2011 Tour Divide Post 3: Caroline Soong Takes it Home

By Eddie Clark

2011 Tour Divide, post 3 of 3

Caroline Soong blazes to Antelope Wells as first female while New Mexico burns.

(June 27-July10, 2011) CONTINENTAL DIVIDE, N.A.—With much anticipation, rookie Tour Divide rider, Caroline Soong was the first woman to complete this year’s 2600+ mile romp along the Great Divide Mountain Bike Route.  Considering it was just Soong’s second year of mountain biking it’s quite the amazing feat.  It’s also worth noting that Soong is an accomplished long distance runner who arrived in Banff with a plan and a well honed bike packing setup.

As was expected, Crested Butte local Ethan Passant wrapped up his first Tour Divide in 3^rd place overall, and is supposedly still trying to unkink the claw-hand after effects that 2600+ miles of saddle time will inflict on a cyclist.

Behind Passant two formerly unknown rookies hailing from Georgia, Parker Smith and Robert Giannini finished a very respectable and 4^th and 5^th place.  Josh Shifferly and Aiden Harding, a veteran from last year, rode in close proximity and with the two for a good bit of the first half of the race. 

In Summit County, disaster struck when Harding’s frame broke at the rear drop out.  Aiden was forced to find a ride backwards to Steamboat Springs where Kent Ericson of Ericson Bikes handily re-welded his titanium Singular frame back together, and added a couple supports at the seat stay/chain stay junction to prevent further failures.  However, Harding lost a day’s worth of riding, and additionally had to re-ride the distance from Steamboat Springs back to Summit County where he stopped his forward progress.  Undeterred, Harding attacked the course and put in several impressive days worth of riding to get within a half day of Smith and Giannini before finishing at Antelope Wells.

After cresting Cochetopa Pass, Shifferly succumbed to an ailing quadricep problem, and withdrew while his home of Crested Butte was still within striking distance rather than doing further long term damage to his leg.

Behind the leaders, riders experienced more monsoon storms and forest fires resulting in on-the-fly course reroutes in Colorado and especially in New Mexico where several forest fires are still raging.  As riders approached Abiqui, NM, the air was thick with smoke and ash from the Los Conchas fire in the southern Jemez Mountain’s.  Once out of the smoke, riders were further battered with searing dry heat for the remainder of the route through New Mexico.  Re-supplying at every stop for water became an absolute necessity, and even still scores of riders were left riding for hours at a time in blazing sun with no water, which perhaps lead to several of the scratches that happened in New Mexico.

Surprisingly, only 29 riders scratched from the race this year.  Normally, the Tour Divide sees an attrition rate of 40-45 percent.  By the numbers, four very significant Continental Divide crossings were omitted in the first half of the race due to snow reroutes.  However, the alternate paved road section between Cuba, NM and Grants, NM made up for the earlier omissions in pure technicality.  It’s worth noting, though, that in crossing through those 120 miles of desolate Navajo Indian Reservation, you’d never know there were any Continental Divide crossings.

In closing, even the exact number of miles ridden for this year’s Tour Divide is a bit speculative due to vagaries in some of the reroutes.  Also, every rider did not navigate the exact same sections of the course because of changing conditions with forest fires and flooding.  With that said, it would be impossible to compare this year’s Tour Divide to any previous editions.  Regardless, just as Caroline Soong was the first female finisher, Kurt Refsnider and Jefe Branham soundly took first and second respectively and also served notice to other potential contenders that the human body and will is indeed stronger and more capable than previously thought.

Full results and Tour Divide info here.