lael wilcox tour divide

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Anchorage’s Lael Wilcox overcomes health scare and brutal weather to win endurance bike race

Lael Wilcox finished first among women around 3 a.m. local time Monday at the border to Mexico in the 2023 Tour Divide. (Photo by Rue Kaladyte)

Anchorage’s Lael Wilcox faced more than her fair share of challenges on the way to winning the 2023 Tour Divide women’s race. The 36-year-old endurance cyclist arrived in Antelope Wells, New Mexico, around 3 a.m. local time Monday after riding through the night to finish with a time of 16 days and 20 hours.

Wilcox finished with a 125-mile cushion over Katya Rakhmatulina, who came in second place the next day with a finish time of 17 days, 8 hours and 48 minutes.

This was her fifth time competing in the race that begins in Banff, Alberta, and ends at the U.S.-Mexico border in Antelope Wells, but it marked her first time winning the grand depart, which is the mass start race that takes place every summer.

Wilcox was the first woman to finish the race in 2015 with what appeared to be a record time of 17 days, 1 hour and 51 minutes, but she was disqualified for riding an old track. She went back later that summer and rode the race by herself as a time trial, setting a record for finishing in 15 days, 10 hours and 59 minutes. That mark still stands. She was disqualified again in 2019, and had to stop early in 2021.

“It feels great,” Wilcox said. “I’ve been going after this for eight years, and can finally say I won it.”

In 2015, the course had been changed by about 10 miles, but she said she didn’t receive the notification from an organizer. Wilcox famously rode 2,140 miles from Anchorage to Alberta for the start of the race. Back then, she was still using a flip phone and didn’t get great cell reception while riding through trails and mountain ranges.

“Since it was an old track, I could still officially break the record, but was out of that year’s race,” Wilcox said.

Wilcox said the 2023 race was “the hardest for sure” because of what she had to endure and overcome along the way, including “a health scare and some pretty crazy weather.”

“The first seven days, it rained in thunderstorms every single day, and then it created this really nasty, almost impassable mud that pretty much wrecked everyone’s bike,” she said. “Everyone had to go to bike shops to get their bikes fully rebuilt.”

Even when the rain stopped, the challenges persisted — this time, in the form of a “pretty consistent strong headwind coming out of the south.”

“That’s what really killed my lungs,” she said with a raspy voice that still hasn’t recovered. “Just breathing that dry, hot, dusty air. After a day of it, I just totally lost my voice and was struggling to breathe.”

Lael Wilcox finished first for women around 3 a.m. Monday at the border to Mexico in the 2023 Tour Divide. (Photo by Rue Kaladyte)

A couple of days later, she woke up severely dehydrated and throwing up while in New Mexico where there wasn’t much water and very few services. At that point, Wilcox was afraid that she might have to quit but didn’t.

“I rode myself to a hospital, got an IV, and then felt quite a bit better, so I was able to continue and finish the race,” she said. “I was just so happy I didn’t have to quit. It was pretty tough.”

Before the weather became a debilitating factor, Wilcox was on pace to break her record set back in August 2015. However, due to the muddy conditions, her progress was slowed significantly, and she was no longer at a record-setting pace.

“On those days, usually we’re riding some 10, 12 or maybe 15 miles an hour,” she said. “In the mud, you’re hardly walking a mile an hour. To do that for like 12 hours, you really don’t make it very far.”

Wilcox, who is from Anchorage but now lives in Arizona, was a full day ahead of her record time at that point in the race and had to watch that work evaporate. That didn’t matter to her in the grand scope.

“I was super driven to finish just so I don’t have that kind of on my shoulders,” Wilcox said. “I had to dig a lot deeper than I usually do just to kind of overcome all these circumstances. I feel like I gave it my all and I feel really good about that.”

[ With medals and mettle, Special Olympics Alaska athletes shine at 2023 World Games ]

Setting sights on a grander prize

At 2,700 miles long, the Tour Divide is one of the longest races that Wilcox has participated in during her eight-year racing career — and the one she has ridden the most. The longest race she has ridden is the Trans Am, which stretches 4,200 miles across the United States from the West Coast to the East.

She’s going for the triple crown of bikepacking this year with one down and two more coming up later this summer and fall.

The Colorado Trail Race in August is 500 miles of singletrack trail in August, and the Arizona Trail Race 800 is in October.

On average, it usually takes her a couple of weeks to recover from a race, and she has a fun recovery plan in store for this upcoming weekend.

“I’m heading back up to Montana, and I’m going to be guiding a stretch of the route that I just raced on an e-bike,” Wilcox said. “It should be a fun way to be outside and kind of spinning my legs but not working too hard.”

[ Oregon pitcher creates memory of a lifetime at the 2023 Alaska Legion Midseason Classic ]

Josh Reed is a sports reporter for the Anchorage Daily News. He's a graduate of West High School and the University of North Carolina at Pembroke.

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How Lael Wilcox Crushed the Tour Divide

A conversation with the new women’s record holder on the world’s hardest mountain bike course

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The men’s record on the Tour Divide wasn’t the only one to fall this year. Lael Wilcox, a relatively unknown 28-year-old woman from Anchorage, Alaska, shattered the three-year-old women’s record on her rookie attempt. Wilcox shaved more than two days off the previous fast time, stopping the clock on the 2,745-mile event in 17 days, 1 hour, and 51 minutes. And despite her lack of experience and a nasty chest infection for the first half of the race, she finished sixth overall out of more than 150 starters.

