Ashley's Journey to the Tour Divide

Learning about the Divide

At the end of 2021, Richard first discovered the Tour Divide. We started watching documentaries about it together, and before long, I was intrigued too.

I had always loved biking, but up to that point, most of my riding had been on the local bike path I grew up on as a kid. As Richard went deeper down the Tour Divide rabbit hole, I followed along. I read the books he recommended, watched more YouTube videos.

Richard, true to himself, quickly decided to enter the 2022 Tour Divide mountain bike race. I, however, was not ready to make that leap. I did not feel like I had the bike-handling skills, and I was not even sure I wanted to ride more than 2,700 miles over the course of a month, all the way from Banff, Alberta, to Antelope Wells, New Mexico, on the border with Mexico.

But I did want to start testing the waters. So I began joining Richard on some of his training rides, on the gravel roads out at Capitol Forest. In June, I joined him in Banff to cheer him on at the start of his first Tour Divide.

Testing the Waters

At the beginning of 2023, I wanted to get more serious about developing my bike-handling skills. During a visit to Arizona with Richard, I asked my sister-in-law, Sarah, if she would take mountain biking lessons with me. She was already into mountain biking and agreed to join.

I had always been scared of mountain biking because every time I tried it, I seemed to crash. While the Tour Divide does not have much singletrack, it does have some, and I knew this was a fear I would need to overcome. The lessons ended up being incredibly valuable. Having someone other than Richard coach me (sorry, babe) made a big difference. I learned how to handle my bike on singletrack trails, ride over rocky terrain, and trust myself more. Most importantly, I started to build confidence. I still think about the tips and tricks I learned during those lessons to this day.

In June 2023, I joined two of my best friends, Allix and Tiffany, on a trip to Portugal. The three of us all love biking, so we decided it would be fun to start the trip with four days of riding. We signed up with a company that transported our luggage from place to place while we biked through wine country and small villages. It was the first time any of us had ridden multiple days in a row, and we all loved it. That trip was my first real taste of bike touring. It was fun and just challenging enough to make me wonder whether riding the Divide someday might actually be possible.

First Bikepacking Trip

After getting back from my Portugal trip, I felt more excited than ever about biking. Richard and I used our sixth wedding anniversary as the perfect excuse to plan our first bikepacking trip together in August 2023.

We rode from North Bend, over Snoqualmie Pass, to Cle Elum. It was my first time riding with extra gear on my bike, although we kept things relatively simple by staying in a motel in Cle Elum. That meant I didn’t have to carry a full camping setup, which made the trip feel like another great stepping stone toward the Tour Divide.

We had such a great time. More than anything, I felt a huge sense of accomplishment after riding about 60 miles each day with gear on my bike. The trip helped reinforce that bikepacking was something I could genuinely enjoy

Committing to Biking

In fall 2023, I decided I wanted to commit to a more structured training plan. Richard was already using TrainerRoad and helped me get set up with my own account. I started riding three times a week. I learned about heart rate zones, FTP and all the numbers that come with structured cycling. As a data nerd, I found it all so interesting and exciting.

Around that same time, one of Richard’s friends told us that one of the best ways to become a stronger rider was to join group rides. So Richard and I started riding with the Capital Bike Club in 2023.

At the beginning of 2024, Richard decided to join the CBC race team. He encouraged me to join too, but I was hesitant. I felt like I had only just started taking biking more seriously, and I wasn’t sure I was ready to race. Richard pointed out that having races on the calendar would give me something specific to train for, instead of just training for the sake of it.

After a couple weeks of debate, I decided to give it a try. I ended up really enjoying the community that came with being part of the race team. As a former runner who used to compete, I also loved the energy and atmosphere of race days. I found that I liked traveling to new places around the Pacific Northwest for races, and each event pushed me to ride farther and faster than I ever had before.

By June 2024, I completed my first century ride with Richard. By the end of the year, I had even started joining the group night rides. Step by step, I was growing my confidence in new and exciting ways.

All of these short-term accomplishments were happening while my long-term goal of riding the Divide was still in the back of my mind.

Going Further

In September 2024, Richard and I rode RAMROD, the Ride Around Mount Rainier in One Day. When I first learned about this massive one-day group ride, I knew I wanted to do it. It gave me another big goal to work toward in training, but it also felt special for Richard and me because we met while working at Mount Rainier together in 2011.

I’m so glad we were able to get into the event, since they limit the number of participants, and that we got to experience it together. For the first 90 miles, I felt great. With most of the climbing behind me, I started to feel a false sense of confidence about the 60 miles still ahead.

That ride taught me some valuable lessons, especially about fueling. After hours of eating mostly sugar, I was very excited for the sandwich offered to riders around the 90-mile mark. Immediately after that stop, though, I became noticeably slower and started struggling to keep up with Richard. With about 30 miles to go, I just wanted to push through to the finish.

