Singletrack/MTB
Gravel/All-road
Dirt-road Touring
Fat-bike
The 2023 Tour Divide clock just struck one week, and the leaders are just at the halfway mark, albeit stuck in the mud. In this update, we take a look what’s gone on over the last couple of days and showcase an excellent gallery from the field by photographer Eddie Clark…
Photos by Eddie Clark
Rain and muck was the headline during the first few days of the 2023 Tour Divide, and there are still storms floating around to keep things interesting. However, the weather started to change on Wednesday in southern Montana with the arrival of some welcome sunshine and wind that started drying out the route for some riders. The lead photo above shows Katya Rakhmatulina enjoying some relatively dry gravel. Katya is having a great ride overall, and the 28-year-old from Oakland, California, is now in second place in the women’s category and is currently about 115 miles behind women’s leader Lael Wilcox. However, Katya’s ride isn’t without issues. As reported on Instagram, her bags have slowly been wearing holes in her brake hoses, causing major issues.
Lael is having one hell of a ride and reported to passerby John Stamstad, “Oh, I’ll catch up with ’em,” when John relayed out of his car window that she was in seventh place. Lael is currently 40 miles ahead of her own record pace, sitting in seventh place overall as I’m typing this. That said, she’s had her fair share of setbacks, including a stand-off with a skunk!
Elsewhere in the women’s field, 25-year-old Texan Hannah Simon is in a close third about 70 miles behind Katya, and Australians Sacha Dowell and April Drage are just ahead of fan-favorite singlespeeder Alexandera Houchin, pictured above grinding out the miles.
In the men’s race, tables were turned on Wednesday when 37-year-old Jens Van Roost caught up with Justinas Leveika and Ulrich Bartholmoes in Lima, Montana. The Belgian intercepted the Lithuanian and German riders at a small roadside eatery—that I heard has excellent BLTs, for the record. The two had been leading the race since day one without another rider coming close to them until Jens showed up. Watching from afar, we wondered what the conversation was like between the three of them, and whether Jens felt like the odd man out since Ulrich and Justinas had been pedaling together for several days… and were probably hoping not to see anyone else catch up with them. Apparently Jens has been diligently planning this Tour Divide attempt for over two years, and it shows, as he’s putting down an incredible effort.
As fate played out later that day, Justinas had to leave the course after experiencing a charging malfunction with his AXS derailleur battery. He was forced to hitch a ride in attempt to find a new charging cable or charger, which put him well behind Ulrich and Jens, who kept moving. Justinas was able to quickly get back on track and caught up with them late Thursday, and the three kept within a few miles of one another for the afternoon. Ulrich wasn’t without issues, ether, as he reported achilles pain throughout the day on Thursday.
Once the three were back in eyeshot distance is when the real trouble started. Entering the Great Basin, another storm set them back as they encountered thick mud. Watching the dots on Trackleaders last night, they moved less than two miles in around two hours. This morning, Mike Hall’s 2016 record dot was now 30 miles ahead of them, and their three dots were at a standstill as they hunkered down some 43 miles north of Wamsutter. It appears the rains are fading northward of the riders, but only time will tell how long it takes them to get them through the sticky wet mud and out of this zone—and how far behind Mike Hall’s record dot they will drift.
Some 100 miles back, a strong group of five riders has been battling for fourth place. That includes Americans Chris Burkard and Ezra Ward-Packard, Steven Le Hyaric from Paris, France, Joe Nation from New Zealand, and of course Lael Wilcox. This group has been close to one another for a while. As of this writing, Lael and Steven are hunkered down in Pinedale, and the three other got an early morning start with Joe Nation and Chris Burkard putting up a 30+ mile lead.
With Joe Nation now in fourth place, it’s worth adding that he may have a significant rest advantage over the majority of the leaderboard, according to the Run/Rest data in Trackleaders. While he’s still 100 miles in deficit, that could play a role in helping him maintain. Given his average speed, substantial rest time, and the fact that the three leaders are still stuck in the mud, I wouldn’t be surprised to see Joe make a significant move this morning. Then again, rest may not reflect sleep. When chatting with Neil Beltchenko about it, he mentioned that a part of Lael’s strategy is taking very short snack stops instead of long lingering times, and she’s still getting significant sleep breaks. That’s where looking at those short horizontal lines in the Race Flow screen on Trackleaders is telling, seeing how long folks are actually sleeping.
For additional insight on the ins and outs of the race, check out Josh Ibbett’s latest video from day seven:
Check out the 2023 Tour Divide Tracker page to follow along on the live tracking map, find our Rigs of the Tour Divide roundups, and see more event coverage. Find it here.
Further Reading
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