I Just Want To Ride - Lael Wilcox and the 2019 Tour Divide

[Music] so the Tour de vibe is based off of Adventure Cycling associations Great Divide mountain bike route it is the longest dirt touring route in the world 2,750 miles from Biff Alberta Canada to antelope Wells New Mexico on the Mexican border it follows the Continental Divide a hundred and fifty thousand feet of climbing and you go from the Canadian Rockies big rugged mountains down into Montana it gets a bit greener then through Wyoming in the Great Basin very stark through the highest point in Colorado and then to the desert New Mexico it's it's fantastic [Music] the Torah divide is self supported race that means you have to cover all of your own needs food water shelter equipment fixing your bike if it breaks anything that comes up along the way you can use commercial services so you could stop at stores you could stop at bike shops you could stay in hotels anything that's available to the public you can take advantage of there's no entry fee there's no prize money I love this route the writing is not technical it's dirt road riding so it's basically you take road riding you put it on dirt meat a bit bigger of a tire and you need to love time that's it anybody could ride this route with enough motivation and a decent level of fitness and it makes a great touring route but it also makes a great race route for that reason because you don't get so beat up day after day you actually enjoy the riding the thing that makes it hard is just riding more mileage riding faster and then the weather can be tough because it's at high elevation racing ultra distances requires a level of urgency so you have to be thinking about how am I gonna stay on my bike keep moving forward as much as possible with this urgency also requires a bit of deprivation sacrifice you cut sleep typically I'll speak four hours a night you try to minimize stops so I'll buy all my food pack it on my bike and eat it while I'm going I never expected any of this for this town to be honest with you I should have turned my open side off yeah okay I'm Kathy Shawn drover I own the Blackfoot angler here in ovando Montana population 70 my unofficial title here is a vandal organizer of frivolous affairs so during the TDR when people come in I take the pictures and they posted on backpacking forum so everybody can see them and we try to help out where we can but not help too much since you have to be supported oh thank you are you doing we've been doing this now for five years since we found out that a lot of writers really appreciate just having somebody another name just to say hi and not get totally ignored especially if they've been on the road for a long time then a little bit of friendliness goes a long way with somebody's attitude towards continuing or not I don't know about that yeah easier easier hat hahaha it's gonna melt all over everything okay you haven't seen the worst of it that's the neat thing everybody's got a story everybody's absolutely fascinating to talk to and I just like listening to stories and then I put it next to their picture give a little caption tell them what they've been doing let the magazines take it from there we came to ovando cuz we were just about ready to dry up and blow away I mean there just was no business here and then we discovered cycling and more people came so for five months out of the year it's crazy in here it's crazy time I mean there's cars everywhere and people walking around and you got cyclists I mean we're gonna have days coming up where you know the cycling bicycles are going to be lined up against everywhere around here we did a lot of fishermen we're on the Blackfoot River river runs through it for crying out loud so everybody's for the Blackfoot River but I think what has boggled our minds is that it's bent or divided that has made us known from BAMF to belgium I mean they come in and Sophie you know whose first place he goes I met you last time and he goes we were talking about you and I still have a hard time wrapping my head around that just what we do for the cyclists has come so full circle that they're talking about a little town of 70 people in the middle of nowhere I enjoy the heck of it because sometimes it's not that busy and I think they have a lot of time to talk to them so 2015 I erased a tour guide twice first with the grand apart in June and then again as a time trial by myself in August Anchorage is my hometown I thought the best way to get to the tour Divide would be to ride from home to the start for training and also I'd never ridden through Canada so I did that in June got to Banff took a week off started racing the tour Divide got extremely sick for a week I was struggling with breathing I rode myself to the emergency room inhale Tanna where i got an albuterol treatment they took an x-ray of my lungs to make sure I didn't have pneumonia and then I continued on my way I actually got better during my ride picked up my pace beat the women's record by two days taking it from 19 to 17 days and then I go home and I and then I'm like waking up at night thinking I could write so much faster I know I could ride faster if I didn't get sick I'd be so much better and I became kind of obsessed with this to the point where two weeks later from when I finished I'm riding back down to Banff to start by myself on a time trial and then I finish in 15 days ten hours and I set this new women's record persistence and the perseverance that really stood out even as a young girl whatever she did she just do it so in that way I think people weren't surprised about the endurance bike riding my overall goal is to break the record on this route which is 13 days 22 hours and 51 minutes set by Michael to do that I have to average 200 miles a day for just under 14 days and that's like 15,000 feet of climbing per day I mean it's it's kind of mind melting then when you look at that you're like 200 miles a day for 14 days okay if I ride 200 miles in 24 hours what would be my average then but then you think well I do have to sleep for 4 hours so I'm cut down to 20 hours then I do have to stop to buy my own food to get my own water so I'm actually cut down to 18 hours so then you have to do the math what's 200 divided by 18 and then