Preparing for the Long Haul: Across the Great Divide
by Associate Professor of Environmental Health, Jacki Klancher
On June 8, 2018 five CWC students will embark on a very, big, bike ride. If the ride is examined as one large mouthful, the primary emotion is terror. The ride needs to be looked at in hours, then days, and finally weeks on the bike. The ride is the Great Divide Mountain Bike Ride - 2700 miles of remote bicycling along the spine of continental US. Tackling this event has taken eight months of preparation.
Like getting a college degree, even starting this ride is daunting. It requires commitment and time. The finish is so far out on the horizon, it is almost unimaginable. These five students have been thinking, talking, meeting, dreaming, shopping - oh yeah and spending hours on their bikes - in preparation for this event since October 2017. They have investigated various fundraising opportunities (finally settling on raffling off a bike from Gannet Peak Sports), have talked in detail about how to get the most out of their knees, their quads, and their bottoms, and have visualized what it will be like to finally launch on the ride. Most have not yet begun to even think about the END. The first step is starting.
From the first hour out of the gates, there is little about this ride that can be noted with any great certainty. Of the just under 200 riders starting at the YWCA in Banff, AB, only 25% will finish. During the first week, close to 100 riders will need to withdraw their participation due to injury, mechanical problems, or the unfortunate discovery that this was not nearly as much fun as it sounded on television.
The ride, suffice to say is difficult. It taxes tendons, and temperament, spirit, and stamina.
Along the path there are bears, mud, rain, snow and ...sometimes, miles and miles of nothing. In the morning it is often cold, by mid-day the wind can be howling , and by afternoon the temps might be blistering hot. Bike parts that work great for one hour, or three, or even eight, act up after 14 hours of steady use, day after day. Bodies that work well for a weekend ride start to revolt after day after long day. And for those bottoms, well, I will leave that to your imagination.
The road ahead is not always dry, nor the path wide ...
But it is often both beautiful and
rewarding.
Please long onto the Great Divide
Mountain Bike Route and cheer on these CWC students: Aaron Strubhar, Zac
Giffin, Paul Stuckey, Tobias Osborne, and Sara Schoreder. They all have
different end points, and different strategies for getting to their
destinations. Some need to be back in Lander for family commitments and will
end in Wyoming. Two plans will go all the way to Antelope Wells, New Mexico.
But, the most important thing of all, they have all made the first step - they
committed to training, to trying, and to starting. They will bite off one hour
at a time, one day at a time, and will participate in what may well be the hardest
physical challenge of their lives. Wish these students well and follow them
online at: http://trackleaders.com/divide
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| The riders and their supportive bike friends at Gannett Peak Sports, Lander, WY. It takes a village! |