But those stats are only part of the story. Leading up to the race, Wilcox rode—solo—the 2,100 miles from her home base in Anchorage to the race start in Banff. The whole journey, from Anchorage to Mexico, was the culmination of 10 months of bike touring, mostly with her boyfriend Nick, in Eastern Europe, South Africa, and Israel. It’s the couple’s longest stint in eight years of on-again, off-again travel that sees them home for a spell to work and save money and then away for as long as they can ride and support themselves.

We caught up with Wilcox a few days after she completed her record-setting ride. She seemed neither tired nor bothered by the fact that she was headed home to Alaska to work for a while. “It’s all just part of the ride,” she said.

OUTSIDE : For most people, a 2,745-mile race is the biggest thing they will ever do. But this was just a stop along the way for you, right? WILCOX: My boyfriend, Nick, and I have been on the road for the past 10 months touring. We heard about this route in Israel called the Holyland Challenge , so we went over there to tour it. But the timing was right, and we decided to go race it. That was my first bikepacking race. And I thought, “If this goes well, maybe I’ll do the Tour Divide.”

So it went well? It was rad. Actually, it sort of turned into a shit-show. They happened to have a lot of rain, and the terrain just turned into crazy, crazy mud that you couldn’t ride through at all. So they had to stop the race, transfer us down south, and then restart it. When they stopped it, I was 40 or 50 miles ahead of everyone, but we restarted all together. I was the only woman, and you know these guys were like, “We’re not going to let her beat us again.” In the end, we rode about 600 miles of the 800. And I got second. I had a lot of fun.

You had only done one bikepacking race before the Divide? Yeah, and before the Holyland Challenge, I had never used a GPS. Nick would navigate, and I’d just follow. I was always really bad with navigation. So during that race, I learned how to navigate, and that changed my life. I was like, “Hey, I’m never lost anymore. I have this GPS that tells me where I am. It’s awesome.”

But before the Divide, you figured you’d just do a 2,100-mile prologue. Doesn’t that seem like a bad idea? I wouldn’t have raced the Divide without first doing the ride from Anchorage to Banff. I’m from Anchorage, and I had never taken that road down to the U.S., so I just saw it as an opportunity to see that connection. Everyone told me, “That’s too much,” and “Don’t do it. Just take the ferry.” But I didn’t want to hear about it. I just want to do my thing. Obviously it’s a hair-brained idea… [Lael laughs out loud at herself, as she does repeatedly through the interview.] But I mean, you know, go for it. I figured if it doesn’t work out, who cares? I’ll just move on. I could just ride somewhere else.

How was the tour down? It was a lot of alone time, even more than the Divide. I’d go 100 mile stretches and see no people. It’s all paved, but it still feels more remote. I saw like a hundred bears.

Actually, the ride from Alaska was mentally a lot harder than the Divide. No one really understood what I was doing. I was on the fringe. You’re this weird girl out on a bike sleeping on the side of the road, and people look at you strange. For the Divide, people know what you’re doing. They understand it. But when you tour by yourself, you’re a loner. It’s a cool experience, and I liked it. But it’s nice to know that there’s an end date, that I wasn’t going to go on forever like that, being alone, passing through the world. You engage with people more quickly because you’re alone. But it’s the northern country up there. For a lot of people, it’s like the end of the earth. There’s a lot of weird stuff going on. Like people hiding from society. 

After that ride, you spent a week recovering and then started the Divide. How did it go? The first day, I was riding really hard. I did 183 miles, and I was having so much fun. The weather was pretty bad. We had rain, freezing rain, and hail, and it was cold, and I felt that my lungs were starting to hurt, just burning. At first I thought they were just opening up, but then I got really short of breath, I was sort of gasping. I developed this sort of infection, though at the time I didn’t know what it was and I just kept moving along. But I couldn’t breathe, and after that first day I went slower. I walked a lot. And I was so tired that I had to stop early, like 9 p.m. every night.

In Helena, maybe six days in, I went to the urgent care. They took a chest x-ray and said I had some form of bronchitis, but that’s sort of an overarching thing. It was just some sort of respiratory infection. So they gave me an inhaler, which really helped, and antibiotics. And in a few hours, I was feeling so good that I rode until 3 a.m. I wasn’t better immediately, but in two days I finally felt better. I still had a pretty bad cough, but at least I could breathe. That was something like eight days in, at the end of Montana.

When you started, what was your goal? And did the sickness change that? I wanted to ride as hard as I could. I planned to sleep four or five hours a night and just see how it went. I didn’t have specific mileage or time goals. I knew about the women’s record, but I didn’t have a smart phone and couldn’t monitor it. Sometimes when I saw people along the way, they’d tell me I was ahead of it.

And then you had some route issues in Wyoming? I loaded the track for the racecourse before I left Alaska. That was on May 16. And I guess while I was en route to Canada, they updated the track. But they never posted anywhere that it had changed. So I was following the 2014 track, but I had no idea. I got to Pinedale, in Wyoming, and I got all these texts from Nick saying that I was off route and that I needed to go to the outdoor shop and get the new track.

