The Impossible Route - Tour De Gravel (We RACED 1 vs 1 Across France)

impossible route season two episode two we're in France baby here we are Hollow ground for cycling climbing the gravel side of the tourmalade our goal is to replicate stage 10 and 11. of the 1926 Tour de France the longest in history were the toughest stage in history stage 10. it's called The Circle of Death and it was called The Circle of Death because Riders feared it and close to 40 percent of the field dropped out in 1926 Henry's de Grant despite the derailleur being invented insisted the Riders ride on single Cog bikes the exact course is impossible since they've paved all the key climbs but since we're not running with just two gears it's fair that we do a few extra miles and a few extra thousand feet of climbing we've added some savagely steep sections in order to recreate some of that sting [Music] hey insane hike a bike it's so hard well we've never really done any sort of race before you up for a little playful action totally if we do category fours or one point category threes two category twos three categories one four and then the hc's are five points there's 26 classified climbs on day one you down yep yeah but you know these epic stages would have to start at midnight and in our case we'll start at 3 A.M and Beyond and because obviously you have 400 kilometers almost to do they had gas powered lanterns which put out barely any light and they would follow the car for the first hour just to be able to see where they're going we're just going to get a taste this is like the Tour de France gravel sampler where we get two of the middle stages when they did 18 we are on pretty much spaceships compared to what they were riding so I think that we can make up a lot of time I think we can do this and let's get it done it's not impossible all right ah [Music] sweetheart do you wanna be mobile here [Music] how hot can it be so now I went into this thinking all I wanted to do was beat Jeremiah I wanted to beat him in a race I wanted to race him straight up also I want to do something new right but I took this very seriously now we have a yellow Jersey to give out on day two we hit the very first climb I I can't see anything it's super dark right I'm sure it looks beautiful but I have no idea and uh and I attack him get up the road boom your boy wins one point but I burned a match to get that one point and look HC climbs are worth five points and pretty much anything longer than five minutes Jeremiah's gonna just ride away from it so I gotta try to get all of the cat fours and maybe some of the cat threes under my belt to even have a chance all right that hurt a little bit waking the legs up though and it's gonna be a long day so he's gonna pay for that on Peak to me d it's still super dark and we hit to the next one and now Jeremiah is like actually trying to go for it because the first one I sort of caught him on off guard I don't know if he actually thought I was serious about racing or not it definitely was and so then uh we start going and he actually tried to just drop me and pull away from me your boy's a sprinter I guess I can't pay for that I am going to be destroyed later it's still super dark we come to a third category four climb and I could tell Jeremiah is not happy he's the pro what What's Happening Here uh and then so he actually sits on my wheel third different tactic he's chosen so now I he's trying to wait for me at the very top to come around and snipe me what's going on man should I be in the real tour to France because I just hit 1134 Watts came around him got myself another point oh there he goes again putting the spice down we'll pay for that later a category four five Tyler snipe me on but he doesn't even know what's coming he is going to pay a thousand times for this later so I'm on top of the Moon I'm beaming I'm smiling I'm so happy I feel so great about myself knowing the though I am birding matches at a high rate I mean I'm an arsonist right now so we're playing this Kom game but there's like 26 climbs on this thing if you include the category four climbs so yeah I don't think Tyler really realizes what we're in for and I'm up for the game but also know I'm not gonna like completely destroy myself try to get one point when we've got 18 hours left maybe 17 hours left so kind of save it keep the powder dry finally the light starts to just come up you can start to see where you are in the scenery it's our headlights die out so it's good so we're kind of riding in like pre-dawn where it's definitely dark uh it hasn't Sunrise hasn't hit yet you can't really see much but you it's not dangerous on the Garment it pops up here's another one cat four uh climb and it's steep damn it and so we hit it and I'm okay I'm fatigued at this time right my legs are hurting and at this moment I'm starting to think this was a terrible idea to do this race thing and I started thinking maybe I'm gonna make a deal with him let's just not do this uh and then he is starts just ripping it I mean he is attacking so hard on this climb to tell you how surreal this was to be like we're in this tiny little French Road over canopy trees Rolling Hills so dark I mean there were certain points where you're in the canopy trees you can't see anything it's pitch black our lights aren't working uh and we are just on the gas and he is going so hard and he sort of gaps me for a little bit and then I I just dug so deep I mean I'm talking scraping the edge of the barrel and I I just claw back to him it's so freaking steep so you're doing we're doing 400 500 watts sustained effort ah that was magical just racing full gas through the forest of South France in the dark with this amazing everybody that was it I think you got five points on me five points and I'm getting a little nervous now five points down she said sprint is not not awake foreign [Music] so now we roll into this small little village which let me tell you because I don't understand as an American everything I've ever seen is on movies of these little French towns it all looks exactly the same in real life as it does in the movies and I know that maybe sounds dumb but it's it's almost like if you're going to try to recreate a French Village for like an amusement park or a movie set and you would want to make it look authentically French you don't need to you could go into any town in France and they are so stereotypical France it's unbelievable The Sounds the the sights the textures everything about it is everything I thought it was going to be wow it's beautiful here and it's really hard to describe until you get into these little Villages and you see the old buildings like built right up on the curb and old churches and kind of has that smell the farm smell but uh it's something to really experience at least once I know you're getting excited but I'm like uh thinking all these Sprints oh it's gonna really oh I'm