After pedaling a tandem mountain bike 2,745 miles along the Continental Divide through snow and rain and extreme heat, putting in 18-hour days, this has to be a sign of a solid relationship:
Katie Newbury is still calling it a “fun experiment.”
Katie and her husband and co-pilot, Sam Newbury, will talk about their 19-day ride Wednesday at the Durango Public Library. As well as an adventure, it was also a fundraiser for the Sky’s the Limit Fund, a scholarship that helps at-risk youths afford wilderness therapy programs. They’ve raised more than $18,000 for the fund.
The Newburys began the Tour Divide on June 13 in Banff, Alberta, along with 130 other entrants. The Tour Divide is a loosely organized race along a route that follows the Continental Divide as best it can in deference to bicycles. It uses a lot of gravel roads, some singletrack and some pavement.
The Newburys rode the only tandem. When they hit the end of the ride July 2 in Antelope Wells, New Mexico, on the Mexican border, they were the third entrant to finish. It was the first time since 2009 a tandem attempted the ride. Whether a tandem is an advantage or disadvantage is up for debate.
“It draws a lot of attention and a lot of assumptions: ‘That’s cheating.’ ‘That’s crazy,’” Sam Newbury, 35, said in an interview last week. “There are definitely pros and cons to it. It definitely comes down to how you work together.
“If you’re not a well-functioning team, it can be a lot slower.”
They trained hard for the ride, clumping back-to-back 12-hour days this spring in New Mexico, said Katie Newbury, 32. Despite the hardships and the lack of sleep, they kept a strong pace during the Tour Divide and had to ask themselves, “Should this be harder?”
“We were riding super, super well,” Katie Newbury said. “We felt surprisingly strong. I think a huge part of that was our mindset.”
Both have experience in outdoor education and teach wilderness therapy. They met in 2006, bought their first tandem together in 2010 and married in 2012. They had ridden a few portions of what is called the Great Divide Route – put together by Adventure Cycling Association – and the idea to do the Tour Divide took shape.
“It’s an idea that’s been floated for about two years,” Sam Newbury said. “I would say the last seven months really 100 percent revolved around doing this race and turning it into a fundraiser.”
It is self-supported, so many of the challenges are logistical – for example, getting into town quickly for supplies along the route.
“That and the preparation were the two most stressful pieces of the process,” he said. “Once we were out on the road just pedaling and going uphill that’s a pretty simple task – even if it takes a long time.”
Obviously, teamwork is crucial on a tandem. The “captain” steers the bike while the “stoker” pedals from the rear.
“I think unlike most tandem teams we actually switch places every few days, which I think is quite rare,” Sam Newbury said. “I think that’s pretty integral to our success out there.”
Despite pushing through 10 to 15 miles of snow-covered track early in the ride, and a snowstorm the day of the start, they averaged 141 miles per day over 19 days. They reined in their speed a little bit and focused on endurance.
They didn’t crash, unless you count the time they fell over when Katie Newbury couldn’t get out of her clipless pedal.
When they hit the U.S.-Mexico border at Antelope Wells, it was about 105 degrees. But they were far from burned out, Katie Newbury said.
“We could have kept going.”
johnp@durangoherald.com
If you go
Tandem cyclists Katie and Sam Newbury will talk about their Continental Divide ride from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. Wednesday at the Durango Public Library. They will share photos and stories, and a raffle will raise money for the Sky’s the Limit Fund. Admission is free.
