divide Mountain Bike Route keeps riders in the Great Basin for longer and sends them down south through Rawlins instead. But the roads south of Rawlins were being developed for more oil drilling and becoming increasingly unpleasant to ride. Race organizer Matthew Lee headed out to Wyoming in 2014 to scout the new route to try to keep riders away from oil rigs. While the new route misses the famous Aspen Alley, the site of many Eddie Clark photographs over the years, it’s realistically an overall improvement on the route since the loss of Rawlins isn’t really mourned by anyone—aside from those who made it into town for the all-you-can-eat Thai food buffet.

South of Wamsutter, Hackinen led a small group down to Savery and then the climb up to Brush Mountain Lodge, where she arrived just after 9 p.m. There’s no good time to arrive to Brush Mountain Lodge if you’re in a hurry but still want to soak up the atmosphere, though Hackinen seemed to make the most of the experience.

In an Instagram post the following day, she said of Brush Mountain Lodge, “It was like a dream come true. I got to meet so many awesome bikepackers like Alexandera Houchin and Katie Strempke.” But then the reality of trying to go fast hit, saying, “And then I had to go to sleep. I ate my pizza, and showered, and passed out.”

She left early at 4 a.m. the next morning to head to Steamboat, but while she slept, Jager also arrived at 2 a.m. It was the first time the two women had been in the same location since Lincoln, back in mid-Montana.

Hackinen took the opportunity in Steamboat to get her bike worked on, getting a new chain and brake pads before heading south. Of her energy levels, she said, “Overall things are going well, but I feel pretty fatigued. I feel like my decision-making hasn’t been as snappy as it used to be. And I’m a little more frustrated with things like rainstorms and hail and peanut butter mud.”

But she’s clearly worked on maintaining a positive mindset, probably the most important aspect of a successful Tour Divide, and finishes up her post with, “It’s beautiful here and I’m really stoked to explore this state.”

Meanwhile, behind her, Jager left Brush Mountain at 8 a.m., no doubt after a famous Kirsten breakfast of pancakes and eggs. Well-fueled, she climbed the pass above the lodge, made it to Steamboat before 1 p.m., and after a brief stop, continued to chase Hackinen, bringing the gap down to just a handful of hours. Hackinene arrived at Silverthorn just shy of midnight, and Jager stopped just slightly north around 3:30 a.m. As of daybreak, both appear to still be asleep.

Singlespeed Race

The shoe situation of the singlespeeders continues to evolve. In the previous update, Alex Kowalski had on a pair of sandals, Jake Colantonio had on his Crocs, and Johnny Price had on a pair of clipless shoes he’d gotten at the last minute.

Apparently, Price, whose Instagram handle is @johnny_no__shoes, wanted to join the sandaled club. Or maybe his feet just swelled to the point that they didn’t fit into his shoes anymore, so he cut the toes off his shoes and continued on. Only time will tell if Del Greco will also abandon traditional cycling footwear and #FreeTheToes.

As far as the racing is concerned, the top four seem to be separating themselves a bit since their sleepover together in Pinedale. Kowalski has taken on the lead with Price, Del Greco, and Colantonio still relatively close behind. At nightfall, 90 miles separated the leading four and they all chose different spots to spend 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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