Singletrack/MTB
Gravel/All-road
Dirt-road Touring
Fat-bike
A week into the 2026 Tour Divide, the race has revealed its true character. Victor Bosoni is still flying across the continent, but behind him, the Divide is exacting its toll through crashes, swollen knees, nosebleeds, and mounting fatigue that’s reshuffling the standings. Through it all, the top singlespeeder stretches an astonishing lead, and Meaghan Hackinen continues a remarkable ride, pushing deeper into record territory. Find all the gritty details in our latest update…
Photos by Eddie Clark
Thursday was another beautiful day on the Tour Divide route. As lead rider Victor Bosoni declared, “It’s just sunny all of the time. Crazy.”
But it was also the seventh day of an extremely demanding race. This is usually about the time that the body has redirected all systems to prioritize forward motion. Cuts and bruises take longer to heal, digestion slows, and the brain’s emotional regulation begins to break down. Every feeling rushes to the surface, sending riders on a wild ride that undulates between exhilaration and despair. Bosoni demonstrated this swing in his Instagram videos. In one, he whoops with joy as he zips past resting cattle in the Great Divide Basin. In another, he is overcome with tears after learning that his brother plans to meet him at the finish line.
Bosoni has been dealing with a mechanical issue caused by loose screws in his rear bag. He estimated he lost about two hours trying to fix the issue on Wednesday. He was frustrated, but the setback turned out to be fortuitous. Although he’d planned to ride to Steamboat Springs on Wednesday night, he found himself at Brush Mountain Lodge in the evening. The owner, longtime Tour Divide trail angel Kirsten Henricksen, served Bosoni the nutritious food he’d been craving and set him up with a bed and laundry service. After a six-hour stop and a “full reset,” Bosoni was back on the road, clean and grateful for the boost after an emotional rollercoaster of a day.
“In a race like this, every unexpected problem requires patience and adaptation,” Bosoni wrote on Instagram. “But once back on the bike, it was all bout the immensity of endless deserts—raw and breathtaking landscapes that give you that unique feeling of being tiny in the middle of nowhere. And then there are the encounters that change everything. Huge thanks to Kirsten for her kindness, hospitality, and for giving me a moment of peace that made me forget all the struggles of the road, even if only for a little while.”
Bosoni held a 200-mile lead on second-position rider Laurens Ten Dam when he appeared to stop in Breckenridge, Colorado, on Thursday evening. Angus Young was about 50 miles behind Ten Dam in third position. Xavier Chiriboga has moved up to fourth position after problems with mechanicals, a serious nosebleed, and foot pain earlier in the race. Chiriboga was followed closely by Finnish rider Mikko Kainu.
Lead woman Meaghan Hackinen has moved to sixth position overall. She was tracking more than 140 miles in front of her own Grand Depart record pace, and almost 400 miles ahead of her closest competition, Torin Lackmann and Alyssa Secreto, who rode through Lima, Montana, on Thursday afternoon. Hackinen is crushing miles, and it seems she’s having a great time doing so. On Instagram, she described interactions she’s enjoyed in recent days. Near Red Rock Lakes, she passed a group of fellow Canadians, “waving flags and playing my song—aka ‘Oh Canada.’” Later, she met a TransAm rider on a stretch of road where the TransAmerica Trail and the Great Divide Mountain Bike Route overlap. The woman had read Hackinen’s book about the TransAm and felt inspired to ride the route. “Funny we should meet out here,” Hackinen said.
Top singlespeed rider Felix Laberge was riding close to Hackinen in eighth position overall as they neared the Great Divide Basin on Thursday evening. He had nearly 300 miles on his closest singlespeed competitor, Scott Petrie. He was also moving about 80 miles in front of the historical dot of Chris Plesko, the current singlespeed record holder.
Previous top-five contender David Tshcan has been taking an extended break in Pinedale, Wyoming. Tshcan crashed his bike on Tuesday night, injuring both of his knees. After riding more than 230 miles on Wednesday, one of his knees “blew up like a balloon, and after it turned into a broomstick while resupplying in Pinedale, I decided I should get it checked out.”
The good news, Tschan said, is that he hasn’t broken any bones. But the doctor in Pinedale said the swelling made it impossible to determine the extent of damage in his knee. She recommended that Tschan stop riding, since continuing could risk further damage if something was wrong with the soft tissue. As of Thursday evening, Tschan had been resting in Pinedale for more than 24 hours and planned to spend another night icing his knee while deciding whether to continue.
“I don’t have a great feeling about it, so now I’m in between—maybe it’s nothing, and I will beat myself up about it in two weeks when the swelling is gone, and I get an MRI. Or on the other hand, it might be something, and I’m going to beat myself up about not listening to my body and causing damage to my knee. It’s just tough.”
Tschan said the decision is hard because he invested so much time, training, and money into racing at a high level in the Tour Divide this year, and he was having a lot of fun racing other top riders. But he also doesn’t want to risk chronic knee issues down the road. “This will be there next year, but I only have two knees,” he said.
Tshcan is not the only top rider left bloodied by the Divide. Many riders have complained of nosebleeds, with Angus Young of England sporting a blood-stained jersey and Xavier Chiriboga of Ecuador calling the issue severe. It seems likely that cyclists from overseas aren’t as conditioned to the hot, dry climate of the Mountain West. Lack of acclimation also tends to lead to more breathing problems from allergic reactions to dust and other irritants.
Despite these disadvantages, international riders are dominating the 2026 Tour Divide. As of Thursday evening, the top American was riding in 11th place overall. Brian Elander of Moab, Utah, is a 24-year-old rookie. He too seems to be having a great time in the stellar weather riders have enjoyed for much of the week, peppering his Strava updates with photos of long, lonely roads and dazzling sunsets. On Thursday, he posted a video while sitting outside a convenience store surrounded by snacks and empty beverage containers. “The strange looks I’m getting outside these gas stations are increasing, which means the Tour Divide effect is working,” he said as he chugged a can of Coke.
The Rio Fire, which sparked Tuesday evening on Polvadera Mesa in Northern New Mexico, remains a concern for riders. The fire is burning in steep terrain just a few miles west of the route near Vallecitos. Firefighters have been battling the blaze aggressively and limited its spread to an updated perimeter of 166 acres on Thursday evening. There are currently no evacuations or road closures in place, but the fire is 0% contained as it burns through brush and heavy dead-and-down fuel. Friday’s weather in Abiquiu is forecast to be hot, 92 degrees, with a 10-mile-per-hour west wind that could drive flames closer to the route.
But for most Divide riders, Friday should be another gorgeous day. The Colorado high country will see sunshine and temperatures in the high 70s. Temperatures across the Great Divide Basin should be similar, although the tailwind will begin to shift to a more northerly crosswind. Farther north in Montana, a sunny day on Friday will start to give way to a greater chance of thunderstorms on Saturday, which could stir up difficult mud conditions for the back half of the field.
Stay tuned for more coverage from the 2026 Tour Divide, and be sure to check out the Tracker page to follow along on the live tracking map. Find it here.
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