31: Kurt Refsnider - Kokopelli Trail FKT and Bikepacking Roots Update

This week we are joined by Emma Bateup, the women's winner and 11th overall at the 2024 Tour Te Waipounamu.

We're back! Getting back to racing has sparked up some inspiration and I really wanted to hear the story behind Joe's epic run down the TTW route! Hear about his race strategy and the battle with Rufus up front.

We're back! Toto joins Lewis on this episode to discuss his GTMC FKT project and battling saddle sores on the Atlas Mountain Race.

Jay Petervary joined me days before heading up to the Canadian/American border at Rooseville for this years abridged edition of the Tour Divide. With the Canadian border still shut racing on the route will only be from border to border across America, in the vein of the original Great Divide Race. As such theres some differences to the route, throwing back to the ACA's Great Divide Mountain Bike Route, where some deviations now exist between that route and the Tour Divide.

Simon joins me (in person!) to tell us all about his upcoming race in South Australia; the Kudlila Rally which runs from the River Torrens/Karrawirra Parri to the Spencer Gulf in Port Augusta with the Grand Depart on July 3.For more info on the race check out the facebook event: https://fb.me/e/2uOgQoQKm

This episode is packed full of short interviews from the Victoria Divide racers out on trail and a post-race chat with winner and new course-record holder Stephen Lane.

We're back! This episode we are joined by Brian Alder from New Zealand's South Island to tell us all about the inaugural running of his rugged, backcountry ultra race; the Tour Te Waipounamu!

Eliza Sampey joins us to talk about her bikepack racing accomplishments and the release of an upcoming book and project she's been involved with bringing to life: The Bike Raft Guide. For the uninitiated, bikerafting is a combination of bikepacking and packrafting. That is; riding to a river with a 2-4kg inflatable raft strapped to your bike, then inflating the raft, strapping your bike to the front and paddling down said river. It opens up some incredible opportunities to traverse the natural environment.Eliza is not only an accomplished bikerafter, with many epic expeditions under her belt, but also a talented mountain biker and bikepacker, holding the course record on the Arizona Trail Race 750. The Bike Raft Guide: https://fourcornersguides.com/thebikeraftguide/IndieGoGo Campaign: https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/the-bikeraft-guide-by-doom-lizzy#/The Bike Raft Guide Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thebikeraftguide/Eliza's Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/elizasampey/Vital Motion Life: https://www.vitalmotionlife.com/

Kurt Refsnider who was an early guest back in Episode 9, joins us again to tell us about his new FKT on the Kokopelli Trail, breaking the record set by Lachlan Morton earlier in 2020.He also has some updates to share in regards to his non-profit Bikepacking Roots. Their new BIPOC Adventure Grant and a renaming of their Wild West Route to the Western Wildlands Route.