gonna die really get us later oh I'm in I'm dead yeah this is it for me but I mean that's the thing about a race you know we're making the course appropriately tough to match the difficulty level that they faced and so it's not the exact route but since we're on the dirt it'll replicate the difficulty level the steepness will replicate the lack of gears and the intensity of going for some Kom and Sprints pull on to now a cat three climb it's a little bit longer it's a thousand feet and Jeremiah is all pissed so he just starts drilling it and I'm on his wheel and I can see on the profile it tapers off a little bit and then so I could probably out Sprint him but I mean I was just doing 400 watts I my heart rate was 195. and we're 30 miles 40 miles into this 200 and something mile ride so like this is a terrible idea but I can't tell you how much I want to win this little dumb nothing competition I snap I crack I fall off his wheel and uh and he rolls up the road just a little bit okay he got me he got me now I saw him slow down and I felt bad and I was like ah you know he thinks that I'm done and like that I'm just gonna concede these points to him but there's still like 400 feet left to climb like the climb's not over and so then I start like Trucking back up to him and then he was kind of like what the heck I slowed down I'm like yeah you didn't tell you to slow down uh and so then we get to the top I launch a Sprint come around him foreign you got me so that one's pretty sneaky never take a deal if he says you got it all right I slowed down I slowed down I was like I'm gonna save some matches here and I felt I felt bad I got him in it's all good it's all you slow down it's got six points seven that was a two-pointer seven yeah three all right so I got my work cut out for me what's up guys you think I got this see I felt really good on that one so I got some confidence if my knee holds up I think I'm gonna be good okay so was that fair no probably not am I do I feel bad yeah kinda but we're racing it's all good because yeah sure I have seven points but we're gonna hit HC after HC after HC and I'm just working for that most combative Jersey right now I'm getting my TV time looking like a hero before I look like a zero [Music] life and then now we hit this second cat three climb and this one is a special one in the tour and so there's like paintings on the road and uh there's signs you know saying how long it's like it's definitely a a two or a climb incredible to thank all the greats 60 to 100 years ago raced out this you can see the painting on the road we are in Legend territory 250 meters pacing it sounds a little more gradual [Music] stalking like a cat [Music] foreign and I got him on the you know cold squish which is like the classic one from the Tour de France you know I finally got a few points back and man if it wasn't fun I'm not gonna lie like riding long and steady is cool but you kind of feel like you're just plodding along and instead of plotting along we were like cracking it I mean just racing and looking over your shoulder and the guy's coming up on you and so yeah we made it to uh pretty cool little coffee shop [Music] I'm really lost for words I mean we okay we've gotten to do some really amazing things and ride in some amazing places and it's always so hard to try to find a new amazing place and and and top the next thing and just this like escalator to freaking space uh but the fact that we're doing this race component thing is so much fun it's very hard because so far look the route it is hard but I've always said this is that the terrain is what makes it difficult and so far it's just been great road so I'm sure we're gonna get into some gnarly stuff later but right now we're not bushwhacking through Cactus we're not falling off cliffs I mean you know so it's just like it's fun uh but we have such a huge day in store we've been riding for almost five hours this is our first time that we've stopped we have been absolutely full basket of berries and now we're just I'm double fisting espresso and and Cafe Cafe Americano looking like what is this can't be real [Music] foreign we haven't hit any gravel it's been fun okay I'll say that like the ride hasn't really been hard yeah we've hit a few climbs we're going we're going hard we're burning matches but it's just been fun it's been amazing all the other impossible routes are they're not really fun in the moment they're fun afterwards they're fun when you look back on them but it's it's uh type two fun this is a type one fund I'm enjoying myself so then we we cut back into the hills we keep it's just like Village Hill Village Hill it's just insane tight canopy trees beautiful so we hit another cat 3 climb and Jeremiah just puts it to me once more [Music] all right all right you stay at that five millimeters I didn't even threaten him at all uh on that one I'm really paying for a lot of those huge efforts I did before uh to get you know a single point at this point we're now I'm still in the lead but barely I mean this really changes the dynamic like you're pacing for a 220 mile ride like out the window yeah yeah absolutely max heart rate yeah um yeah I've hit like 195 several times sure we're gonna pay for that later 100 percent yeah but we've got a rest day that's true so and that's what the writers did they race for the koams they had a km Jersey and they had two gears so they were pushing at least as hard if not harder we take a little Wrong Turn we go through this woman's like house basically uh we're flying down these Hills I'm smiling from ear to ear again fun so much fun climb says another climb's coming up it's a small one it's only a one pointer right category four climb disregarding any future me other than I want future me to be wearing a yellow Jersey I want to flex on YouTube I want this Victory I need this Victory and just [Music] [Music] [Music] so Cloud number nine short one really Steeps finish and VC got the Sprint so one point back but I knew better than the ways oh my matches on that I want to say at this point we're maybe 80 miles into the ride and and really haven't hit any dirt and so then I'm I'm unsure of which way it goes and Jeremiah just bolts to the right tries to get a little jump start on me and I'm like oh this sneaky son of a gun I saw it come up first you know I took the return first and got a little jump and I was extremely excited about this um deep pitch and took off and got a little lead and Tyler's back there like oh crap you know wasn't ready and then he starts coming and coming and coming and okay I slipped out on a rock and this dog came out and I kind of lost Rhythm I almost had to clip out and it's a technical climb it's not easy I mean it is uh very Rocky wet but that is my jam is really steep technical seated power type thing and there's like the really steep SEC it's probably 20 uh Technical and I yeah [Music] foreign [Music] he's got vegan excuses I got dog excuses so it's all good but I am waiting for the cold Aspen the formerly and the penny sword to make up my Gap now here's the thing though is that the amount of effort that I'm doing to collect two point to collect one point because it was two segments I had to just on on guard and I get one point right and so you look when we get to the bigger stuff it's going to be so difficult but it doesn't matter I got to give myself a fighting chance so I collected two points so now we're nine to four right and so the games will be played oh yes uh oh also we're seven hours in and about nine thousand feet of fun [Music] foreign [Music] roads and gravel sections is because it's a lot what the Riders must have been encountering during the 1926 race attached the rough road mud and a whole variety of terrain which is why they rode the big tires that you see in the Vintage photos and had a spare tire over the shoulder it was a a very different race where it's not iffy flat it was when you flat and how you dealt with it and the best Riders were also good at fixing their bikes quickly they're very tenacious and would never give up [Music] cook [Music] you know a big observation here for me is that in France everything is so close together so if you ride 10 miles in any direction you're gonna run into a building a house a city a Village People cows whatever the case you can't really get out from anything in America you know like in Montana we would go 120 miles without seeing a fence post so what was really cool is that you almost had unlimited access to water and food and coffee especially coffee so our bag system was pretty light you know I had I had three bottles one in my pocket I had a jacket um and I had a bar bag full of food but for the most part really you could go self-supported with no bags I mean because you could just go from Cafe to Cafe to Cafe like all the way across France foreign [Music] [Music] I guess because the buildings are so old it's just everything is so historic and Rich I mean this just is like Instagram gold like if you found something like that in America this would be like a tourist attraction we still have a long way to go and the hardest bit of like the first hundred miles of this ride is kit would be considered a easy recovery spin compared to what is in store for us so coke break pee break now we're back on it we pick up with Jamie Jamie's our guide he's our man he's housing us here in France he's with escape to the Pyrenees so he knows all the history about the tour uh so we asked him a few questions so what was the bikes they were riding so the plugs evolved fairly quickly because it was a young sport early on I mean they were just terrible you look at them in museums and you wouldn't want to ride it any distance on the flat I know it's been horrendous crashes oh my God know the story of Wim vanessed on the cold obese first Dutchman to wear the yellow Jersey the next day defending it he crashes over the side of the cold or beast off her into the Ravine fell 70 meters with no other way of trying to rescue him his team take all of their spare tubular tires string them together and they just about reach him he Loops one under his arms kind of like a helicopter sling I suppose and they put him back up to Safety in doing so they ruin all of their spare tires and the team has to pull out of the race but he was okay and it made him something of a star so we cut through this little town and now we are past the first half the easy half 100 miles 9000 feet of climbing uh sprinting our faces off all the time okay cool but at this point not an impossible route if we had to do this again that's just a big ride it's nowhere near impossible what makes an impossible route well if we ended right now it would be absolutely epic and you would be happy and like love bikes and you'd want to ride tomorrow and yada yada but that doesn't really spur personal growth you got to get really really really uncomfortable to force yourself into permanent growth and this is that moment we've been here before I know and it's like how are we gonna do this you start doing the math and you're like okay there's no way we might as well just quit because it's not possible eight miles four thousand three hundred feet that is a disgusting looking profile all right so this one is for sure a five-pointer yeah oh yeah yeah [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] and so I routed it up this really crazy steep Road it was like concrete just to stay upright you're doing hundreds of water I mean just all of your energy is but The View off and it just switchbacks of this thing the view is so spectacular and just gets better and better and better and better as you go up and up and up and up and so you're like ah this hurts this sucks and then you look over and you go whoa cool aha this sucks whoa cool and so you just do that for 3 000 feet I think the total climb was 4 500 feet I should know what that is in meters I'm not super Euro yet [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] thank you it's a dream [Music] I honestly think I'm gonna wake up and I'm just gonna like poppy here I don't even know what to say this is freaking epic and I absolutely love it and dude there's something like we've done so many routes that are just so hard this one is fun this one is fun good news my knees don't hurt when I walk looks like it got washed out so here we go and we're so during impossible routes there's always that moment where you go okay okay I get it now and this is that moment Tyler doesn't realize I paid those horse flies a little piece of uh my granola bar to go bite him distract him while I take off off the front yeah at least another kilometer um on foot now I'm super out of water and there was this water fountain thing spewing from the world I did not drink it because I was like that's too much of a risk I don't want to start pooping my my my pants at the end of this ride Jeremiah took the risk drank a bunch of it that's that's icy that's spicy foreign we're just hiking on this Hillside so green cows everywhere every cow has a bell and I don't understand because it doesn't look like they're walking or moving but the ringing through the mountain and you can it the echo forever it's just [Music] [Applause] all of a sudden these Majestic horses coming down from the mountain and I take this moment to just take it all in and again hit with this feeling I wish there was a word for it but just like awestrucked in wonderlust I don't know if those two words combined really but that's that's what I would say is that I'm awestrucked in just being Lost In The Wonder of this world the film crew is not with us because you can't because there is no road so I'm like trying to get some footage and trying to like you know be a cameraman and a filmmaker Jeremiah he's racing me and so he just is like hiking his bike