Nick has been in touch with the guys who monitor the race. They were like, “I don’t know about the race standings, but we’ll definitely honor your course as the record because it’s the same one that the previous record-holder rode.” But I didn’t think about going back. This was when I had just started feeling healthy again, so I wanted to keep moving forward.

How does it make you feel that your record will count but you won’t get credit for the win?  I don’t know if it’s been decided yet whether I’m in the official standings or not. And the whole thing makes me feel a little sad. I was really doing my best to ride the route and stay true to the spirit of the race. And with a technicality like this…I don’t really want to engage in it because it hurts my heart. While I was riding, I was really worried that I was going to get disqualified. You feel like a kid who’s in trouble, which is terrible because I was working hard to be honest and stay true. I did everything I could. And I guess I’m just grateful that I got to ride. I still got the record, and I guess that’s more important than the race.

“It actually doesn’t matter that you have a piece of shit bike or that you’re a girl. The riding speaks for itself.”

So do you think you would have been a lot faster if you’d not been sick? If I had been healthy, yeah, I definitely would have gone faster. When I started, I just went as hard as I could and I figured that if I blew up, I’d work out something else. I guess that’s sort of what happened with getting sick. It made me ease off. But yeah, without that illness I definitely would have gone a lot harder. 

So will you try again? Yeah, I might. It could be cool. Not next week, but… [Lael trails off in laughter.] But this year the weather was good, too. The passes were clear. So harder conditions would be a different race. I don’t know, it kinda creeps into your head, and then you have to just do it again.

Endurance racers always want to try again, but it usually takes awhile, especially after a big race. You definitely seem chipper for having just raced 2,800 miles. I’m always chipper. [She laughs again.] I don’t know. It’s just obsessively riding. It becomes almost like breathing. Riding is how I learn about the world. It was great just to see all that terrain, to take it all in and be outside so much. The weather was so good that I was able to just sleep out every night. 

Did it ever feel dangerous to you? Not on the Divide, but in Canada. There’s this stretch of road from Prince River to Prince George, like 300 miles called the Highway of Tears. Lots of women have been abducted there, and there are signs that say stuff like, “She’s gone. Why risk it on the Highway of Tears?” It feels terrible to be out there, and I was riding by myself. You look at the pictures and you think, “That girl looks like me.” So by the third day I just had to get off that road. There was a huge rainstorm, and trucks were sending big waves of water over me, and I should have stopped. But I just had to get out of there.

Is doing a race like the Divide different for women than men? People want to be more involved with you when you are a woman. They want to help you more, which is nice, but it can also be kind of frustrating. On the Tour Divide, people would come out to see me, and it’s like they felt like they were my friends already even though I didn’t know them. I guess people can relate to me more than they can to the men. It’s easy to look at these racer guys and think, “Man, I don’t have that kind of ability.” But they look at me, and they’re like “If this little girl can do this, maybe I can do something.” And that’s good. I want to empower people, to inspire them. I mean stop making excuses. At least try.

So do you consider yourself the race’s fastest woman or just a fast racer? Results speak. People talk a big game about what they can do and what somebody else can or cannot do. People would treat me like a joke, especially in Israel, where women aren’t as active and I was racing on really crummy equipment. But that’s the exciting thing about a race. You enter, and you get your result. And no one can take that away from you. That’s just how it is. It actually doesn’t matter that you have a piece of shit bike or that you’re a girl. The riding speaks for itself.

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Lael Wilcox and Ulrich Bartholmoes are the first finishers of 2023 Tour Divide

On day 17 of the world's most iconic ultra bikepacking race, 17 riders have reached the u.s./mexico border..

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At the 17 day mark of the Tour Divide , 17 riders have reached the U.S./Mexico border, including two women.

Tour Divide veteran Lael Wilcox was the first woman to complete the 2,745 mile journey from Banff, Canada to Antelope Wells, doing so in 16 days, 20 hours, and 17 minutes.

Read also : Dot watchin’ the Tour Divide

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Lael Wilcox (@laelwilcox)

Katya Rakhmatulina, a first-time completer from California, was less than a day behind, at 17 days, 8 hours, and 48 minutes.

Although at times Wilcox was on pace to beat her 2015 record of 15 days, 10 hours, 59 minutes, the 36-year-old suffered from gastrointestinal and respiratory symptoms around the two-week mark and took some time to rest and seek medical care.

Ulrich Bartholmoes of Germany was the first person to complete the race, with a remarkable time of 14 days, 3 hours, and 23 minutes. His time is the second-fastest time ever recorded; Mike Hall’s 2016 record of 13 days, 22 hours, and 51 minutes remains untouched.

Justinas Leveika of Lithuania, who like Bartholomoes has an extensive bikepacking race palmares but was a Tour Divide rookie, put in another sub-15 hour record, arriving to the border in 14 days, 16 hours, and 57 minutes.

Joe Nation of New Zealand was the third finisher.

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Ulrich Bartholmoes (@ubartholmoes)

The Tour Divide grand départ starts on the second Friday of June every year, and no year is the same in terms of conditions, weather, or competition. This year saw a more international field than ever. Women and non-binary riders made up 20 of the roughly 200 participants.

While there was less fresh snow to contend with in this year’s race, riders still encountered stubborn winter leftovers on high passes. Rain, and then mud proved to be an issue in Montana and Wyoming, so much so that the three leaders spent 12 hours waiting in a porta-potty for the road to dry out in the Great Basin.