account for it well I could have a mechanical I could have to deal with that you know there are all these other things that come up but that's just numbers then think about the landscapes you're gonna see if you're riding 200 miles a day you're probably covering at least three mountain passes keep growing already made it to Mexico feel like we've been time traveling every single day good to see that whole state monitor route through the Rockies before they every sunrise every sunset everything in between rushing through little towns or you end up riding through like you know a thunderstorm and it's it's uncomfortable you're cold you're wet but you have to stay on the bike but there is a beauty to that too because you'd never see those moments if you were touring or in another situation you would go inside you would avoid that so the exposure is both discomfort and also beauty so good to see everybody I love it I love it it's intense four years later I have the opportunity to kind of set up my own media project and let's do it let's share the story of the Great Divide and the tour divide in the towns and the passes and what it means to bike this distance through the Rockies through the US so we set out to do that so the race is going great there are about five of us that are just about on record pace switching positions the riding is awesome I'm having the time of my life out there and it's colder than usual it's really cold sometimes I'm waking up my water bottles are frozen I didn't bring much of a sleep system all I have is an emergency bivy down pants and a down jacket and I'm shivering on the ground but I'm also just so happy to be riding and making plans in my mind I'm gonna get through brush Mountain Lodge then I'm gonna get to Steamboat Springs before the bike shop closes at 6:00 and I'm gonna get a new chain I'm gonna get a new rear tire to get my bike looked at and I'm gonna keep going and once I'm in Colorado it's easy riding I'm gonna ride so fast and I'm gonna get it that's the second half of the race at this point I am out of the Great Basin through AM Sutter and I'm a full day ahead of my record from 2015 I'm a full day ahead and I'm only halfway through the race I could beat my own record by two days at this point I'm feeling great riding to brush mountain lodge and then I start realizing like wow there was a lot of water on this road and then they're like yeah you might have trouble on this next stretch and then they tell me that Sophie on the guy who was in first had gone up there the previous night got stuck in like a storm with snow and had come back and he was sleeping at the lodge there it's way below freezing way below freezing it's dark I can't find my way the only way that I could find exactly the way that I came from and I'm willing to push myself really really far to do well on these races that's some stuff that I'm not willing to do it's sometimes better to take a step back and tell something all right what's what's more important me just surviving this night or me trying to keep pushing just to win the race the race goes on every year you come back to me anytime so and then they tell me that Josh kado had gone up and it took him a full 24 hours to get from brush Mountain Lodge to Steamboat Springs something I think typically it usually takes like maybe three four hours to cover that distance maybe a little bit longer but freely it's like one pass and then you get to Clark which has a little nice general store and then it's descending to sit in both Springs not a big deal I was trying to find some shelter and some trees it's pretty barren up there images this big empty hillside and I get to near the top and find this grove of trees by 2:00 a.m. or something I don't know what time was showing the lights in there and there's a cougar strain right that can't be late no you're not staying yeah okay we've gone and I don't know I do beat up near the top somewhere up there but it was it was pretty nice if he came by me on the way down I never I think I stopped like it was yeah I'd love to hear everybody else's turn from cone over that because it's gonna be good I'll tell ya I'll wait here for him and I don't even care just his way I'm glad about that now I can't believe he turn around with that might again that this may be worse than this no and then I go up there anyway I was with another racer at the time and then like half a mile down the road get stuck in this terrible my wheels are not moving nothing's happening I had even tried to like push my bike along kind of foliage to avoid the mud which is really awkward but I was doing this I was like okay I'm gonna keep it up here side of disinvite and it was unbelievable I mean the mud where it's like taking your shoes like here's the shoe here's the mud it's like an extra pound on each foot at least we were looking at like 12 miles of this the problem isn't then it gets snow heavy with the mud or else I just carry it but he's doing really well that's why I feel badly he's making it guess it then I just can't what do you think hi are you able to do it no okay I mean lower student pretty much this exact spot yesterday yeah yeah I mean fair place for those guys to go through it yeah but I also don't think they had they didn't have I mean this mud is like if you could hike it'd be different we can't even hike you just got a two bike part put it on your back and yeah yeah so weird if I tried is it I said yeah we did I have that brief little bit of excitement well now you know we are stuck here now cleaning our closest and go to sleep and eat so which is fine yeah it's all right but it's just we weird situation to be in this transition can't do nothing at all you're just used to be on the bike and right right right and now we are stuck here but yeah it's good it's kind of like not doable so we try to get over that and three o'clock in the night so when the mat is like really hard and the snow is hard until because at that point we can just ride the next 12 miles which will take like an hour versus going a mile an hour it's nicely like the worst I could like wake up to it's like just below freeze just above freezing and raving I just said the kind that's it this isn't good that's right absolutely cuz that it's not cold enough right now