Singletrack/MTB
Gravel/All-road
Dirt-road Touring
Fat-bike
Day three of the 2025 Tour Divide saw riders deep in the wilds of Montana, a state that’s proving—as always—to be one of the route’s biggest tests. With nearly 750 miles under his belt, Robin Gemperle continues to lead the charge, whistling his way through Butte with a commanding gap over the field. Catch the full update for wild stories, smart strategy, and snapshots from one of the most dramatic stretches of the Divide…
Photos by Eddie Clark
Chinese philosopher Lao Tzu once wrote, “A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.” If we’re going to apply the sentiment to Tour Divide, it should probably be rephrased to, “A journey of 2,745 miles begins with getting yourself through Montana as unscathed as possible.” Montana, home to about 710 miles of the Tour Divide route, is arguably the hardest state of the lot. The pomp and circumstance and adrenaline and anticipation of the start, which propels riders through Canada, is gone, and now Montana, the Treasure State, looms large. If a rider can make it through Montana, the chances are good that they can make it to Antelope Wells.
Northern Montana is particularly challenging, starting off with a climb up to Whitefish Divide. It’s an area where wolves and bears outnumber humans, and the weather is often atrocious, though this year, it really does seem to be blue skies and clear roads for the majority of the riders. Riders can get a solid resupply slightly off-route in Whitefish or get snacks in Columbia Falls before heading into the Swan Lake Valley and onto the famed Richmond Pass. The rumor mill of past Tour Divides said that problem grizzly bears used to be relocated to the area, but I’m unsure if this is an urban myth or not. That said, in 2021, a grizzly entered the campground in Ovando, on the south side of Richmond Pass, and killed a GDMBR rider while she was in her tent. While an isolated incident, bears are serious in this area.
While the bears in the Ovando area are intimidating, Kathy Schoendoerfer, co-owner of the Blackfoot Angler, is one of the friendliest faces on the route. She takes the time to greet riders, takes photos, and posts them on the internet. The webcam outside of her shop has caught some amazing moments over the years. Ovando is also the home of Trixi’s Antler Saloon, where if you ask them to make a burger to go, they’ll individually wrap the lettuce, burger meat, bun, and pickles in Saran Wrap so that it doesn’t get soggy for you. Well, at least they did in 2012, which was great, unless you were trying to get out of dodge as quickly as possible. Ask me how I know. It’s a classic Montana establishment and a great source of calories for riders.
Beyond Ovando is Lincoln, unfortunately famous as the former home of the Unabomber, and then riders head out over a series of three passes to the bustling metropolis of Helena before taking on the chunky Lava Mountain road to Basin and then to Butte, and then on to Fleecer Ridge, which is where we join race leader Robin Gemperle today. While dot watchers may have thought he slept in this morning, he merely forgot to turn his tracker on after leaving Butte, his stop for the night. Three days elapsed, Gemperle has ridden a massive 750 miles and holds a 50-mile lead on second-place Svein Tuft and somewhere on the order of a 60-mile lead on the JL record dot. In his Instagram updates, Gemperle whistles his way along, seemingly without a care in the world. Tuft also seems to be in cruise mode after spending the night in Basin with a 4.5-hour stop. In his daily update, Tuft mentioned feeling pretty rough waking up after the first night but started feeling better as the day wore on and got a good night of sleep, a whopping four hours, the next night and was feeling much better.
Jens van Roost has taken up third position. Van Roost was part of the famous Porta-Potty Trio of 2023 alongside Justinas Leveikas and Ulrich Bartholmoes, where the three of them shacked up for the night together in, well, you guess it, a porta-potty in the middle of the Great Basin in Wyoming to wait out a storm. When they arrived to Brush Mountain Lodge the following night, shellshocked is the only word that can be used to describe them. Van Roost was ultimately forced to abandon with hand issues, while Bartholmoes and Leveikas went on to finish first and second, respectively. The following year, the lead two swapped positions in the final standings. All this to say, van Roost has gone fast for at least part of this race before. Having randomly met him on the side of the road when he was bike touring in Utah with his partner (long before his TD ride) and I pulled over to give thirsty-looking cyclists a fizzy drink, I’m breaking my journalistic un-biasedness to say, Go Jens!
On the women’s side, Nathalie Baillon continues to hold her lead over Lael Wilcox. Both women stayed the night at the Lama Ranch between Lincoln and Helena, with Baillon arriving around 1:30 a.m. and Wilcox following an hour later. Baillon stayed for about 4.5 hours compared to Wilcox’s nearly six-hour stop. Baillon holds about a 20-mile lead with 620 miles covered just over three days in. Both are well ahead of the record dot and hold an impressive lead on Ana Jager at mile 560 and Alexandera Houchin at mile 525. Both Jager and Houchin know how to pace Tour Divide, so it’s fair to assume they’re riding their own pace and seeing if the lead two ride each other into the ground. Alexandera mentioned on a call-in to MTBCast that she’s forcing herself to sleep for four hours a night, even if she wants to wake up and go.
The singlespeed contingent is also moving strongly down the spine of the country. Andrew Onermaa of Arkansas holds a commanding 40-mile lead over Zack “Friendly” at mile 600 outside of Helena. Onermaa of Ozark Gravel Cyclists is the host of the DOOM bikepacking event, described as a “beautifully evil bikepacking route in the South.” He most recently won the Central MO Circuit and also won the North South Colorado in 2022. Zack, meanwhile, finished Tour Divide in 2022 in 19 days on his singlespeed, the same year he finished the Arizona Trail 800 in fifth. For the women, Maggie Livelsberger leads at 360 miles.
The southern half of Montana tends to be much faster than the north, and the leaders will make quick work of the final miles to Lima and the border to Idaho at Red Rock Pass, especially given a solid-looking weather forecast. Roads in the Bannock Valley can quickly turn to muck in the rain, but aside from the potential for a few thunderstorms, riders should be facing clear sailing conditions on their way south.
Check out the 2025 Tour Divide Tracker page to follow along on the live tracking map, see our Rigs of the Tour Divide roundups, and stay tuned in for more event coverage. Find it here.
Further Reading
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