Unfortunately, the same wind that riders needed to dry out muddy roads seemed bound to stay, in the form of demoralizing and relentless headwinds, as many pushed through Colorado and New Mexico.

Nevertheless, there are still around 110 riders out there (some 70 have ‘scratched,’ or dropped out) — follow their dots here .

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I Just Want To Ride – Lael Wilcox and the 2019 Tour Divide

by Hannah Dobson November 27, 2019 2

There was a bunch of controversy around this year’s Tour Divide, with the lead up to it marked by the kind of kerfuffle that the internet breeds best (or worst). In short, Lael Wilcox planned to make a film about her Tour Divide attempt, and disagreement ensued over whether this was in keeping with the spirit – or rules – of the Tour Divide.

It’s not the first time there’s been debate over what constitutes support on a long distance event – indeed our own mile muncher Jason Miles has railed against the self-appointed, solo bike ride Council of Elders written about the topic .

Whether you think that Lael should have been able to have a film crew on the route in order to make a film of the Tour Divide, whether the organisers should have allowed the film crew there, or you really don’t care either way, the documentary is now out.

The launch blurb says:

Lael Wilcox loves the Great Divide Mountain Bike Route.

She loves the climbing. It’s pass after pass. She loves the roads. They’re not too technical. She loves the landscapes. Traveling from Canada to Mexico, all on your bike. The Tour Divide, it’s her kind of race and she’s done it twice before.

The 2019 edition was set to be truly unique as she attempted to be the first woman to be the overall winner the race. But would the weather cooperate? Would the race and route play out as it had in her previous attempts?

Follow along as Lael takes on the most notable bikepacking route in the world and has to overcome natural and human barriers to embrace the true reasons for why she rides and inspires others to ride. Go Lael.

Does this make you want to race the Tour Divide? Or just ride the Great Divide route, at a more leisurely pace? One where you can pause to savour the pies in Pie Town, stop to sink beers with locals in small, dusty towns – maybe just camp an extra night because the stars are so beautiful?

For another perspective on long distance racing, check out Greg May’s take:

Comments (2)

I remember the debate at the time, and the film makes some (justifiable IMO) points abouts double standards. I think Lael comes across as a honest story-teller and the fim is even more watchable for all that goes along with it. I’ve no interest in doing like what these folk do, but their determination and athleticism is inspiring . Worth 40 mins of anyone’s time,

Well worth watching, Kudos to Lael and “f*ck you” to the armchair **** on Facebook.

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Lael wilcox’s tour divide specialized epic hardtail.

By: Spencer Harding June 14, 2019

If you have ever ridden with Lael you know that she would ride a rusted beach cruiser until both tires were flat and the wheels imploded and would still be smiling bigger than anyone about it, but if Specialized is sponsoring you with bikes for races, you might as well indulge in some cool shit.

I’ve shot a few iterations of Lael’s bikes over the years and the main signature is that raggedy grey Jerry Can that will never die. She is packing extremely minimally per usual and isn’t using any kind of handlebar bag for this run.  A prototype Revelate Designs seatpack holds most of her gear and sleep system (mostly puffy pants).  A custom Dyneema framebag, Magtank 5000, and a few feedbags hold the rest of her snacks and gear.   Up front, she is running a Sinewave Beacon and as a rear light her trusty Planet Bike tail light. Simple, efficient, familiar.

The frame is a Specialized Epic hardtail that has been converted from a XC race machine to a drop bar endurance racer.  Sram’s new Red eTap AXS system allowed for an effortless pairing of drop bar levers/shifters with a mountain bike drivetrain.  She last minute swapped the Lauf fork she used in the DKXL for a Rockshox SID WC Brain .  I don’t think two weeks of sleep deprivation was what they had in mind when they made the Brain Fade adjustment.  A host of Hope bits and pieces round out the build and an Ergon saddle will be keeping her tukus cozy for almost 3000 miles.  Much like her bike she is running a mix of tire genres, with a traditional XC Fast Trak in the front and a Panaracer Gravel King in the rear.

The paint job is an Erik Nohlin special that is absolutely understated, from afar it looks like a simple greyish color. Upon getting closer you tons of small flecks of color dotted with rainbow flake colors that refract the light in every direction.  Its kind of like looking really up close at beach sand and find all these amazing colors but then pulling back it all  just blends into a brownish yellow.  Layered upon that paint job is a map snaking all over the frame tracing the Tour Divide Route.  There are lots of amazing details hiding under all of those bags waiting to be uncovered, I just know it.

Lael made an impressive run at the DKXL on almost this exact setup, a few last minute tweaks and some additional baggage and this bike are ready to crush the Tour Divide.  Today she is lining up for the Grand Depart in Banff against a strong field of competitors over 200 strong.

I’m part of a media team that will be documenting the Tour Divide Race this year.  I will be updating the site with galleries and stories from the race as regularly as content and rural wifi will allow, so be sure to check back if you are into chasing dots on Trackleaders .

DotWatcher.cc

Tour divide 2023 results.

This year's Tour Divide was heavily affected by the rains and mud, with the three leaders taking shelter in a public toilet for 12 hours at one point. Ulrich Bartholomoes held off Justinas Leveika and Joe Nation to take one of his first off-road wins.