and I'm you know I keep giving him more and more time because I'm filming and I want to get some cool shot where he's just like I'm stationary and he's just walking up the hill so I'm like conceited like a minute to him just right there so then I yell up and I I want him to get a shot of me coming up and I say Jeremiah hey man hit me with a shot turn around just hold it acts like he doesn't hear me dude heard me okay I'm getting it back right Karma I kind of did a little douchey move on one of the climbs all good he's racing I'm like got my head on the handlebars I've been pushing at one point I'm literally crawling while pushing the bike that's how steep it was and I'm trying to close the gap on him hiking both of us hiking or biking racing and I'm going hard I'm like closing on him and it's so funny because we're racing but we're hiking and so then all of a sudden we get to the very top and now there's a road okay we've been climbing for two hours it all comes down to a matter of a hundred foot little kicker section and mean we both get on the bikes together and we're riding in I just like I empty the tank and I go for it ah damn it it was so close like such a huge effort to come down to something so small it's like man if I had gotten that five that Five Points like I would have had such a huge gap that there would have been really no way for him to uh to take that over so it was important that he got it but it was so like I was sure I was not even going to be close to him on a 4 500 foot climb and for it to come down to that little bit Ah and then it descends down I don't know not very much like three four minutes and then the Garmin pops up and says there's another one but it's only one pointer I take off and I go get it and heat he said I'm good my job here is done so like he put in a very very small effort and got five points and I put in a huge effort and I got one point Ray Smart in America you would get to this point and there'd be this huge gravel climb and a hundred miles to the next town where okay there's no way there's there's no food there's no water your smoke you need it you need a secret chest or a backpack full of food not here in France because there's a cafe serving espressos and sandwiches and sodas just on the top of this mountain in the middle of nowhere [Music] foreign [Music] language thing big deal way bigger deal than I thought it would be I guess I just assumed I could somehow communicate with people without language pointing at things like that it just doesn't convey anything so it's so hard to communicate with people in France sandwich I mean I can't read we had food up there but it really I was a little worried about Tyler you know there was like peanuts and Coke and that was just about the extent of what we had available to work with I so someone on Instagram made me this cheat sheet um uh on how to ask for vegan tooth it's um it's insane the only thing vegan there was like some chips and a coke so I'm putting that down but I can feel at this point that my energy reserves are low foreign [Music] foreign [Music] we're riding through just what is so unbelievably beautiful huge Valley tunnels insane we cut off on some dirt the dirt here hero dirt because it's raining all the time it's like always perfect but it's not muddy another one pointer and I just give it I give it everything I actually felt way better than I thought like I thought once I pushed power out I was gonna explode I didn't I actually did really really good I felt great got myself another point [Music] yeah boy we are picking JB off with these one pointers yeah he got the big one okay but I'm keeping my I'm keeping my name in the game we're staying alive ah staying alive staying alive this just in wow back to you Bob I mean this is exactly what I envisioned it's just these little towns [Music] [Music] [Music] thank you [Music] I know it's coming it's coming I just want to hit Style if he's got a Sprint left he'll use it yep I am undefeated on Cat four climbs your boy's a sprinter another peashooter climb but I'm sorry buddy we're about to throw him away that's five points so Four Points back legging the odds with the next three HC climbs coming up but we had been riding for like 14 hours I mean we're pretty exhausted and by the time we actually hit the big climb of the tourmalade and 15 like good hard efforts in and then you know you hit this monster the one of the Giants of the Pyrenees what they call these horse category climbs the main line of the tourmalade climbs about 4 000 vertical feet if I'm correct and the gravel route of the tourmalade which is just to the South you know add some gravel some nice switch back adds a little elevation but not much then it patches up with a pavement for the top and then we get up to the very Peak and from there you've got to climb 3 000 vertical feet on something that basically just looks like it was chiseled out of a rock like this ledge chiseled into the side of a rock zigging and zagging into the clouds up toward Peak dumidy which is this Observatory worry it's been there since like the late 1800s I think see I know French bro I'm so French so bad I'm literally about to explode into pieces but I don't want them to know I am dying inside I feel great okay little context when Jeremiah makes these routes I don't look at them I can't if I know what I'm in store for it cracks me mentally it gives me issues uh it it makes me Reserve energy and it's not fun because here's the thing is I have to do it anyway so we hit this climb it's gravel it's beautiful it's unbelievable all these things that words can't express to you you have to just be in it so I'll tell you that it feels like you're in a movie and you're the main character and that everything here was designed and created just for you to experience everything is perfect foreign [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] clouds are moving and it would just condense on your arms and little Pearls of moisture were chilling us you know really it was pretty cold it wasn't quite raining but it was just we were completely drenched and I knew if we were if it was 50 degrees here and we're getting just soaked then up there at 8 000 feet it's going to be a little dangerous so we keep climbing and climbing and climbing it's very cold we're very high up it's very late all the varies it's very very very very very very very I honestly can't even think about anything like I want to talk to the camera I want to tell you what's going on but I don't know what's going on I am a shell of a human about two hours of sleep is uh is catching up man two hours of sleep the jet lag thing is so crazy but so here's like doing the Tour de France I think it's so fitting uh Eddie Merck said it doesn't get any easier you just go faster and we always try to up it and on this one we have this race component and so we're just burning matches and you know if we didn't