Now five days in, Tour Divide racers in the men’s, women’s, and singlespeed categories continue to overcome expectations and obstacles to make quick work of the route’s northern reaches. Find updates on current leaders Lael Wilcox, Robin Gemperle, Andrew Onermaa, and other key figures shaping the 2025 edition here…

Photos by Eddie Clark

On day five, disaster struck Nathalie Baillon, the women’s leader for the early part of the race, when her bike’s freehub body gave up the ghost at the top of Fleecer Ridge, making pedaling impossible. Luckily, it was nearly all downhill to Wise River, where she managed to hitch a ride back to Butte, and after a five-hour ordeal, she was back at Wise River with a fully functional bike. While many other bikepacking races prohibit getting in a vehicle, Tour Divide allows it for major bike mechanicals. 

Nathalie Baillon with her new rear wheel

Unfortunately for her, her nearly 20-mile lead on Lael Wilcox turned into a 20-mile deficit. But let’s all remember that the two top women are still less than 1,000 miles into the event. A lot can happen, and while a five-hour issue is significant—and definitely has the potential to swing the race one way or the other—it’s not a showstopper, and it seems Baillon is now in full-on chase mode. 

As of the start of day six, the two women are now traversing the relatively flat section to Red Rock Pass and the end of Montana, with Baillon lagging just 10 miles behind. Wilcox had made the resupply at Lima, the last town in Montana, by mere minutes, while Baillon missed the store hours. It’s fair to assume she restocked on food during her bike-fixing escapades in Butte, so she’s most likely fine on calories. In fact, she rode later into the night, passing Wilcox for a while before she also bedded down. Wilcox stopped for five hours in Lima, while Baillon stopped for four just two miles down the road. It’ll be interesting to see how their two sleep strategies play out over the next week.  

While many were gutted by seeing Baillon’s mishap, it’s important to remember that prepare as one might, there is undeniably a huge element of luck to a race like Tour Divide. Baillon, who won the Silk Mountain Road race in 2023, took a little break from racing this past year but seems motivated to give Tour Divide the best effort she can.

She wrote on her Instagram before the race: “Barring major setbacks, I know I can finish. But lately, I’ve struggled to find joy in racing, which is why this is my first event in 8 months. This one is long. Really long. A true mental test. People often contrast riding for fun with racing, but the reality is that I enjoyed racing, otherwise I might as well go bike touring. Of course there are always tough times on those kind of races. But my goal is to go as fast as I can without losing sight of what brought me here in the first place: the joy of riding.”

It seems Baillon has refound her joy in racing, and anything can happen. Behind, Ana Jager continues in no-woman’s land, about 85 miles back, while a whole group of women is in close proximity, another 60 miles in arrears and heading over Fleecer Ridge. This group includes Alexandera Houchin, Quinda Verheul, Karin Pocock, and Gillian Hatch. There’s a lot of bikepacking firepower in this group, and I suspect we’ll see some good racing come out of it. 

Robin Gemperle enjoying a comfortable lead

On the men’s side, Robin Gemperle continues to put on a masterclass in Tour Divide racing. He mentioned in an update that his plan was to ride fast for the first third of the race, settle in for the middle third, and ramp it back up for the final third. This puts him firmly in the cruising section of his race, and he leads at mile 1,245, a whopping 130 miles ahead of Svein Tuft and Jens van Roost, who are within a few miles of each other. He starts many of his updates by whistling and has complained that he’s had the same song stuck in his head from the start. He’s offered/threatened to sing us the song in a few days. 

In his latest update, Tuft talked about how when racing a Grand Tour in Europe, if you get sick on day 10 of a three-week tour, you still have to ride for your team, and that, generally, after a few days, he feels better. So he’s hoping that happens this time, too. Unfortunately, there’s a conspicuous lack of masseurs and team buses and hotel rooms to help with recovery in this event compared to racing in the European Pro Tour. Tuft also got caught in a storm and dealt with the infamous mud of southern Montana. I suspect you don’t get that on the World Tour, either.

Top: Svein Tuft / Left: Max Riese, Right: Jens Van Roost

All three men are well ahead of the JL record dot, and while it seems that unless something catastrophic happens, it’ll be hard for anyone to catch Gemperle, there’s still a lot of racing to happen!

For the singlespeeders, Andrew Onermaa has made a major push and passed the Chris Plesko record dot, moving himself into 10th overall. He’s been moving up the field consistently throughout the early days of the race and seems to be getting faster.

Check out the 2025 Tour Divide Tracker page to follow along on the live tracking map, see our Rigs of the Tour Divide roundups, and stay tuned in for more event coverage. Find it here.

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