Classification

Nationality.

• Germany ( 1 )
• Lithuania ( 1 )
• New Zealand ( 4 )
• France ( 3 )
• Belgium ( 3 )
• Czech Republic ( 1 )
• United States ( 1 )
• United Kingdom ( 1 )
• Australia ( 2 )
• Philippines ( 1 )
• CANADA ( 1 )
• NEW ZEALAND ( 1 )
• NETHERLANDS ( 1 )
• Canada ( 3 )
• SCRATCHED ( 1 )

160 entrants have no registered nationality

Finished / Scratched

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Lael Wilcox Scorches First-Ever FKT For ‘Baja Divide’

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The newly christened 1,500-mile route from Southern California into Mexico has a champion: Her name, Lael Wilcox.

A post shared by Nicholas Carman (@nicholascarman) on Mar 14, 2017 at 12:07am PDT

Wilcox already owns the women’s Fastest Known Time (FKT) title for the 2,800-mile Tour Divide MTB ride from Alberta to the Mexican border. But last week she blazed 1,546 miles down Baja California in 11 days, 13 hours, and 2 minutes on a 29er Specialized Fuse. Her mark is the first FKT for the new Baja Divide route from Tecate to La Paz, Mexico.

The Baja Divide

The full 1,700-mile route (extra miles for touring cyclists)  opened to the public in January after Wilcox and her partner  Nicholas Carman spent a year developing it.

The route is about 95 percent unpaved, with the paved remainder comprising mostly low-traffic roads. Wilcox and Carman’s impetus for creating the route was to help backcountry riders avoid federal highway Mex 1.

Lael Wilcox FKT

WIlcox’s FKT is the first speed attempt on the Baja Divide. But there’s every reason to expect it will be tough to break.

In 2015, Wilcox crushed the Tour Divide record from Banff, Alberta, to Antelope Wells, N.M., on the Mexican border by two days  on her first attempt . What’s more, she fell ill, rode to the hospital, and finished the race!

“I got really sick during this ride and had to ride myself to the emergency room in Helena, Mont.,” she told us. “However, going home after the Tour Divide, I was dissatisfied with my time; I knew I could ride faster. I bettered my time by another two days (15 days, 10 hours). In total, in the summer of 2015, I rode 8,400 miles in four months.”

And yet that’s not the most impressive stat of all. Wilcox set her Tour Divide record after biking an additional 2,100 miles to the route start from her home in Anchorage.

Just let that sink in.

Adam Ruggiero is the Editor in Chief of GearJunkie and host of the GearJunkie Podcast. He cut his teeth as a freelancer, and then news reporter for the site in 2015.

Along with founder Stephen Regenold and Editorial Director Sean McCoy, Ruggiero graduated from the University of Minnesota School of Journalism. He was the recipient of the 2022 Outdoor Media Summit “Editor of the Year” award, and regularly co-hosts the industry’s “Gear Guide” at both summer and winter Outdoor Retailer trade shows.

In addition to accurate and impartial news reporting, and compelling, original storytelling, his interests include camping in all climates and conditions, track cycling and bikepacking, all forms of fitness, the resplendent majesty of coffee, and sports of every kind.

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Lael Wilcox: What Makes a Great Bikepacking Tire?

Long distance bikepacking is all about making equipment compromises. Generally speaking, for me, bikepacking is multi-day dirt-road riding and carrying what I need along the way. Road surfaces, conditions, and weather are ever-changing— that’s part of the adventure. When setting out for a tour, I select equipment based on what will be the most fun or make me the happiest for the trip, or simply what I have at hand that’s ready to go. When setting out for a race, I choose what will make me the fastest over time. There are a lot of different elements that factor into the time it takes to cover an immense distance, like speed, efficiency, time on the bike and comfort. Maybe the easiest way for me to dive into these aspects is through specific illustration. I’ll use the it as an example. 

The Tour Divide is a 2,750 mile (4,425 km) self-supported mountain bike race based on Adventure Cycling Association’s Great Divide Mountain Bike Route that travels through the Rockies from Banff, Alberta, Canada to Antelope Wells, New Mexico on the Mexican border. It follows the continental divide as closely as possible, on forest service roads with over 200,000 feet (60,000 m) of climbing along the way. 

I’ve toured stretches and raced the full route three times. I hold the women’s record at 15 1/2 days (set in 2015). My ultimate dream is beating the men’s record that’s just under 14 days. To accomplish this task, I have to ride nearly 200 miles (320 km ) and 14,000’ (4,300 m) of climbing every day for two weeks, while taking care of all of my own needs (eating, sleeping, and maintaining my bike), without any external help. Commercial businesses are acceptable, meaning you can buy food, stay at hotels and visit bike shops, but these must be available to the public and can not be prearranged before the race begins.

From the start, the clock continues to run. So much can happen out there. I’ve had a fox steal all of my food in the night. In 2015, I got stuck in the mud in Southern Montana for a 12-hour stretch. Last year, on the summer solstice, it snowed over 30 inches (75 cm) near Steamboat Springs. There are so many beautiful moments, like a herd of elk stampeding up to Union Pass in the late evening or owls swooping low on the hunt. Yes, it’s a race, but it’s also experiencing almost every moment of every day through all conditions from the seat of your bicycle. 