freeze I say we send Kai up there what do you think take one for the team like snowing down here right this is our primary concern is getting to this night right and now it's known the likelihood of us passing is so low that the girlfriend the dark seems kind of silly yeah today of summer but don't tell mother nature there's snow in the high country we had two feet of fresh snow over the weekend up here we're still waiting for all the earlier snow to melt with nearly 20 inches of fresh snow but this is real an amazing weather pattern we have over here well it seems as though this was shaping up to be one of the faster races any of us had ever seen everything is going really fast it's funny there's been this overwhelming sort of draw for people who race the route over the years that they want to get here I think partially because it's the halfway point partially because I'm become this sort of person in the middle of nowhere who has food for hungry cyclists and so they're excited to find this random human that sits out here in the woods but they get to this place and then they find themselves having a hard time leaving and so for years they've said oh my god it's a vortex I can't get out I have to go they say I'm usually the problem like if the beers out I give the food everybody's got a comfortable place to say it wasn't my fault this time Superstars we never get to sit together at a table really cuz they're always competing with one another so there's been a lot of things that have brought it together to make it a really unique really unique moment I was jokingly calling it the Armistice of 2019 but I feel as though it's got its own unique opportunity who's this oh wow you know what's crazy is you guys got to stop doing this that's crazy this is a second call from some dot stalker tonight you get to wait and watch the dot like everybody else bro I understand she man and making fun of you it's all good everybody's good it's just money up here the weather's been bad all right he's stuck I was a day ahead of my record and then we like watch my record dot pass us so that I'm like okay well there's that but all along the way you know that I don't only bribed these things just for records they don't only ride these things to win races I ride because I love riding there's no way you can continue riding these distances without a passion for it without a passion to be out so even if I see my record go by I still want to ride my bike the thought never entered my mind like I'm not gonna I'm gonna just pack up and go home because why would I do that I'm not I wouldn't rather be home yeah I'd rather set beat my own record but if that becomes unattainable it's not the end of the world I still get to ride my bike that's the that's real victory I get to do that every day I just feel so grateful that I get to do that it's a choice it's a lot of work but it's what I love most we got this media project approved by the race director Matthew Lee at least half a year before we started I wanted to be as transparent as possible with our intentions and the intentions were to make a video that's inspiring to others to show the landscape to tell the story to be inclusive one week before the race starts start hearing kind of commentary of accusations of well if you have a media crew out on this race is it is that an unfair advantage it was primarily a Facebook group that started kind of attacking the concept of a media project the primary issue that people stated was that there's going to be a video crew on the route this is not the first time this has happened the race director has had a video primarily about himself on the route second issue as that Roo is part of the video crew Andrews my girlfriend so then I'm seeing somebody that I care about out on the course and then the issue with this is that she will give me an emotional boost so I'll feel better and then I'll ride better I wouldn't be getting any help any assistance just seeing Roo would give me a boost and then knowing she's there is gonna give me a booth the concept of having somebody out there is a boost Matthew actually suggested this that I don't see Rue along the route that the two others that we have on the crew are responsible for taking stills and video footage of me rue could be the director from a distance and then she can also document the other racers so we did that as part of this precaution each member of the media crew had to have their own spot tracker to tell you know where they were at all times to make sure mostly that GRU wasn't with me during the race so we said okay that's fine another precaution was the race director suggested that I don't use my phone for the race so that I don't have the chance to call loved ones to get support to text to check the track or whatever else you do that would give you an advantage and no one else was asked to not use their phone I agreed because I wanted to do whatever I could to continue with the project continue with the race mostly just because there's a huge backlash and then we find out while I'm racing that there's another film crew on the route and they're following a male racer and he is actually almost in the exact same position in the race as I am we're leapfrogging each other we're friends we're having fun for whatever reason I'm getting attacked and then on Facebook he's getting praised incredible by the same people by the same people who are yelling at me they're clapping for him and then people were also trying to say that my previous rides on the tour de vide also didn't count that my records didn't count I didn't have any media during those attempts and then people were also trying to discredit my win the TransAm in 2016 where I also didn't have media I'm trying to get in the mindset of racing 2,700 miles and trying to do it faster than two weeks and facing deep snow in Colorado I'll make concessions I'll do my best I'll make it fair and I'll continue but this is not late you want to be thinking about you want to be thinking about do I have the right equipment am i emotionally and mentally and physically prepared do I have a good plan when I got stuck at brush Mountain Lodge drew is there to to document the situation that she was staying in the cabin far from the main house far from the