This year’s Tour Divide is done and dusted! For those unfamiliar, the Tour Divide is an off-road, unsupported bicycle ride from Banff, Canada, to Antelope Wells, New Mexico, on the US-Mexico border. I’m incredibly happy and thankful to have completed the ride within my originally budgeted 25 days. Covering a total distance of 4,372 km with a whopping 49,500 meters of elevation gain, I rode through some breathtaking scenery and faced numerous challenges along the way. The journey was nothing short of an adventure. I encountered snowstorms at midnight on some of Canada’s highest peaks, battled headwinds and rocky roads in Wyoming’s basin, navigated through a small river crossings, and trudged through sections of sticky “peanut butter” mud. Several days of relentless rain, mountain passes as high as 3,600 meters in Colorado, and sweltering temperatures approaching 40 degrees Celsius in New Mexico with limited resupply points all added to the experience but it wouldn’t have been an adventure without these challenges! Before starting the Tour Divide, I rode 300 km from Jasper to Banff, gaining 3,250 meters in elevation over two days via the Icefields Parkway as a shakedown ride. This turned out to be a wise decision, as I encountered a few issues with my bike and gear, which I managed to fix before the main event. Two years ago, I had a different experience on the Tour Divide. I rode from the start to the US-Canadian border but had to stop after breaking six ribs from hitting a rock on the final mountain descent in Canada. With 60% of the 227 registered riders scratching this year, I’m especially grateful to have completed this incredible journey. The tough conditions required a lot of perseverance and dedication. There were moments when the challenges seemed overwhelming, but staying focused on my goal and pushing through kept me going. Finishing the Tour Divide was about overcoming every obstacle and proving that determination and hard work can conquer even the toughest paths. “If you wait for perfect conditions you will never get anything done”.

Strava posts:

9 June. Jasper to Pyramid Island loop. Shakedown ride after building up the bike, following a 32 hour commute time (including transit waiting time) from Canberra to Jasper and a 12 hour sleep. Everything seems to be ok except gears 2-4 aren’t shifting that well at all, even after a micro adjustment. No big problem though. 14km, 231m elevation gain. 

10 June. Combined a couple of out & backs. Rode to the Jasper Skytram, took it up the mountain and then walked to the summit. I then rode to the Overlander cabin and back to Jasper.

Some rocky/rooted single track and some local roads, mixed bag ride today.

Fixed the skipping gears, all working as it should be now. 49km, 484m elevation gain. 

11 June. Jasper to Banff. The Icefields highway is a spectacular road. So much beautiful scenery. Rode 180km day one. Had a lot of issues with my rear tyre from Lake Louise village on the second day (60km to Banff), not seating, the valve not working and the two back up tpu tubes not holding much air. Had to pump up the rear tyre every 15-20mins but made it to Banff. Getting it looked at by a mechanic in Banff this evening. 297km, 3,243m elevation gain.  

14 June. 2024 Tour Divide – Day 1-4, Banff Canada to Whitefish Montana. Actually did 596km with 9,063m elevation gain with an average moving pace of 13.1 kmph but for some reason days 2-4 didn’t transfer over from my Garmin. It did save to my ride with gps and Sram pages though.

Weather has been pretty good this year compared to 2022 really crappy weather and thankfully I didn’t hit any rocks. 596km, 9,063m elevation gain. 

21 June. 2024 Tour Divide – Day 5-9. Whitefish Montana to Lima Wyoming. Unsure as to why my Garmin won’t sync up to Strava but have almost finished Montana, being in Lima now, and I am officially 1/4 the way through the TD now. 862km, 11,787m elevation gain. 

26 June. 2024 Tour Divide – Day 10-14. Lima Wyoming to Steamboat Springs Colorado. The 2nd level Strava helpdesk guy says there is a known issue with syncing Garmin tracking files to Strava, so it’s not me doing anything wrong thankfully.

Have made it past the halfway mark of the ride and everything seems to be working out as planned so far. 1,040km, 9,155m elevation gain. 

3 July. 2024 Tour Divide – Day 15-20. Steamboat Springs Colorado to Abiquiu New Mexico. Made it past the 3/4 point and crossed the final US state border. Not long now and I might be done in 5-6 days .  903km, 12,109m elevation gain.  

8 July. 2024 Tour Divide – Day 21-25. Abiquiu NM to Antelope Wells NM. Finished. The last three days of this years tour divide were hot but finally finished. Can’t wait to do nothing for a while. 945km, 8,574m elevation gain.