Bikepacking is really about adapting to ever-changing conditions, and yet there hasn’t been a tire that is designed specifically for bikepacking. Most racers are on mountain bike tires that are designed for technical terrain, because we need aggressive knobs to deal with mud and snow. But mountain bike tires come in many varieties, each designed for one type of terrain. The idea is that you switch tires for different courses. But we’re racing all the way from Canada to Mexico on the same set of tires.

I was excited when Rene Herse Cycles asked me for input into their new bikepacking tire. “What is your ideal tire for the Tour Divide?” asked Jan.

Nearly the entire ride would be considered gravel with fairly smooth dirt roads, and it is totally passable on a gravel bike with 38 or 42 mm tires. However, no one has ever won the race or established a time record on a gravel bike. I believe this to be the case because over such a long distance, you just get too beat-up. I’d select at least a 2” (50 mm) tire for comfort, preferably a 2.2” (55 mm). This translates into more comfort for all contact points and joints (hands, feet, butt, shoulders, wrists, knees, back, neck, etc). Larger volume tires also enable me to rest and recover more on the descents, as I don’t have to actively control the bike as much.

The tire must be versatile for different surfaces— some tread for traction and handling, but also fast rolling on pavement. You can’t ride through mud and snow on a slick, but you also don’t want knobs that fold over in the paved hairpin turns when you descend into a town for a resupply. I also prefer a medium-weight tubeless-ready tire for durability and to avoid flats and failures. It’s never convenient to fix punctures (or any other roadside mechanicals). In a race setting, this could waste time and add frustration. It’s a big mental challenge to sacrifice sleep and endure so many other challenges – and then spend time on the side of the road dealing with a mechanical. Facing adversity is definitely part of the race, but if you can avoid problems by selecting more durable gear from the outset, this could save time and mental energy.

A few months later, Jan called and told me that they were sending me prototypes of the new bikepacking tires for testing. “What shall we call it? Do you have a favorite climb on the Tour Divide?” he asked. I didn’t have to think long: Fleecer Ridge (above) is a beautiful climb with a rough, steep descent on the route in Southern Montana. It illustrates the varied challenges that this wonderful route presents, and it’s a perfect name for the new tire.

Now that I’ve been testing the Fleecer Ridge 29″ x 2.2″ (700 x 55 mm) tires with the Endurance casing, I found that they check all of the boxes as ideal for the Tour Divide . It rolls fast, it’s got great traction with its large, widely spaced knobs, but the round profile and clever knob arrangement also allow me to lean the bike deep into corners on pavement. It’s been 100% reliable, with no flats so far.

On that note, I would also select these tires for bikepacking expeditions on unknown terrain or other long-distance races where I expect mixed conditions, like our recent route-building project in Colombia, the Silk Road Mountain Race in Kyrgyzstan, and the Hope 1000 in Switzerland. For really rough rides, I might go for the Endurance Plus casing, and for a shorter, smoother course, I might pick the Extralight’s amazing speed. To sum it up, for the riding that I love, if I had to choose one tire, the Fleecer Ridge would be it.

Depending on conditions, I might opt for a slightly narrower rear tire to increase mud clearance. For the most part, I ride a Specialized Epic Hardtail, and the tire clearance between the chainstays with a 55 mm tire is pretty tight. Muddy conditions can halt forward progression pretty quickly. For this bike, 48 mm rear tire would probably be best. In that case, I’d be compromising a little comfort for better mud clearance. Jan, can you make a 48 mm version for me, too?

Photo credits: Rugile Kaladyte, Spencer Harding (Photo 3)

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Lael Wilcox

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Best things to see and do in Moscow

Moscow is the capital of Russia and is one of the most popular tourist destinations in Asia. It’s rich and complex history is a constant reminder of its strategic position between Europe and Asia and makes it one of the cities you should visit once in your life. In terms of the many iconic landmarks, the delicious cuisine, and the characteristic, colorful architecture it has, Moscow is full of surprises for first-timers and seasoned travelers. Apart from the main attractions, it has like the Kremlin or Red Square, Moscow has many hidden gems for you to discover on your free walking tour with your local guide. 

On any of the free guided tours we offer in Moscow , you will be able to find a selection of many tours which are available in different languages and at different times of day, like the morning, afternoon, and evening. Since Moscow is such a large metropolis, getting your bearings by doing a guruwalk with a local guide who will show you all Moscow’s hidden gems is a great idea. This way you get to learn as much as possible about the local culture and way of life. A trip to Moscow wouldn't be complete without visiting iconic places like St Basil’s Cathedral, Lenin’s Mausoleum, the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts, or the State Historical Museum, before getting some fresh air at Gorky Park, the medieval church of Kolomenskoye, or shopping at Izmailovsky Market. Don’t miss visiting the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour, the Bolshoi Theater, or checking out the Tsaritsyno Museum-Reserve. 

Many travelers have left their r eviews and opinions about the local guides , gurus, and the routes they walked. If you have any questions about the routes or what is included in the tour, check out their opinions. 

