Colorado riders swept the world’s longest mountain bike race. Boulder’s Kurt Refsnider and Gunnison single-speeder Jefe Branham pedaled into Antelope Wells, N.M., early Sunday, finishing the 2,745-mile, Canada-to-Mexico Tour Divide race in a scant 16 days.
Refsnider won the race, finishing in 15 days, 21 hours, 1 minute, averaging 169.55 miles a day. The single-geared Branham finished in 16 days, 16 minutes and averaged 167.69 miles a day. Both stopped moving for about six hours a day during their heroic push south in one of the closest battles in the storied self-supported race that traverses the Great Divide Mountain Bike Route roughly following the Continental Divide.
Branham and Refsnider traded leads, with Refsnider logging a staggering 360-mile single push to shave Branham’s lead across the Montana-Wyoming border.
Crested Butte ski patroller Ethan Passant was tracking to arrive in Antelope Wells sometime Monday night to claim third place, and Boulder’s Caroline Soong was leading the women’s division late Monday, about 2,100 miles into the race.
British Columbia’s Paul Attalla on Sunday won the Tour Divide’s first south-to-north race, arriving in Banff 16 days, 2 hours, 58 minutes after starting June 10 in Antelope Wells. On Monday, reported 58 racers still on the trail, with 26 racers having scratched.
Jason Blevins, The Denver Post
