Detours: Bikepacking, Ultra-Cycling and Adventures by Bike

Whether you’re fuelling for a multi-day bikepacking race, trying to get more out of your training, or simply hoping to feel a little better on your everyday rides, what and when you eat can change everything. This week on Detours, I’m joined by Uri Carlson , a sports dietitian who helps athletes at every level build sustainable fuelling strategies — for daily training, long days in the saddle, and...

When you’re chasing big goals, it’s easy to get tunnel vision — to pour everything you have into one idea of what success should look like. What you should do next. How far you should go. The kind of person you should be. This year, artist and bikepack racer Quinda Verheul set out to take on the Triple Crown of bikepacking: the Tour Divide, Colorado Trail Race, and Arizona Trail Race. After the To...

There’s a certain magic in firsts — especially your first bikepacking race. They’re full of unknowns, and no matter how much you prepare, nothing ever goes exactly to plan. For Sarah Diekmeyer, a gravel racer with Enough Cycling , this year’s Badlands was her first ultra — a leap into the world of bikepacking races she once thought were only for “other people.” What followed was a crash course in...

 Marei Moldenhauer burst into 2025 with a win at the Atlas Mountain Race in February. No doubt eager to build on that early momentum and with big goals on the horizon for the remainder of the year, she was halted in her tracks after an accident skiing left her with a broken leg. The calendar wiped clear, and a long road to recovery ahead, Marei was forced to recalibrate and rebuild from ground zer...

When Roz Osborne signed up for the Silk Road Mountain Race, her motivation was simple: to prove her son wrong. Living in Cornwall with her husband and 12-year-old son, Roz had spent years pouring her energy into family and work. But when she left her job and saw applications open for the race, something inside her clicked. She wanted to do something entirely for herself — not as a mum, or a wife,...

After a crash just weeks before the start of the 2024 Transcontinental Race, Cynthia spent months recovering—stitches, broken teeth, and the mental weight of losing the race she’d prepared for. A year later, she returned to the start line determined to give it everything she had. In this conversation, Cynthia reflects on: The steep learning curve of self-routing and how small decisions shaped her...

Spend a few minutes with Julie von Gruenigen and you'll hear it right away, she loves riding her bike. On the surface ultra-cycling can feel like it has one recipe for success: sleep little, push past your limits and measure yourself by the podium. But of course, if you dig a little deeper, there's so much more to it. In just a few years, Julie has gone from triathlon to the front of races like Ba...

Chris Burkard is no stranger to grand adventures. He’s built his career chasing light at the edges of the world, photographing athletes in their element, from the ocean to glaciers, sides of mountains, and continues to test himself on countless expeditions — including a sixteen-day finish at the Tour Divide. But the Silk Road Mountain Race remained an elusive someday ride, shadowed by imposter syn...

I am back after a month away from home! This is episode is a somewhat chaotic catchup of where I've been, what I've been up to and things I'm looking forward to this fall. Follow Mel on Instagram: @melwwebb Follow Detours on Instagram: @detourscycling Follow Albion on Instagram: @albion.cycling Use code DETOURS15 to get 15% off your next order from Albion If you enjoy listening please consider ple...

We are so back... kinda! We'll be resuming normal episodes next week and want to know, what do you want to hear on Detours? Shoot us a dm @detourscycling or @melwwebb on Instagram, send us an email at thedetourspodcast@gmail.com or comment on Spotify.    Follow Mel on Instagram: @melwwebb Follow Detours on Instagram: @detourscycling Follow Albion on Instagram: @albion.cycling Use code DETOURS15 to...

In ultra distance bikepack racing, women typically make up just over 10% of the starting line. In recent years, we've begun to see that number grow with a number of efforts popping up to encourage more women to take to the start line and give the sport a go. This year, 30 women will be lining up to take on the Silk Road Mountain race, which is often regarded as the pinnacle of off-road bike pack r...

The Tour Divide sits on nearly every bikepack racers’ bucket lists—a someday ride. Someday, when there’s more time, more money, more fitness. Someday when it fits neatly into life. But the reality is, there never is a perfect moment to take on a ride of this magnitude. This year, for Jake, “someday” became this year. With just four months to prepare, Jake lined up in Banff for the 2024 Tour Divide...

