John Stamstad was the first person to time trial the Great Divide Mountain Bike route in 1999. He completed the route in just over 18 days! Navigational technology like we have today just didn’t exist then, so considering he only had paper maps available, his time truly is astounding.

It seems like only yesterday that I spoke with John but I wanted to reconnect with him after his battle with the The Cross Washington Mountain Bike Route (XWA). The XWA was a route put together by Troy Hopwood and is a 680 mile (1,094KM) track with 50,000’ (15,240M) of climbing. The route, that starts on the coast of Washington State on the Olympic Peninsula and ends at the Idaho border by Spokane, takes riders through Washington’s diverse ecosystems via a mix of dirt roads, single track and some pavement..

John had been off the bike for quite some time and hadn’t done an event for a while but the trail was calling to him. John started training in preparation for the Dirty Kanza XL but, like with a lot of events this past summer, Covid-19 put those plans on the back burner. The XWA was logistically easy to pull off for this Seattle resident and since it was just him and the trail, physical distancing wasn’t an issue.

In this episode we discuss his preparation for the event, the challenges he faced along the way, his fueling strategy as well as his future plans. John is always a wealth of information and I really enjoyed speaking with him again.

Enjoy!