Eric B. chasing ghosts in the desert

YAKIMA, Wash. — Before this whole Tour Divide adventure began, Eric Bruntjen told me he was hoping to be able to complete the 2,780-mile mountain bike race — which basically follows the Continental Divide, crisscrossing it at times to generate a daily average of 10,000 vertical feet of climbing — in 25 days.

At the time, I thought he was crazy. He’s 38, which is a young man in many ways but not by elite-level endurance-athlete standards. He’s 6-foot-6 and weighs 225 pounds, which is not remotely the typical tale of the tape for a mountain biker, much less for an endurance athlete. I looked at some of the finish times from the last couple of years in the Tour Divide and thought no way was he, as a first-time competitor, finishing in 25 days. I could 27, maybe, or 28. If at all.

Clearly, I misjudged Eric Bruntjen. Today is his 20th day. And unless he has some major mishap, it looks like he’ll finish by Saturday night — his 23rd day. Despite suffering a badly sprained ankle a week into the race. Despite heavy rains that hammered him for probably 14 or 15 days of his ride.

Holy moly.

He called in Tuesday afternoon from Cuba, N.M., about 5:45 p.m. his time. He still had several more hours of riding to do, but here’s what he had to say:

Hey, Eric Bruntjen calling from Cuba, New Mexico. Been a pretty good day today. I spent the night in the desert outside of Abiquiu yesterday and rode back up to 10,000 feet today. New Mexico is tough riding — a lot of rocks, pretty technical. But it’s just a terrific state. It’s so beautiful, and the riding’s been a lot of fun — challenging but fun.

On a technical note, right now I’m going to take an approved alternate. It’s the only alternate you can take in the race so I’m going to be on pavement to avoid some dangerous areas if there’s a storm between Cuba and Pie Town.

Something kind of interesting in the mountains today, there’s a rainbow gathering. It’s thick with hippies; they say there’s 2,000 of them up there, and I rode right through their camp. So for a little bit today I wasn’t the only funny-dressed, stinky guy in the woods today. So that was quite an experience, to ride through the hippies like that.

Other than that, I’ve been chasing ghosts all day, just tracking down these tire tracks that I see. It’s been fun but challenging. So tonight I’m going to be out in the desert. Tomorrow, Grants. And keep heading south.
I’m feeling pretty good. Bike’s hanging in there. I’m optimistic right now, but there’s a long ways to go before this thing ends.

Eric has been steadily gaining on about six riders for several days. A week ago, they were 100 miles ahead of him. This morning, he’s within 30 miles of them. If you want to see if he’s gaining on them, you might check out the leaderboard on the Tour Divide site.

On another note, pledges have slowed down in recent days in Eric’s ride for Evan Mettie, the Iraq war veteran who was profoundly injured by bomb shrapnel. He’s been riding to raise money for an all-terrain wheelchair for Evan, with people supporting this effort by making per-mile pledges to tourdechair@gmail.com.

If you pledge a penny per mile, you’d be pledging to make a donation of just under $28 to the “Evan Mettie Donation” fund at any U.S. Bank.

And that would put Eric that much closer a goal every bit as big to him as the finish line.

– Scott Sandsberry