lodge she was out there for two days by herself while the rest of us were in the lodge eating meals talking you know waiting out the weather second morning that I had been you know I kind of realized this is ridiculous my record had already passed me we'd been stuck in snow before I even started riding people said my ride wouldn't count anyway because of media because it was influenced hypothetically it was influenced this was even before the Wright had started and I was like you know I'm not willing to be controlled by members of a Facebook group that aren't writing that are sitting behind their screens criticizing what I'm doing you know I'm out here braving the weather peddling my bike carrying my own gear doing something inspiring it's like they're doing the opposite and I kind of decided in that moment I'm just gonna ride my own ride anyway nobody can tell me I can't be on this route they can tell me I can't be part of this race but I can make that decision myself so what I did was I went in the lodge had breakfast blueberry pancakes and sausage and then I took a breakfast plate turu and then I wrote to Matthew Lee and said I'm scratching from the race because I saw a rune and that takes me out of competition and I was okay with that decision the race is gone but they're out still there I'm not basically the halfway point I still get to ride the second half of the tour Divide route which is actually my favorite part of the route anyway my favorite part of the route is New Mexico oh my god this is incredible it's probably like the most beautiful night I've had the light is just unbelievable it's like but I guess this is sunset but it doesn't even look like a sunset it's just like this amazing amazing bright sky and then all the trees are silhouetted it speak for both of us but I think I got better at it worried well when four dot stops or like 42 minutes you know I you know what happened he may be better at it you know then the dot goes on again and everything's fine and she's moving ahead as a bike packing community particularly those participating in races I feel like we all have so much more in common than our differences we're all out there riding to the best of our abilities cutting sleep making sacrifices but truly enjoying the Train we're all doing the same thing so I wish we could kind of engage in that spirit [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] that's excited [Applause] [Music] to the tracks and was great oh my heart's jumping [Music] I lost my gloves written like almost a thousand miles without gloves on me please just send me a picture of the four of you well there's only three of us but he would definitely included the dog into that right and I'm just like everybody I don't care what anybody looks like Hayden doesn't like taking photos and all this stuff I'm like we got to get this fixed for dad ready let's just do this real quick and then you just focused on that for a while because getting through all right I got one more job for you [Applause] you know it's awesome for me that I'm on sunglasses when you guys can't see them crying already [Music] [Music] [Applause] hey Chris I'm gonna bring you a cold one [Music] I caught up to Leo and oh my god and she's like you look so fresh right right I love you guys I'll see you tomorrow [Music] 11 pounds I'm going to to see the percentage of women racing this year and every year is extremely low definitely less than 10% of the entire field but I want to do my best I want to beat all the men I want to be you know somebody that people can believe in so I'll do my best to maintain the spirit of the race but I care about the spirit of the terrain and the spirit of bike packing and what I can accomplish out there and so how many people can say that we're really happy she gets to do what she loves them and we get to watch and come along to the right side [Music] oh yeah the breeze is like air-conditioned [Music] actually I was just cooking cooking along I feel fine into a massive head wound I don't think so first 618 days six six hours twenty minutes it was a little rough with all the the weird stuff that happened and having to scratch but I don't know it makes me feel like maybe I'm not finished with this route yet and I was just run fast a big reason why i erase ultra-endurance or a tor ultra-endurance packin huge miles and huge days is the wealth of experiences I get to have out there and that's both climbing up mountain passes and heard the swooping descents and this fantastic writing but also stopping in small towns and finding food and finding water figuring out a place to sleep and dealing with the challenges that come up dealing with the mechanicals and dealing with you know maybe wavering he'll never know what's gonna happen out there and and that keeps it exciting seeing animals out there in the middle of the night or meeting new people that are totally shocked at what you're doing the unexpected that's what keeps it fun so whether I'm racing or I'm just riding I don't think that could ever get boring I think in fact that's what makes the experience maybe a distance like the Great Divide seems daunting it's too much it's too big but what you can really break it down to is pedaling your bike any distance you're engaging in the same activity as I am or as other ultra distance racers are it's all this thing it's powering yourself from one spot to another I mean so yeah of course I think everybody should ride the Great Divide is fantastic but I think even more than that it's it's just get out ride somewhere that means something to you put a sleeping bag on your bike go sleep out for the night ride back to your house the next day you'll learn so much out there I think you'll probably like it but if you don't don't do it again [Music] you [Music] honestly I'm glad you guys came I apologize on behalf of this entire dysfunctional community for the chaos you've had to manage [Music]

Channel: PEARL iZUMi

Views: 1,984,548

Keywords: cycling, bicycle, road bike, road cycling, mountain biking, mtb, gravel riding, mountain bike, cycling apparel, pearl Izumi, lael wilcox, tour divide, bikepacking, specialized, bike touring, womens cycling, equality

Id: AEEGIt6FC34

Length: 38min 26sec (2306 seconds)

Published: Wed Nov 20 2019