Twenty days, 22 hours, and 36 minutes.
That’s all it took for 30-year-old Sault cyclist Joel Wenham to complete the nearly 4,400 km-long Tour Divide race, which is widely regarded as North America’s toughest test for biking enthusiasts.
“I’ve definitely been called crazy many times,” Wenham laughed.
The Velorution bike shop manager began his adventure of a lifetime in Banff, Alberta on Jun. 9 before crossing the finish line at the U.S.- Mexico border in Antelope Wells, New Mexico in the early hours of June 30.
Setting an ambitious goal from the beginning to complete the race in 20 days meant that Wenham would have to average 220 km of riding every day.
He achieved the impressive feat with less than 90 minutes to spare.
“I definitely did push it at the end there,” he says. “On the last day, I woke up at about 3 a.m. to start riding. I did the math, ended up sleeping about 45 minutes, then pushed my bike to 6 a.m. the next day. I was really happy to finish it. There are a lot of people who quit the race, so finishing it was my big goal.”
“I had an idea it was possible, but making it happen was something else. I was very surprised and pretty relieved I was within that goal.”
Out of the 185 cyclists at the Tour Divide, Wenham finished 40th overall, and was one of just nine riders who raced with a single speed bike.
“I race all my bikes single speed – I’m one of those weirdos who do that,” he laughed. “But I only have to think about one thing and it’s less maintenance overall. A lot of the single speed guys seem to be pretty quick.”
Biking across two Canadian provinces and five U.S. states in all sorts of weather conditions, Wenham estimates 90 per cent of the race was off-road terrain, while the remaining 10 per cent were paved roads.
“It ranged anywhere from country roads where it was gravel, to single-track trails like what we have at Hiawatha, to mountain passes where it was big boulders you couldn’t ride your bike on, and you’d have to walk your bike for long distances,” he explains.
“Each state had something that was totally different about them that was tough, but it was really cool too. Colorado had all these giant peaks, and the elevation was really tall. Then you’d pop into New Mexico, and it was really hard because it was hot, and the roads were a lot rougher than Colorado for example.”
Throughout his 20-day trek, Wenham says that some of the most memorable moments didn’t come from the race itself, but from the hospitality he was shown from complete strangers he encountered along the way.
“One of the things I was blown away by were how good the people around were,” he says. “The people I interacted with, whether it was the racers or people in the towns – they’re just good humans.”
“In Wyoming, I was having a beer and a burger at a bar and got talking to a couple there about what I was doing, and they ended up buying my dinner for me. There are just such good people out there, so it was a great experience that way.”
Having competed in a number of single-day, 100-mile races like Crank the Shield in the past, Wenham says he felt confident in his physical abilities to find success at the Tour Divide.
But he admits the mental side of the race was taxing at times.
“The mental part was definitely the toughest part,” Wenham says. “I was not a morning guy, so every time I’d wake up, I’d be really slow and lethargic, but then three hours later I’d be feeling much better and was flying. The motions were up and down a bit each day.”
Despite some mechanical issues along the way, Wenham crossed the finish line in New Mexico last Friday where he shared a warm embrace with his fiancée Katie, as well as his parents and future in-laws.
“That last day was pretty emotional,” he says. “I didn’t know my parents had flown down, so they surprised me. It was a really cool moment.”
Wenham says the support from his family, friends, and Velorution crew throughout the race helped him stay motivated and ultimately made his 20 days of racing not only tolerable, but enjoyable.
“It was amazing how many people were congratulating me and giving me messages of hope,” he says. “I was so lucky with the support I had.”
“I tell my friends that since I turned 30 this year, I kind of wanted to have a ‘quarter-life crisis,’ like I have to do something cool,” he laughed. “Looking back, it was all really a bit of a blur. I wasn’t counting the days or tracking my mileage as closely as other people would. I was going with how I felt day by day.”
Even though the avid cyclist had never done anything this extreme before, Wenham says he’s already considering competing in the Tour Divide again in the future.
“Maybe not next year, I might need a couple years off,” he laughed. “But I have a time to beat now.”