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— Courtesy photos Monroe native and St. Mary Catholic Central graduate Joe Meiser (left, below) recently completed the Tour Divide — a 2,750-mile bike journey from Banff, Alberta, Canada, to Antelope Wells, N.M. — in just 21 days, 10 hours and 34 minutes. Meiser finished in sixth place. Only 16 of the 42 riders who started the Tour Divide finished the unsupported journey that crossed the Continental Divide 29 times. “You come out with a greater degree of confidence in yourself,” he said.
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The Tour de France is considered one of the most challenging athletic events in the world.
Riders race nearly 2,200 miles through the Alps and Pyrenees over a three-week period.
But Monroe native Joe Meiser recently completed a journey that makes the Tour de France look like a ride in the park.
He rode 2,750 miles from Banff, Alberta, to Antelope Wells, N.M., in 21 days, 10 hours and 34 minutes.
Only 16 of 42 riders who started the Tour Divide completed the trek along the Continental Divide through Canada, Montana, Idaho, Wyoming, Colorado and New Mexico. Meiser finished tied for sixth place.
“There’s a lot of attrition,” said Meiser, 29, who now lives in Minnesota. “It’s extremely hard.”
Unlike the riders in the Tour de France, the Tour Divide bikers don’t spend their nights in fancy hotels.
They rough it wherever their journey ends on that day.
And 90 percent of the Tour Divide is along unpaved gravel roads at elevations of 6,000 to 12,000 feet.
Riders cross the Continental Divide 29 times during the trip and do nearly 200,000 vertical feet of climbing.
“We joke a lot about it,” Meiser said of comparisons to the Tour de France. “Obviously its a lot more difficult than pavement when you’re riding on steep-grade mining roads. We also ride self supported. We’re not allowed to have a car following us for support. Our bikes are 50 pounds as opposed to the 17-pound bikes they use.
“We don’t stay in a hotel and have a massage when we’re done for the day. We camp or rely on restaurants and gas stations along the way.”
But Meiser isn’t complaining. He says the Tour Divide, which finished earlier this month, was one of the greatest experiences of his life.
“I love the beauty of the trail and the intensity of the climbs. It sounds funny, but I even like the exhaustion and the sleep depravation,” he said. “To some degree, it’s a test of what I, or any other rider, can survive. You see what the human body can endure.”
It was three weeks of pushing himself to the limit.
“I wouldn’t say I had any deep insights into my personal being, but I was surprised sometimes at how much more of a mental challenge it is rather than a physical challenge,” Meiser said. “It’s difficult some days to get out of your sleeping bag and back on your bike. It’s hard to leave when you find that town that has a bakery and a coffee shop and head back out into the wilderness.
“You come out with a greater degree of confidence in yourself.”
Meiser also came out with some good insights on bike design.
He works as a designer for Salsa Cycles in Minnesota. The company Web site (www.salsacycles.com) featured daily updates on his progress during the Tour Divide.
“I not only ride the bike, I design it,” he said. “As soon as I came back, the product manager came up to me and said, ‘What can we change to make the bike better?’ ”
Meier had a few mechanical problems during his journey. He had to have a new frame flown to him in Colorado.
Few riders will ever test their bike as severely as Meiser did.
“But we design for that one percent who will,” he said.
Meiser, who graduated from St. Mary Catholic Central in 1998, was a soccer player in high school.
His career in organized athletics ended when he went on to Kendall College of Art and Design in Grand Rapids.
While searching for a way to stay in shape, Meier stumbled into biking.
“I grew up on a bike as a kid,” he said. “We lived south of town and we had a BMX track in our backyard. After playing soccer in high school, I knew I needed to start some sort of recreation. I was working at a bike shop. I started riding 10 miles to work. That grew into longer rides.”
Biking has become a major part of his life.
Meiser and his wife own just one car and he does not drive it very often.
He rides his bike to work almost every day.
“I do it year-round. It’s 16 miles one way,” said Meiser, who complete that distance in 60 to 90 minutes. “I ride about 160 miles a week, rain or shine. It adds about three hours to my workday, but I stay off the highways and avoid a lot of stress. It’s just a lifestyle for me.”
As a tune-up for the Tour Divide, Meiser rode in the Trans Iowa Race.
That was a 320-mile journey across the state of Iowa on gravel roads. He started at 4 a.m. on May 2 and finished 25 hours later.
He wound up winning that event.
“I was off the bike for a total of like one and a half to two hours,” he said. “I had no intention of winning it.”
Meiser said he would not hesitate to take on another challenge like the Tour Divide.
“I would do it again,” he said. “And there are some other ultra races like this. There is one in Alaska. But I don’t know if I’ll ever get into the snow-racing scene.”

 
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