<\/p>\n
After pedaling a tandem mountain bike 2,745 miles along the Continental Divide through snow, rain and extreme heat, putting in 18-hour days, this has to be a sign of a solid relationship:<\/p>\n
Katie Newbury calls it a \u201cfun experiment.\u201d<\/p>\n
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\u2019s the Limit Fund, a scholarship that helps at-risk youths afford wilderness therapy programs. They\u2019ve raised more than $18,000 for the fund.<\/p>\n
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 following follows the Continental Divide as best it can in deference to bicycles. It uses a lot of gravel roads, some singletrack and some pavement.<\/p>\n
The Newburys rode the only tandem. When they hit the end of the ride July 2 in Antelope Wells, N.M., 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 is up for debate.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are definitely pros and cons to it. It definitely comes down to how you work together,\u201d Sam Newbury, 35, said.<\/p>\n
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, they kept a strong pace and asked themselves, \u201cShould this be harder?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were riding super, super well,\u201d Katie Newbury said. \u201cWe felt surprisingly strong. I think a huge part of that was our mindset.\u201d<\/p>\n
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 \u2013 put together by Adventure Cycling Association \u2013 and the idea to do the Tour Divide took shape.<\/p>\n
It is self-supported, so many of the challenges are logistical \u2013 for example, getting into town quickly for supplies along the route.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat and the preparation were the two most stressful pieces of the process,\u201d he said. \u201cOnce we were out on the road just pedaling and going uphill that\u2019s a pretty simple task \u2013 even if it takes a long time.\u201d<\/p>\n
Teamwork is crucial. The \u201ccaptain\u201d steers the bike while the \u201cstoker\u201d pedals from the rear.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think unlike most tandem teams we actually switch places every few days, which I think is quite rare,\u201d Sam Newbury said.<\/p>\n
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 bit and focused on endurance.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe could have kept going.\u201d<\/p>\n
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\u2019s the Limit Fund. Admission is free.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
3rd among 130 in Canada-to-Mexico race<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":118737,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5843],"tags":[657],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-118736","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-living","tag-cycling"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118736","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=118736"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118736\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/118737"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=118736"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=118736"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=118736"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=118736"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}