Free walking tour near Moscow

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The sprawling, mind-boggling metropolis of Russian Moscow has long been one of the theatrical stages on which the great dramas of Europe and Asia have been played out in grand style. Burned by Napoleon in 1812, immortalised by Tolstoy, utilised by the Bolsheviks and championed as a bastion of heroic defiance by the post-war communists, it’s almost hard to believe just how defining the historical events that found their home on Moscow’s streets have been. Moscow tour guides will easily be able to mark the major must-see landmarks on the map, from the onion-domed orthodox Saint Basil's Cathedral, to the political powerhouse of Red Square just next door, while others will be quick to recommend a ride on Moscow’s famous subterranean metro system, or a visit to the UNESCO-attested Novodevichy Convent on the city’s southern side. But Moscow is a city also in the throes of a cultural wrangling between the old and the new. Creative energies abound here: Boho bars and pumping super clubs now occupy the iconic mega structures of the old USSR; high-fashion outlets, trendy shopping malls and luxurious residential districts stand as testimony to a city that’s now the undisputed playground of the world’s super-rich, while sprawling modern art museums dominate the cultural offering of the downtown districts north of the Moskva River.  

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The Comprehensive Guide to Moscow Nightlife

• Posted on April 14, 2018 July 26, 2018
• by Kings of Russia
• 8 minute read

Moscow’s nightlife scene is thriving, and arguably one of the best the world has to offer – top-notch Russian women, coupled with a never-ending list of venues, Moscow has a little bit of something for everyone’s taste. Moscow nightlife is not for the faint of heart – and if you’re coming, you better be ready to go Friday and Saturday night into the early morning.

This comprehensive guide to Moscow nightlife will run you through the nuts and bolts of all you need to know about Moscow’s nightclubs and give you a solid blueprint to operate with during your time in Moscow.

What you need to know before hitting Moscow nightclubs

Prices in moscow nightlife.

Before you head out and start gaming all the sexy Moscow girls , we have to talk money first. Bring plenty because in Moscow you can never bring a big enough bankroll. Remember, you’re the man so making a fuzz of not paying a drink here or there will not go down well.

Luckily most Moscow clubs don’t do cover fees. Some electro clubs will charge 15-20$, depending on their lineup. There’s the odd club with a minimum spend of 20-30$, which you’ll drop on drinks easily. By and large, you can scope out the venues for free, which is a big plus.

Bottle service is a great deal in Moscow. At top-tier clubs, it starts at 1,000$. That’ll go a long way with premium vodka at 250$, especially if you have three or four guys chipping in. Not to mention that it’s a massive status boost for getting girls, especially at high-end clubs.

Without bottle service, you should estimate a budget of 100-150$ per night. That is if you drink a lot and hit the top clubs with the hottest girls. Scale down for less alcohol and more basic places.

Dress code & Face control

Door policy in Moscow is called “face control” and it’s always the guy behind the two gorillas that gives the green light if you’re in or out.

In Moscow nightlife there’s only one rule when it comes to dress codes:

You can never be underdressed.

People dress A LOT sharper than, say, in the US and that goes for both sexes. For high-end clubs, you definitely want to roll with a sharp blazer and a pocket square, not to mention dress shoes in tip-top condition. Those are the minimum requirements to level the playing field vis a vis with other sharply dressed guys that have a lot more money than you do. Unless you plan to hit explicit electro or underground clubs, which have their own dress code, you are always on the money with that style.

Getting in a Moscow club isn’t as hard as it seems: dress sharp, speak English at the door and look like you’re in the mood to spend all that money that you supposedly have (even if you don’t). That will open almost any door in Moscow’s nightlife for you.

Types of Moscow Nightclubs

In Moscow there are four types of clubs with the accompanying female clientele:

High-end clubs:

These are often crossovers between restaurants and clubs with lots of tables and very little space to dance. Heavy accent on bottle service most of the time but you can work the room from the bar as well. The hottest and most expensive girls in Moscow go there. Bring deep pockets and lots of self-confidence and you have a shot at swooping them.

Regular Mid-level clubs:

They probably resemble more what you’re used to in a nightclub: big dancefloors, stages and more space to roam around. Bottle service will make you stand out more but you can also do well without. You can find all types of girls but most will be in the 6-8 range. Your targets should always be the girls drinking and ideally in pairs. It’s impossible not to swoop if your game is at least half-decent.

Basic clubs/dive bars:

Usually spots with very cheap booze and lax face control. If you’re dressed too sharp and speak no Russian, you might attract the wrong type of attention so be vigilant. If you know the local scene you can swoop 6s and 7s almost at will. Usually students and girls from the suburbs.

Electro/underground clubs:

Home of the hipsters and creatives. Parties there don’t mean meeting girls and getting drunk but doing pills and spacing out to the music. Lots of attractive hipster girls if that is your niche. That is its own scene with a different dress code as well.

What time to go out in Moscow

Moscow nightlife starts late. Don’t show up at bars and preparty spots before 11pm because you’ll feel fairly alone. Peak time is between 1am and 3am. That is also the time of Moscow nightlife’s biggest nuisance: concerts by artists you won’t know and who only distract your girls from drinking and being gamed. From 4am to 6am the regular clubs are emptying out but plenty of people, women included, still hit up one of the many afterparty clubs. Those last till well past 10am.

As far as days go: Fridays and Saturdays are peak days. Thursday is an OK day, all other days are fairly weak and you have to know the right venues.

The Ultimate Moscow Nightclub List

Short disclaimer: I didn’t add basic and electro clubs since you’re coming for the girls, not for the music. This list will give you more options than you’ll be able to handle on a weekend.