I quickly learned that was the wrong move. For the first time, I experienced what it really feels like to bonk. With about 10 miles left, Richard had us pull over and encouraged me to eat a snack. I felt a little better after that, but I also realized I should have been fueling more consistently instead of trying to force my way to the end.

Even with that hard lesson, I was so happy to make it to the finish. I absolutely loved the experience as a whole. It was amazing to realize that I could ride almost 150 miles in a day and climb almost 10,000 feet. To this day, it is still my longest ride.

My First Mountain Bike and Big Tour

Knowing that I still wanted to work toward my goal of riding the Tour Divide, Richard and I decided it was time for me to get a mountain bike. Our good friend Darren has a side business building bikes called Woodpecker Cycles. We had seen his work and knew we wanted him to build me a bike designed specifically with bike touring in mind.

At the end of 2024, Darren built my bike, and it turned out amazing. Spoiler alert - It is the bike I will be riding on the Tour Divide in 2026.

At the beginning of 2025, Richard and I took my new mountain bike out on my first long bikepacking trip. We rode the South Island portion of Tour Aotearoa in New Zealand over 10 days. The route included some singletrack, which gave me great practice on my new bike.

I absolutely loved it. I felt like I just wanted to keep riding. I loved spending time in small towns we would have had no reason to visit otherwise. I loved making friends with other riders along the way and riding with them for multiple days. I loved the beautiful scenery, the challenge, and the feeling of freedom.

More than anything, the trip confirmed something important for me: I truly loved this kind of riding. It was proof that the Tour Divide was not just an idea I was chasing, but something I really wanted to do.

Second Big Bikepacking Trip

In July 2025, I joined one of my best friends, Allix, on her bikepacking trip across part of Norway. This was a road tour, so I left my mountain bike at home and brought my gravel bike, with road tires of course.

We had an unforgettable time riding through the magnificent Norwegian fjords, island hopping by ferry, freedom camping as much as we could, and eating plenty of cinnamon buns along the way.

By this point, I already knew I loved bikepacking, but this trip reminded me how many places there are to explore by bike. I was absolutely hooked and feeling more confidence that I understood what it meant to tour by bike.

The Tipping Point

In December 2025, right before Richard and I were scheduled to leave for a quick four-day bike tour, our kitty, Kira, passed away from kidney failure. It was, and still is, a huge loss for us. We loved her dearly and have so many special memories with her, from living together on our sailboat to road-tripping across the country. She was a truly special kitty.

Losing Kira made both Richard and me reassess what was important to us in life. I knew the Tour Divide was one of my big life goals, but I had not yet committed to a date. I had spent years preparing and finally felt ready. If I didn’t do it now, then when would I?

So in December 2025, while touring the Heart of the Octopus on the North Island of New Zealand, Richard and I decided we would finally commit to riding the Tour Divide together in June 2026.

This will be Richard’s third time riding the Divide, and I can’t fully express how much I appreciate him being willing to do it with me. I knew I didn’t want to ride it alone. Riding solo through grizzly bear country is a hard pass for me. To make it more interesting for Richard, we decided to ride from south to north, which will be his first time riding it in that direction.

While I still miss Kira so much every day, it felt good to finally commit to riding the Tour Divide.

The Challenge Begins!

I knew riding the Divide would be challenging. One of Richard’s fellow racers, Gary Johnson, once told us that in his experience, it was harder than the Seven Summits. What I didn’t realize was that the challenge would start so much sooner.

I already felt like I had a good foundation built from years of being active. I had started more structured bike training in 2023, but before that I had years of running, hiking, climbing, and other outdoor adventures behind me. So when I started my six-month training plan for the Tour Divide, I didn’t fully appreciate how taxing it would be.

I had never tried to fit 10 hours of training on the bike into an already busy week. Working full time while adding that much time on the bike was really difficult. My end-of-day downtime almost completely disappeared, and lazy weekend mornings became a thing of the past.

I was grateful for all of Richard’s guidance along the way. Since his first attempt at the Tour Divide in 2022, he had accumulated so much knowledge about training, gear, fueling, and what the route really demands. I was fully reaping the benefits of everything he had learned.

TrainerRoad once again became my guide as I intensified my training. It helped structure my rides, track my training stress score, and build up the number of hours I was riding each week. The gains I saw through this process were incredible. I have definitely come out the other side of this training as a much stronger rider.

Here we go!

While training was challenging, it also gave us the opportunity to spend so much time outside, riding and exploring the area we live in. Those long days on the bike were hard, but they also reminded me why I wanted to do this in the first place.

I can’t thank Richard enough for all his support and encouragement throughout training. Preparing for the Tour Divide has already challenged me in ways I didn’t expect, but it has also shown me how much stronger and more capable I have become.

It has taken a lot of work to get here. I’m excited, nervous, and grateful to finally be setting out to ride the Divide.