do that if we just roll around it's like you know maybe it's I mean it's still going to be hard it just doesn't it's so hard dude [Music] Tyler was a little hurting and kind of hanging back but he seemed okay he wasn't really complaining about any problems so I thought he was just finding his rhythm and we're real tired we had plenty of reason to be tired I'm out of everything I have no water no calories and no motivation I'm in a bad mental space I'm in a bad mental space for the first time in 17 hours because we've been riding since three in the morning and then the clouds we move right back in and it was just pea soup like I couldn't see where the road was but then I started up following the GPS and then I saw these outlines four-legged animals and I was like what is that it looked like cutouts in a children's book you know one was gray one was a little darker and these layers of these four-legged Silhouettes I I get closer and they're llamas [Music] hey chill it's foggy up here and this is could be better but that is spooky Epic so this real final pitch was just evil uh and I was like climb all this way to get sucked in by clouds and it almost turned around because it was cold freezing has any pretty tentative about continuing I want to continue and we'll definitely be damn cold so this one's getting long [Music] and then just a brush of wind and suddenly you could see these Jagged fins in the distance and it opened up to this golden silhouette of these shark fin Peaks everywhere you can see the top Observatory that looked like a citadel sitting on a cloud and I was like what and then I turned around and you could see this Dragon's Back coming out of the clouds of the high Pyrenees [Music] amazing I get goosebumps I've never seen anything like it I'll never forget it as long as I live it was it was phenomenal [Music] it's not about destination but the journey and this has put us in a incredible Place wow in this bar in Placebo [Music] [Music] I'll never forget it as long as I live it was it was phenomenal um but where's Tyler secret tunnel secret tunnel it's just llamas there's just Tina's everywhere I overreached I pushed myself to the absolute limit I wanted to I wanted to do so well I was doing so well and that's the thing look if you're not failing you're not trying so easy to not fail just don't do anything hard foreign this is the lowest I've ever been guess what time it is 9 30 at night it's not wild this is another world up here this is insane I can't even I can't even begin to describe what I'm seeing I mean he's persistent and he's mentally way tougher than he was a year ago two years ago when we started this thing I've been riding so well I actually sat a new FTP on this ride of 366 Watts my Garmin said 5.06 watts per kilo I hit a Max watt Sprint on this thing look I'm riding phenomenal and so then for this to just all be falling apart I can see Jamie and Jeremiah they are 60 vertical feet from me you know I didn't see him or looking I tried on the radio nothing I'm up there for a bit freezing just thinking okay let's get down and I see him pushing and pushing and it's time to go China well this is absolutely the wildest thing I've ever seen in my life and something I'll never forget I gotta get to the top I gotta get to the top come on just go go go go go [Music] the Sun is setting I'm 30 vertical feet from Jeremiah I can almost touch him and then the clouds rolling and Jeremiah yells turn around go down it's getting way too cold we have to get off the mountain I am 30 vertical feet from the top and I have to turn around I'm failing now maybe you'll say yeah but you failed other impossible routes it's not the same because Jeremiah got there when we failed before we failed together and it was sort of just like a logistical thing like yeah well it's not possible you just can't do it I failed something that was possible reaching that point literally within Arm's Reach is the lowest point I've ever experienced on a bike baby I don't eat this I don't need this driver's side [Applause] all right will you pop uh turn off my Wahoo Garmin thing turn it off uh it's paused uh just like but just I'm done I'm done okay I'm done I can't why don't you come on inside okay all right all right [Applause] this side this side this side this side you're good I'm sorry man absolutely brutal with a race component then um yeah uh Tyler's shutting down and and uh I mean I have my low moments and uh it was definitely questioning questioning the sanity of this ride finishing time for Lucian busy with seven out 17 hours and 12 minutes and um yeah we've exceeded that with definitely crushed ourselves well is uh is is bound to happen one of these that um I mean I I should have not finished any of these and uh and this one I'm really really upset I feel like I'm gonna cry like like I'm holding back tears really I'm crying right now uh God damn it [Music] sorry uh got him pretty emotional right now that feels weird uh you can't put yourself in danger and that's just the facts and when you look at the the idea is to push ourselves in a finer limit and to inspire people to find their limit and not to break themselves not to destroy themselves you know and that's not the point and if you gave your 100 percent then that is enough that's all you need to give it's all you need to give it's okay it's totally okay yeah I'm frustrated it could have been me in a second you know it could have been me if I had the knee pain kept getting worse and worse and that's just uh just how it is and you'll be back come over sorry man you got it the good thing is we we get another day I get another day this isn't the end we still have to get all the way to the other side of France through the Pyrenees I can regroup I can finish strong and I have no doubt that I'm going to do that I'm having quite the bounce back last night was the lowest point I've ever had personally was crying um I was very upset with myself it was rough last night we are now going to embark on a day tomorrow that is harder than yesterday more climbing less miles on paper on paper I think it's going to be smoother there'll be no insane question mark sections and we get to start with a good downhill I say we just take it and see how far we can make it and just roll with it we are going to make it to the east coast of uh of France we're gonna ride all the way across through the Pyrenees it's gonna happen how long it's going to take and how many excuses I make that's up for discussion good morning so jet lag and time and everything's an illusion so I don't really know how long ago it was when I was crying on that Mountaintop but at that point I was really upset that there's no way I'm going to finish this project we had our little rest day uh regroup I ate as much as I possibly could and even going to bed I was like one of those things where you just have to let your body move through space my mind is