Cyclist takes on the Divide, with guts and no gears

written by: Jeffrey Wolf written by: Heidi McGuire

7 months ago

WESTMINSTER - There are weekend-warriors and there are ultra-athletes, and most would agree Colorado sees its fair share of both. Chris Plesko admits he never thought he'd take his mountain biking far enough to ever warrant the attention of a local TV station, but recently he's done just that.

"I'm still a little bit in shock," he said.

Plesko's barely been home for 24 hours, and he is just starting to really wrap his head around what he's done.

"You get to the end and you think wow, I just rode 2,800 miles in 19 days," he said.

Plesko decided to take his mountain biking to the next level about three years ago when he started racing. It was all just for fun, while he worked full-time as an engineer.

"It certainly started out as more normal mountain biking and it sorta progressed from there. I can ride 100 miles, can I ride 200?" he said.

The answer is yes. But it didn't come easy. Plesko left his job a year ago and started training and finding that failure sometimes comes before success.

"I haven't had the greatest luck mountain biking and finishing things on the first try," he said.

Plesko's greatest challenge has been the Tour Divide, a 2,745 mile mountain bike race from Banff, Canada to Antelope Wells, New Mexico.

Last year, Plesko tried to do a time trial solo, but couldn't finish. He decided to return this year to race against 40 other athletes, and he'd attempt it on a rigid single-speed.

That means he couldn't change gears, and he had no front suspension to absorb impact.

"Very few people have been able to finish this course on a single speed period, in any amount of time, much less get close to Kent's record," Plesko said.

Kent Peterson set the course record on a single-speed in 2005. Plesko started the race just hoping for a finish, but always kept the record in the back of his mind.

Plesko would first have to deal with snow, high mountain passes, and constant storms.

"It's the weather, it's your mental state, it's all those little things that add up," he said.

On July 1, Plesko made it to Antelope Wells, New Mexico in 19 days, beating Peterson's record by 4 days, 8 hours, and 48 minutes.

You may be surprised to know, Plesko didn't get to bring home a big prize, just a dirty bike and sore legs. But he says those are proof enough of his enormous accomplishment.

"I'm really excited, it's been really great," he said.

Five other Colorado athletes participated in the race. Kurt Refsnider from Boulder finished second overall.