There’s a major, month-long international sporting event starting on Friday, one that I’ll be following closely. No, not the World Cup, the Tour Divide, an “ultra-cycling challenge to race self-supported along all 2,745 miles of Adventure Cycling Association’s Great Divide Mountain Bike Route.”
At 9 AM Friday, the racers will roll out of Banff, Alberta, headed for Antelope Wells, New Mexico, on the Mexican border.
This year’s tour is of particular interest to us Seattle cyclists because our friend, fellow bike blogger, and general man-about-town-and-country-on-his-29er-single-speed, Kent “Mountain Turtle” Peterson, is riding his second-ever Tour Divide. Kent first rode in 2005, and held the course record for a single speed mountain bike (22 days) until last year, when the new record of 19 days was set by Chris Plesko. 51-year-old Kent hopes to best that this year, relying on a carefully selected kit of gear for 26 self-supported days and nights on his Monocog bike on the continental divide.
Why twenty six days? Well, because there’s one more detail that’s classic Kent: he rode from Issaquah to the starting line in Banff as a “prologue.” So he’s already been on the road since last Thursday, and reports today from Banff to his wife Christine that that “he feels very good about his fitness, the bike, his pack and camping gear and he’s ready to roll.”
Kent rolls out of Issaquah, accompanied by well-wishers, on his "prologue" ride to Banff.
There are multiple ways to follow Kent and the other Tour Divide riders as they make southward progress, riding a century or more a day for the next three weeks. Several other Seattle riders are also listed on the 2010 start list, and we’ll be tracking and rooting for them too. Each is wearing a beacon that puts them on the online map in real time, and Kent is updating by Twitter and other means whenever possible. Details about how to track Kent are here.
And really, there are only three words that seem appropriate to end with, the three that Kent always uses to close posts on his own poetic cycling blog.
Keep ‘em rolling!
All photos of Kent and his gear borrowed from his blog.
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
Woohoo! I’m almost famous! (I’m the guy immediately behind Kent.)
The roll-out last week was wonderful! Over a dozen riders left Issaquah with him, and six of us reached Snoqualmie Pass fifty miles and several hours later. (http://kentsbike.blogspot.com/2010/06/kent-rolls-out.html)
Sigh…Banff. I love Banff. I miss Banff. But I don’t think I would care to ride my bike to Banff – I remember all those hills from the drive!
What a great adventure!