Every year, the Flint Hills of Kansas call Rachel Wills back to Unbound XL. At 350 miles, the race is a test of endurance: relentless heat, drivetrain-clogging mud, a horizon that stretches on forever, and a thousand sharp, punchy climbs that chip away at you one by one. Rachel has lined up in five times: finished four, scratched once. And with each ride, she's uncovered a new experience. For her,...

The pathway into bikepacking isn’t always straightforward—and even with endless routes and resources online, it can still be hard to know where to begin or how to find your people. That’s where Bikepacking Roots comes in: a nonprofit working to make bikepacking more inclusive, accessible, and community-driven. In this episode, Noelle Battle and Danielle Parnes share what it takes to create a truly...

On July 6th, after 21 days, 10 hours and 48 minutes, Molly Weaver rolled into Tower Bridge in London—becoming the first woman to set a world record for circumnavigating mainland Britain by bike, breaking a time that had stood for 40 years. A former Women’s WorldTour rider, Molly stepped away from racing after a crash and burnout in 2017. She found her way into ultra-distance events, chasing big la...

What do you do when your bike gets swept down a flooded Scottish river, you're soaked to the bone, and miles from the nearest village? Well... you'll have to listen to find out!  Kerry is a blazing-fast Scottish ultra racer with deep roots in mountain biking. After racing the Highland Trail 550 for the first time in 2024, finishing just under three hours off the women’s record, she came back in 20...

The summer racing season in the world of ultra and bikepacking is in full swing! In this episode, I’m catching you up on what’s been happening and what's ahead. From surprising Jake at the finish of the Tour Divide (yes, I cried... so much crying!) to managing media at Hellenic, it’s been a full few weeks. I share women's racing highlights from this season so far, including Tour Divide, Highland T...

Emma Bateup is no stranger to going full send into the deep end. Whether it's tossing her bike across a flooded river or screaming into the Scottish mountains during a low moment, she’s all in. Just a couple of years into ultra racing, Emma already has a resume that includes wins in the women's race at Tour te Waipounamu, a fourth overall at the Great Southern Brevet, and now a breakout performanc...

I've been getting loads of questions as this year's Tour Divide is underway – who is Nathalie Baillon? After leading for the first 4 days of the race, she suffered a major mechanical just after Fleecer Ridge, forcing her to return to Butte and get a new wheel. Back on the road, she's chasing hard to catch Lael Wilcox. Both women are ahead of Lael's record pace, and gunning to be the first woman to...

Each year, on the second Friday in June, hundreds of riders gather outside the YMCA in Banff, Alberta, to begin what’s widely considered bikepacking’s most iconic ultra-endurance race: the Tour Divide. Riders follow the Continental Divide across 4,400 kilometers, tackling rugged dirt roads, remote wilderness, high mountain passes, and variable weather on their way to Antelope Wells, New Mexico. Wh...

I'm out in the field reporting from the Hellenic Mountain Race and dropping daily episodes through June 1st! If you're after your bikepacking, ultracycling, and adventure fix, head over to the Mountain Races podcast and subscribe so you don’t miss a thing. Detours will be back with regularly scheduled programming the first week of June! Listen to the Mountain Races Podcast on Spotify , Apple and w...

Most people in the bikepacking world know Nelson Trees as the mind behind the Silk Road Mountain Race—a race that has become legendary for its beauty, difficulty, and unpredictability. But before he was designing some of the most talked-about routes in ultra cycling, Nelson was a mountaineer, a Deliveroo rider, and someone who once rode a homemade carbon tandem from Shanghai to Paris. In this epis...

It’s wild how something as simple as walking into a bike shop can make you feel like you don’t belong. It's a feeling many folks, especially marginalized identities, have encountered, and one that Alyssa Gonzalez has made her goal to change. She wears so many hats. She is a designer advocate, cyclist runner, community organizer, model, content creator, and she owns a bike shop. And at the heart of...

When we talk about barriers to entry and bike packing, so many things come to mind. For many, it's gear. For others, it's about confidence. For many folks, especially women and marginalized genders, it can be about not knowing where to start, not seeing people like you doing the thing and feeling like maybe this world wasn't built with you and mine. On Detours we talk a lot about getting more wome...

It's just me, Mel, on the mic, and I'm finally sharing a long overdue catchup. Today I share some behind-the-scenes moments from Morocco and the Atlas Mountain Race, and how a lot of recent experiences have had me rethinking my relationship to bikes, racing, and movement in general. As always, a huge thank you to Albion for supporting Detours this year. Follow Detours on Instagram: @detourscycling...