Preparty – start here at 11PM

Classic restaurant club with lots of tables and a smallish bar and dancefloor. Come here between 11pm and 12am when the concert is over and they start with the actual party. Even early in the night tons of sexy women here, who lean slightly older (25 and up).

The second floor of the Ugolek restaurant is an extra bar with dim lights and house music tunes. Very small and cozy with a slight hipster vibe but generally draws plenty of attractive women too. A bit slower vibe than Valenok.

Very cool, spread-out venue that has a modern library theme. Not always full with people but when it is, it’s brimming with top-tier women. Slow vibe here and better for grabbing contacts and moving on.

High-end: err on the side of being too early rather than too late because of face control.

Secret Room

Probably the top venue at the moment in Moscow . Very small but wildly popular club, which is crammed with tables but always packed. They do parties on Thursdays and Sundays as well. This club has a hip-hop/high-end theme, meaning most girls are gold diggers, IG models, and tattooed hip hop chicks. Very unfavorable logistics because there is almost no room no move inside the club but the party vibe makes it worth it. Strict face control.

Close to Secret Room and with a much more favorable and spacious three-part layout. This place attracts very hot women but also lots of ball busters and fakes that will leave you blue-balled. Come early because after 4am it starts getting empty fast. Electronic music.

A slightly kitsch restaurant club that plays Russian pop and is full of gold diggers, semi-pros, and men from the Caucasus republics. Thursday is the strongest night but that dynamic might be changing since Secret Room opened its doors. You can swoop here but it will be a struggle.

Mid-level: your sweet spot in terms of ease and attractiveness of girls for an average budget.

Started going downwards in 2018 due to lax face control and this might get even worse with the World Cup. In terms of layout one of the best Moscow nightclubs because it’s very big and bottle service gives you a good edge here. Still attracts lots of cute girls with loose morals but plenty of provincial girls (and guys) as well. Swooping is fairly easy here.

I haven’t been at this place in over a year, ever since it started becoming ground zero for drunken teenagers. Similar clientele to Icon but less chic, younger and drunker. Decent mainstream music that attracts plenty of tourists. Girls are easy here as well.

Sort of a Coyote Ugly (the real one in Moscow sucks) with party music and lots of drunken people licking each others’ faces. Very entertaining with the right amount of alcohol and very easy to pull in there. Don’t think about staying sober in here, you’ll hate it.

Artel Bessonitsa/Shakti Terrace

Electronic music club that is sort of a high-end place with an underground clientele and located between the teenager clubs Icon and Gipsy. Very good music but a bit all over the place with their vibe and their branding. You can swoop almost any type of girl here from high-heeled beauty to coked-up hipsters, provided they’re not too sober.

Afterparty: if by 5AM  you haven’t pulled, it’s time to move here.

Best afterparty spot in terms of trying to get girls. Pretty much no one is sober in there and savage gorilla game goes a long way. Lots of very hot and slutty-looking girls but it can be hard to tell apart who is looking for dick and who is just on drugs but not interested. If by 9-10am you haven’t pulled, it is probably better to surrender.

The hipster alternative for afterparties, where even more drugs are in play. Plenty of attractive girls there but you have to know how to work this type of club. A nicer atmosphere and better music but if you’re desperate to pull, you’ll probably go to Miks.

Weekday jokers: if you’re on the hunt for some sexy Russian girls during the week, here are two tips to make your life easier.

Chesterfield

Ladies night on Wednesdays means this place gets pretty packed with smashed teenagers and 6s and 7s. Don’t pull out the three-piece suit in here because it’s a “simpler” crowd. Definitely your best shot on Wednesdays.

If you haven’t pulled at Chesterfield, you can throw a Hail Mary and hit up Garage’s Black Music Wednesdays. Fills up really late but there are some cute Black Music groupies in here. Very small club. Thursday through Saturday they do afterparties and you have an excellent shot and swooping girls that are probably high.

Shishas Sferum

This is pretty much your only shot on Mondays and Tuesdays because they offer free or almost free drinks for women. A fairly low-class club where you should watch your drinks. As always the case in Moscow, there will be cute girls here on any day of the week but it’s nowhere near as good as on the weekend.

In a nutshell, that is all you need to know about where to meet Moscow girls in nightlife. There are tons of options, and it all depends on what best fits your style, based on the type of girls that you’re looking for.

Related Topics

• moscow girls
• moscow nightlife

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Lael Wilcox Starts Her 2021 Tour Divide ITT

Previous Dispatch From Wed Aug 11, 2021

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Just a little while ago, Lael Wilcox set off from Canmore, Alberta on a solo, individual time trial of the Tour Divide. Find her live tracking map alongside some photos that Isaac Karsen snapped during yesterday’s prep…

Photos by Isaac Karsen ( @isaackarsen )

With the Canada-US border open to US travelers for just two days now, those looking to tackle the full length of the Tour Divide route are likely flocking to Banff, Alberta to start their rides. Among those setting off is fan favorite Lael Wilcox, who started her individual time trial at 9:00am MST this morning. We can only assume she is gunning to beat her 2015 record of 15 days, 10 hours, and 59 minutes, and possibly the overall record set by the late Mike Hall back in 2016 of 13 days, 22 hours, 51 minutes. Follow Lael’s progress live below and scroll down for more photos. Go Lael!

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