Cycling Adventures with Brian Toone – Page 2

Cycling Adventures with Brian Toone

Tour Divide 2022 – Days 16 and 17 – June 26th/27th, 2022 – Grants, NM to Silver City, NM via the toughest ride of my life

Keep in mind by the start of this ride I was averaging about 3 to 4 hours of sleep per night for 15 days in a row. Also, keep in mind that by the start of this ride, I had already ridden over 2,400 miles over those same 15 days. Lastly, keep in mind that…

August 7, 2022
Tour Divide 2022 – Day 15 – June 25th, 2022 – Cuba, NM to Grants, NM via the Navajo Nation Reservation and Deino community day

Since I had arrived so late, I was a bit slower getting started, rolling out the door by 6am. Still, the worker who I had talked to at midnight when I resupplied at the gas station was amazed to see me again already. “Didn’t I just see you?” … “Yep, short nap”. I had run…

August 4, 2022
Tour Divide 2022 – Day 14 – June 24th, 2022 – Del Norte, CO to Cuba, NM via the highest point in the race and an endless pavement re-route

I had made sure I had 24 hour access to the storage closet because I knew I would be leaving in the middle of the night. It felt a little strange to be tip-toeing through hardwood floors of the historic hotel at 2AM while carrying my bags I had taken off the bike a few…

August 3, 2022
TD 2022 – Day 13 – June 23rd, 2022 – Salida, CO to Del Norte, CO via three big passes and a fourth “hill”

Cold, foggy, and windy, I left the hotel at 2:10am and headed twenty-five miles straight up into a cold headwind blowing down the mountain on a large paved highway (US 285) that had me stopping to put on an extra layer even on the climb. After a few miles of climbing, the route turned onto…

August 2, 2022
TD 2022 – Day 12 – June 22nd, 2022 – Silverthorne, CO to the Salida Sonic via bike paths and memories

Silverthorne and Salida were both important parts of my 2012 Leadville 100 MTB race. My wife and I spent the night in Salida on our drive out to Leadville so that we could pick up my race packet early the next day and then drive to our AirBnB in Silverthorne (you had to book Leadville…

August 1, 2022
TD 2022 – Day 11 – June 21st, 2022 – Brush Lodge, CO to Silverthorne, CO via my favorite day of the race

This was my favorite day of the race. It started out cold with the lowest temps of the race with my Garmin bottoming out at 19 degF. But just 12 hours later, my Garmin would top out at 109 degF on the pavement climbing up from the Colorado River while getting swarmed by mosquitoes. In…

July 31, 2022
TD 2022 – Days 9-10 – June 19-20th, 2022 – Pinedale, WY to Brush Lodge, CO via a Great Basin adventure

Within a mile or two of leaving the Jackalope, Steve Large caught up to me on the bike path outside Pinedale. It was great meeting him and finding out he is from a town near Birmingham, England. I told him I was from the other Birmingham – the one in Alabama. I also told him…

July 30, 2022
TD 2022 – Days 7-8 – June 17-18th, 2022 – Idaho Park, ID to Pinedale, WY via a “Falute” Eddington 250

The day started out cold but with a beautiful sunrise over many flooded fields of flowers leaving Idaho as pictured above (39 degF and I had to hike/ride through that water in my sandals), traversed many flat miles of powerline ATV trails, merged with the Great Western Trail (rails-to-trail) for only a few miles, and…

July 29, 2022
TD 2022 – Day 6 – June 16th, 2022 – Lima, MT to Idaho Park, ID via hot headwind hell

This was the first really hot day of the Tour. You’d think with that picture above that it would be nice, pleasant riding. But the gravel road got quite a bit rougher, and the route went past those mountains in the distance before I reached any shade at all, nearly 75 miles later riding from…

July 28, 2022
TD 2022 – Day 5 – June 15th, 2022 – Butte, MT to a cave outside Lima

Note that the “cave” was really just a deep recession in a cliff, but it was enough to get me out of the steady wind that made the 30 degF temps feel that much colder. Also, note that I fell asleep in less than a minute after getting settled and even with a down blanket…

July 26, 2022