Originally Posted by
dcrowell
I got the idea of doing the Tour Divide after reading Kent Peterson's writings about his attempt last year. I watched "Ride the Divide" a few weeks ago. It didn't deter me.
What is making it a no-go is training.
The thing to realize is that Kent is a mutant. I mean that in the nicest way possible; I've ridden with him and he's a really nice guy, great advocate for cycling, etc. But he's in a class above most when it comes to riding.
He's one of those guys that can survive on little to no sleep. He can fuel himself on garbage. No, really... we're talking about a guy whose personal slogan is "Not A Nutritional Role Model". He's done a 1200k fueled on little more than Payday bars and Starbucks. He can ride for hundreds of miles on trail mix and peanut M&M's. He won the Raid Californie-Oregon (1200k from SF to PDX, fixies only) then rode the additional 200 miles back to Seattle so he could go to work. By his own admission, he doesn't beleive in "training" either. When you ride 12,000/year you really don't need to do anything additional as training.
Most of us, with the right training, could finish a race like the Tour Divide or a 1200k brevet. Some people, like Kent, Vinnie M (over 40,000k RUSA distance last year), and Mark T (4x 1200k events last year) just have a different natural ability for the sport, and structured training doesn't play much into their routines.
I'm of the attitude that if it's not fun anymore, then why do it? I sort of wore the fun out of ultradistance last season, so I'm just not doing any this year. For some people, the fun is in pushing themselves past the limit. Different tastes for everyone, I suppose.
Good luck and good times in whatever you choose to do for your cycling.