just filling with doubt and doubt and doubt and I'm looking at the route we have today and it's harder than yesterday and I'm just not even comprehending how this is possible that's okay hey mind do whatever you're gonna do but my body is going to move through time and space and then things will be done this is where we had Tyler freezing and had to load in the car on the gravel climb up to Peak to me d uh he was just Frozen and uh this is where we stopped so this is where we're starting you ready to finish this yeah but that means that our our next ride is significantly longer with lots of climbing so on paper it is less miles more climbing 150 miles 22 000 feet of climbing I don't even know what to say about that but we're gonna start with a huge descent we just connected exactly where we stopped on day one so there is no break in Chain of the route from West Coast to East Coast now that's really cool but we have 40 miles and lots of thousands feeds of climbing before we even get to the start of stage two for the day [Applause] [Music] all right coming out of our rest day uh a lot of questions I'm coming off of the lowest point I've ever been in my personal growth journey I was confident that if I could do my rest day right I could bounce back to 100 for stage two and we picked up the competition as before and a writer who had been cut or dropped out the day before can continue and try for stage wins and I was like all right well let's let's still race and Jeremiah is only up in the Yellow by one point now what we decided to do was instead of racing every single climb on the course uh we were going to just pick three big climbs to go after that obviously favors Jeremiah because he's really good at the long stuff but it doesn't matter I am full gas racing my goal is to take back this yellow Jersey and I start to sort of test out the legs a little bit what was my recovery day like how did I how am I going to bounce back but it was really interesting to see how that time and rest had them come to life and I expected it to be blown out but he was actually very strong came back and you can see why they had this Gap day or this it wasn't even a rest day because many riders were finishing at 2 am and then they'd start again at three or four a.m I am back to a hundred percent if not better I feel better now on this day than I did the other day [Applause] uh Tuesday night I did not think I was going to be smiling anymore for the rest of my life uh I'm in the most combative Jersey but guess who's in impossible route yellow here he is flexing okay but only by one point so we're not totally out of it we could be riding into purple on ion in the yellow but today's big and so we're gonna not attack each other on every single climb we're gonna pick three really pay attention to those I'm only down by one point bro I can do this I can make a comeback I promise we hit this absolutely insane descent and and Jeremiah probably knows the name of it look I'm not really familiar with all the famous descents and climbs in this area but it's a famous one so I'm told uh descending the parasaur most amazing descent I've ever done I think it's my favorite in the world thank you [Music] [Music] Tyler look at this this is the right turn we made by accident wow this is fate right here I'm gonna get one of these baguettes I'm gonna eat like uh get an espresso get one of these sun hats this is so crazy get air in one of these bags this is very very special wrong turn into a farmer's market through this alley way that's like the most French thing ever and we've got this snack stops of snack stops there's got to be 700 700 different vegan options here cheers all right we're not frozen life is good I feel like I'm on like some vacation tour like this at this moment [Music] unbelievable man I mean okay yesterday it was real hard to find any sort of vegan food I just have all this dried fruit we have strawberries mangoes papaya kiwi uh apricot straight into the bag it goes so I'm all about new experiences I really like to try to just have every experience possible and that right there for me was a really really cool experience I'm never gonna forget that that's gonna be one of those well one time when I was riding through France in The Basque Country I stopped at a farmer's Mark I mean this is an amazing thing and I'm so happy to have shared it with you Jeremiah that was awesome just one of those things you can't script it's just real you pop through an Alleyway after a wrong turn and you find a Disneyland of fruit and baked items and flowers everywhere that's just what it's about okay so we're having just a blast right and then we kind of realize we still haven't even finished day one so we're way behind uh we have a long way to ride we we've got two days to go 280 miles and 37 000 feet of climbing uh so we kind of have to like put our head down yeah and let's start rolling let's go we hit this really big road climb and it's not for points but Jeremiah he's testing he's testing to see where my legs are to see see how much of a threat I'm gonna pose to him on this day so he starts ramping it up for no reason this isn't a race but he starts 280 300 320 350 and I'm on his wheel and I'm on his wheel and I I have to prove to him that I am better than I was I got I gotta play some mind games so I'm not breathing hard I'm just like oh it's no big deal I'm out of the saddle kind of dancing internally blowing into pieces foreign [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] [Applause] [Music] notes of Interest poi didn't drop and we're now done with day one so ideally we would have been here uh Tuesday night but after riding all of what we just rode and starting at three in the morning and and and and like if we had not done that hika bike section and we started at midnight yeah maybe all right so here in lunch on classic finish for the Tour de France and also the finish of The Circle of Death Bayonne to lunch on from the ocean over all those mountains does it seem different now that you see it in real life yeah it's it's pretty wild I mean we did the slightly harder route but whatever doesn't matter that's crazy that they were able to do that and you got 22 gears I had all the technology yeah uh and then for them they've already done a bunch before that yeah so 10 days before that or nine days before that absolute certified badasses yeah yeah [Music] I've got a bag full of dried kiwis mangoes strawberries papayas my legs are back my lungs are back I'm ready to roll boys so we are taking up this climb and it's a it's a big one and look again okay I've won every cat four climb there is if it's uh short and if it's steep if we're sprinting you boys got it in hand but Jeremiah has now learned all my tricks he knows my weaknesses so he starts just slowly grinding me on this climb and he's just harder and harder and harder and I at my heart rate's just going through