Tour Divide Day 25

Day 25:

Daniel Thrush has completed his North Bound race in first place with a time of 24:04:22. Starting outside Fernie at 09:00 on Sunday Daniel put in a big push to ride through the night and finish at 12:30 on Monday.

(pic Bethaney Rentz)

Maxwell Southam was chasing hard behind in second place NOBO and also finished up on Monday with a time of 24:13:13, just a scant 9 hours back on Daniel.

(pic Bethaney Rentz)

At Antelope Wells, Del Gorton and Nigel Williamson completed their journey for 41st equal in 24:09:50

*We did it! Quite a few years ago we randomly watched a movie called Ride the Divide - about the toughest mountain bike race in the world. I was blown away - but thought I never want to do that. But time has a way of changing things. And Nige and I just did it. 4300km in 24 and a half days. Over many, many mountains along the Continental Divide from Banff in Canada, through the backcountry of Montana, Idaho, Wyoming, Colorado and New Mexico to the Mexican border. *

*We’ve been continually touched by the kindness and generosity of strangers, had the pleasure of riding alongside some fantastic people, and experienced the total magic of nature. We’ve made eye contact with bears, moose, deer, antelope, foxes, coyotes, beavers, elk, snakes and chipmunks; and been told off by squirrels. We’ve slept under enormous star lit skies and had the tent lit by lightning, waking to nothing but mountains as far as we can see. We’ve ridden through snow storms, been blasted by hail, raced through thunder and lightning, been in the furnace of desert heat and headwinds, and enjoyed the bluest skies. We’ve ridden over rock, mud and sand on dirt roads, back country passes, and the occasional single track. We’ve experienced all the magic that you get when you hand yourself over to nature and take it as it comes, raw and unfiltered. It was tough. But it was totally, absolutely amazing. *

*Gotta say thanks to our awesome dotwatchers for coming on the journey with us - I’ll post a video soon so you can see a bit of the ride outside of Google Earth! *

Until then, I’ll leave you with the most important life lesson we learnt - don’t let the flies get your nugget 🙂. — in Antelope Wells, New Mexico.

(Caption and Pic Del Gorton)

Just a few hours behind Glen Mactavish arrived at the Mexican border in 24:13:08 for 43rd place.

(caption and pic Janet Blessington)