Many miles to go...

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1 Comments
In 2013, when I last rode the Tour Divide one of the many challenges I found along the route was simply managing my own expectation of the miles ahead, based on signage and speaking to other riders. The biggest contributing factor to this was, I am a metric guy. Growing up and everywhere I have ever lived have always used kilometers, so the concept of miles is very foreign to me. Before my attempt on the race last time I tirelessly converted the entire map cue sheets to kilometers and rode my race metric style. However, I immediately became aware that the majority of riders and distance covered are non-metric, so “30 more to go to the next” X, set very different expectation in my mind vs. the person or signage I was communicating with.

So, starting from today I am switching over all of my devices, routes and planning into miles in anticipation of my 2015 attempt.  I really want to do it earlier rather than just before, as I think it will be important to have a confident understanding what 10 or 100 miles feel like, as mentally I will be able to gauge my likelihood to get to the next point/milestone.  More importantly it will allow me to be able to communicate with my fellow riders in a common currency of miles which again, will hopefully give me a richer experience rather than tuning out on an important conversation about the distance to the next Subway sandwich stop.


My advice for anyone else thinking about doing this or simply did not cross your mind, I would strongly suggest doing it. It costs you nothing which is rare in preparing for this race, but will give you one less thing to try and work out in the mathematical formula whilst out on the bike, and trust me you spend a lot of time doing math in your head!  

The other benefit of switching to miles is it makes the route becomes much shorter – instead of 4.4K you just need to do 2.8K!


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About Post Author

Passionate mountain-biker with a full time job, attempting to ride the Tour Divide in 2015. Hoping to share my story here in hopes that it will educate and inspire those attempting to ride the Tour Divide.

1 comment:

  1. macnicNovember 20, 2014 at 5:30 PM

    But mental math and endurance fatigue are so much fun!!! Divide by 5, multiply by 8; close enough! :-) I can't wait to keep following your adventure!

    ReplyDelete

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TOUR DIVIDE

TOUR DIVIDE
The Tour Divide is an annual mountain biking race traversing the length of the Rocky Mountains, from Canada to the Mexican border. Following the 2,745-mile (4,418 km) Great Divide Mountain Bike Route, it is an extreme test of endurance, self-reliance and mental toughness. The race format is strictly self-supported, and it is not a stage race - the clock runs continuously from the start until riders cross the finish line.

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