Mike Hall completes Tour Divide in record time – and this time keeps the record

Mike Hall has reached the finish line of the 2016 Tour Divide in the fastest time ever, beating the record set last year by Josh Kato. Hall previously missed out on the official record in 2013 despite recording the fastest time because he had been forced to take an alternative route due to forest fires.

The Tour Divide is a self-supported mountain bike race which runs the full 2,745 mile length of the Great Divide Mountain Bike Route, from Banff in Canada to Antelope Wells in New Mexico. There are no compulsory rest periods and the race clock runs non-stop.

Kato’s record was 14 days, 11 hours and 37 minutes. Hall today completed the route in a time of 13 days, 22 hours and 51 minutes.

Speaking to us in 2012 after his first attempt, Hall said: “Experience counts for a lot on the Tour Divide. You learn a lot the first time and it seems a waste not to go back and use that experience. It’s the type of route that gets under your skin and into your blood.”

Hall was also at one point the world record holder for fastest circumnavigation of the globe by bicycle. In 2012, he took 91 days 18 hours to circle the world from west to east, averaging almost 200 miles per day.