2025 Tour Divide Day 4: Fueling the Fire

Photos by Eddie Clark

With four days down on Tour Divide, we’re simply seeing some high-speed bike riding under exceptional conditions for many. While the occasional storm is catching people out, things have been relatively benign on the weather front. This has allowed the race to be one of pure speed rather than one of wading-through-mud-and-fighting-hypothermia attrition. At least for now.

Still, it’s the time in the race when metabolisms start to ramp up, and the event turns into more of an eating contest than a pedaling one, especially given the fast conditions. The person who can get the most calories in—high carb or not—will be the person who can ride the longest and fastest. In past years—we’re talking on the order of a decade ago—it was commonly accepted that the best fueling strategy was to sit down for one square meal a day and snack the rest of the day. Today, the lead riders no longer consider the time investment of a sit-down meal worth the calories. Instead, it’s all about the snacks, and the variety of snacks that people choose is astounding. It’s fair to say that a Tour Divide diet is not one that you’d want to maintain if you weren’t pedaling 20 hours a day. Brushing teeth regularly is a must.

With just over four days elapsed, Robin Gemperle continues his march south, having escaped Montana late yesterday and spent the night at Mack’s Inn just after crossing into Idaho, 984 miles in. A nearly six-hour stop would indicate him being well-rested for a big push into Wyoming today. It seems like Gemperle has adopted the “rest well, ride fast” approach, having stopped at the Best Western Plus in Butte the night before and taken the time to wash his clothes. He reported to the world on Instagram that they smelled like lemon, which he liked.

Behind him, Svein Tuft has been battling a respiratory illness. While it’s hard to say he’s slowed down, seeing he’s still ahead of the record dot in second place, the gap to Gemperle is now nearly 100 miles. Tuft spent the night in Lima and hopefully regained some strength and energy. Jens van Roost also continues in third, also ahead of the JL record dot.

For the women, Nathalie Baillon continues to lead, now with a 15-mile lead over Lael Wilcox. The gap has been shifting between 10 and 25 miles over the past 24 hours. Baillon slept just shy of Fleecer Ridge south of Butte last night and pushed over this morning, while Wilcox got a room in Butte, stopping early for the night. Ana Jager rolled into Butte early this morning and ended up at the same hotel as Wilcox. One has to wonder if they did a key swap to allow them both to get some hours of indoor sleep.

Update: At 9 a.m., Baillon posted a video on Instagram from Wise River showing cranks that were spinning without engaging the wheel with the caption “Gutted,” potentially pointing to a blown freehub or similar issue. Tour Divide rules allow a rider to hitch off course to get a bike issue fixed as long as they return to the exact same spot, so time will tell what she will do.

Alexandera Houchin continues in fourth ahead of Karin Pocock and Gillian Hatch of Australia. Pocock recently won the Pinyons and Pines in Arizona and was forced off the Grand Loop a few weeks back due to health issues. She’s gunning for the Triple Crown this year, so it seems like she’s taking a measured approach to Tour Divide, knowing she has a lot of miles to pedal this year.

In the singlespeed contest, Andrew Onermaa continues ahead of Zack Friendly and is cresting Fleecer Ridge as I type.

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.

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