the roof and but I'm feeling really good I'm staying in there and so he starts to Gap me he starts to put in a real big effort and he gaps me about five seconds and we turn onto the gravel and I'm able to actually Excel and get over this little section and close the gap on him and then it was an all-out Sprint to the top so now if it was a road climb he's getting me but I'm back in the game [Music] [Music] thank you I just took this I just took it I took this really big climb so now I'm up three points Jeremiah's a little upset he's a little quiet we shake can't we bump fists it's like okay we're racing we're like we're trying to have a good time and stuff like that but Jeremiah definitely wants to win we fly through this gravel section it's just everything you could ever want it to be we have now entered into Spain so your boys Mr International went from France to Spain we're headed to Andorra I did get a side puncture in the tire and we plugged it now you remove your finger and three two one now get it on its side all the way up I don't understand what you're saying it's got to go down dude I like the hell have you used one of those before come on is it leaking put it down all the way to bottom should be good uh only thing we should have is a razor so you got to cut the excess so that you don't rub against the frame but I think we'll keep an eye on it and probably be all right nice work nice work so when we got down into Spain uh we pull over to these guys that had bikes and I don't know how to speak anything I barely can speak English can't speak French now I got to learn how to speak Spanish and so I just say like I need scissors so I just say these are scissors right oh perfect perfect Adora yeah wow we're in Spain that's insane it's insane insane insane in the brain insane [Music] so this next part is probably one of the greatest personal moments of my life uh we are climbing up this crazy climb in Spain like how am I even here it's hot I take off my jersey I got no shirt on now yeah am I Mr Olympia no okay uh my body I'm really self-conscious of it that's all good there's just something about taking off my jersey riding with like the bib straps down Spanish air is soaking into my skin and my vibe level through the roof the smile internally is unlike anything I've ever experienced in my life [Music] foreign [Music] this is insanity there's really I wish I was a wizard of words but here's the thing words fail at this point because no matter what I tell you it's it won't give you a Feeling I can only just explain feelings and I don't even I've never felt these feelings before like what this is what this looks like what this smells like what it tastes like it's just unlike anything I could have ever imagined this trip would be [Music] bikes did this [Music] foreign climb now this one's Road and it's long it's like 3 400 feet this one is for all the marbles this is it if I win this one that's it's over it's done if I don't I have one more chance my whole life has led to this one moment this is it your boy's got no shirt I'm feeling on top of the world I feel so freaking good it's unbelievable and in this moment I'm thinking oh I got this [Music] thank you [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] didn't think I'd be sprinting at the top of a HC climb but he's getting faster I mean I was doing 500 watts nailing it it was amazing it's awesome nice work you know what that was fun yeah that was so fun that was a good one good yeah kicker we have one more to finish off today and what's that put us on points that puts you two points ahead [Music] you know we both have families and you know there's only so much you can put in a video but it is so very important uh that our support team at home stays happy and and gets the acknowledgment I mean both our wives are just grinding oh we got 20 000 feet of climbing cool they've got two kids non-stop I stopped working bills paperwork laundry dishes food yeah it is it's huge and Aaron's she's really supported me throughout my entire career as a racer and you know that's that's something that's robbed her of opportunities so yeah thinking about all the ways that will do some great things together when we get back love you babe love you Aaron [Music] we get to the back side of the mountain Kingdom and we hit the third and final crazy points available climb very technical very steep Jeremiah knows that if he goes long he has it if he just puts an hour power down like there's no way I can beat him and so he goes this time from over 2 000 vertical feet out I mean like a five mile attack and he just starts to pull this gap on me now I have a long ways to go so I try to settle in I try to spin and this is a moment for me physically that I am so very proud of I've obviously rode really well on day one I've been at the lowest of lows at the end of day one I've been riding really well here on day two and my power is solid and I'm not gonna crack he's got such a gap he's out of sight so then I'm like okay well he thinks I'm gone so now I'm gonna I'm gonna do these huge surges when he can't see me to close the gap so then I do that oh boy there he is Gotta Go Gotta Go Gotta Go ah he's trying to shock me but I saw him coming today closed right looks back and he's like here he comes so then he opens the Gap again and it was so frustrating because I was just on the absolute limit and I'm just just Out Of Reach of Jeremiah and then we turn on to like a little bit of a flatter section and I mean I wish I could have gone any harder but I literally emptied the tank foreign [Music] getting long in the tooth but holy cow this dirt road and that climb this beautiful beautiful additions uh I can't believe this road is just amazing uh perfectly smooth dirt and through the pine trees you can hear the whistle of the Wind Through the pine trees [Music] but I want to bring this back to something in that Jeremiah in episode zero Hawaii was bored he was waiting for me he's like oh my God this guy come on let's go you know he just had to leave me he got fully dressed and changed and came back to get me while I was laying on the ground so to compare that sort of level of disparity and fitness to now and so for me that felt like wow what a what a crazy Journey this has been I I'm I'm bummed I didn't win I wanted to win obviously I'm competitive but I love this foreign [Music] foreign [Music] so now the stage two we have broken into two pieces but since the 1926 guys they finished that stage we didn't give ourselves another rest day we just jumped right on the bike immediately after this day and headed towards the coast which starts with 9 000 feet of climbing in 40 miles we are in Andorra La Villa the main city in indora it's like a little Las Vegas it's really a strange and unique place and I need to shift gears literally need to shift gears because everything here is like straight up or straight down 125 miles