Watch Lael Wilcox take on the 2019 Tour Divide in “I Just Want to Ride”

Tour Divide stands as one of the toughest and most competitive bike packing routes in North America. In 2019, Lael Wilcox set out to win it all. Not the women’s race, which the Alaskan already holds the record for. Wilcox wanted to win the overall.

To do so, she would have to take on many of the best ultra-endurance racers around, as well as deal with the wildly unpredictable weather along the route from Banff, Alberta to the U.S.-Mexico border. This is the story told in I Just Want to Ride.

Whether riding or racing, the Tour Divide is no small feat. It takes the leaders weeks to finish. Some riders will be on the route for well over month. Along the way, riders gain 45,720 metres of elevation and cover 4,425 km of trails, back roads and occasional stretches of pavement.

In the end, it ended up being the latter that decided the race. While riding with the lead group, many of the front runners were derailed by a late spring snowstorm.

What happens up to, and after that point makes I Just Want To Ride a fascinating story. Settle in, and watch Tour Divide through the perspective of one of this generations greatest endurance cyclists.

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

From Pearl Izumi:

“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.”