today but it has got to have a Crux of course if it's an impossible route so we have this 4 700 foot climb in 10 miles climb up past the pine trees and an up over tree line into the Alpine Zone where I hope we'll get to see one of the best views the entire ride and then we make our way toward the coast where I'll be looking forward to jumping into the ocean also you can see he's back in yellow and I'm just in regular team kit I gave it my all I'm proud with my effort but he gets to parade into perpignon or maybe we can have a a Sprint to the final but other than that I think that competition is come to a conclusion and surprise surprise the winner [Music] so we get to the Pinnacle of this trip where we're going to climb over the highest point in Andorra it's gravel it's like a ski resort this is going to be really difficult now the Jersey thing is done Jeremiah's in yellow cool we're gonna have one final Sprint at the very end but for right now look we're just trying to just trying to get to the coast [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] yeah come on come on come on come on go on we make it to the top we're at the highest point of Endora looking over this site that in in my wildest dreams I would have never imagined myself in this point with this person doing these things and like I don't want to be all hyper motivational you start something not knowing where it's going to take you like I I started the YouTube channel for no like I was just bored and I didn't know what to do and I had no money and I sucked and you just keep grinding you keep doing something you just put one foot in front of the other and you don't really know what it's going to lead to but if you just keep doing that if you trust in the process all of a sudden you're on a Mountaintop with a two-time national mountain bike champion in Andorra [Music] but it's short-lived and that's what's really weird about these experiences you do all this work to get to this point and we maybe spent three minutes and it's like we gotta go oh yeah you got it smell the champagne [Applause] foreign ski slope that was so sketchy it looks like we made it back down to the bottom and back on a good route [Music] never underestimate the value of adversity adversity is something you don't want adversity is not something you ask for I mean hell adversity is not always something you wish on your enemy but adversity to those with a mind that has been trained is a gift [Music] to find resolve to have purpose to overcome to creatively fix the bike to find the route to make things happen you otherwise thought you could not make happen and I think it's a magical thing it's a magical thing it's not about [Music] the equipment it's about just making it happen ing [Music] [Music] so there's always these parts in these trips where you're over the crest you're over the harbor everything difficult all the unknowns all the questions that are behind you like a Tailwind of motivation driving you forward to the finish line [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] this experience has changed the way that I will think and behave for the rest of my life and that is what experiences are destined to do is to change how you interact with the world I've never left America I have now all of a sudden been in multiple countries seeing all these crazy sites by bicycle which is really the only way to experience a new land you feel the elevation and the changes in in temperature and the people and just you connect with it in a way that is unbelievable I know it's not about racing I know the impossible route isn't a race but since we're doing a Tour de France sort of you know collab here if you will the raising component was a huge part of this at we had Adventure we had exploration you know but we also had just absolutely turning herself inside out and just like they do racing into the final stage of the tour me and Jeremiah go heads up on a final Sprint into proponion [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] [Music] foreign is not impossible [Laughter] nice work cash nice work we did it [Laughter] oh yes oh man well we have uh yellow winner yellow Jersey winner Jeremiah Bishop oh he absolutely crushed it that was a life-altering experience for me it was very hard but I felt more connected to cycling during this one than maybe just bushwhacking an adventure and and it's all great everything's great but like that was we rode our bikes we rode our bikes hard uh we rode over a lot of these famous climbs we we sort of tried to embody what these crazy people did in 1920s the legends of the sport you know and a lot of people don't understand how significant this uh element of cycling is and where the words come from and where so much of the history in pageantry for cycling originated and if you want to learn the language of cycling you should need to learn a little bit of French is hard for me but that was an absolute incredible ride I appreciate you getting me out of my comfort zone experiencing the world I'm Mr International now I've been to France and then we rode into Spain and then to Andorra and the amount of climbing we did it was and the nice Sprint finish yes here here you go here you go these are freshly picked up this lady's uh porch so we have to be quick here I mean in the end it was really difficult to say if we succeeded or failed and I think it's a bit of both we learned a lot of the history we did understand a little bit more about the Golden Era of the Toyota France and what the writers experienced and went through and I think in that regard it was a big success so in closing uh I think that for me on this one I learned a little bit about expanding my horizons and having an experience that's beyond Adventure that's beyond bikes that's beyond a personal thing I experienced new culture and how other people live and just it broadened my horizons so very much and and I literally will act and behave and think differently after this one I also am so very proud with my Fitness on this one I really felt like we raced and uh and I think that we deserve some champagne so oh yeah okay [Music] I remember [Music] when we used to be in love and we thought that nothing nothing could ever keep us from partying leaving this romance behind but now you're gone and all I have is [Music] anymore I still think about you cause baby [Music] I didn't forget you baby [Music] we're room 200 there's a dog in that room hello okay are you sure you're 200. the key worked all right let's

Channel: VC Adventures

Views: 430,306

Keywords: vegan cyclist, vegan cycling, health and fitness, bicycle riding, road bikes, cycling, bike racing, cycling tips, the vegan cyclist, go pro cycling, cycling go pro, bike hacks, cycling racing, tips for cycling, vegan athlete, cycling videos, cycling workouts, sufferfest cycling

Id: TsUOUqhDOX4

Length: 98min 19sec (5899 seconds)

Published: Wed Nov 23 2022