I’ve been following the two Continental Divide mountain bike races that are currently taking place in the Rocky Mountains between the Canadian and Mexican border. The races (I’m not going to get into why there are two separate races, its a rat’s nest) caught my attention because a few Iditarod Trail Invitational racers (Pete Basinger, Jay & Tracey Petervary, Jill Homer) were competing. Jay & Tracey just finished the race on a tandem, which is just insane. Pete wasn’t so lucky.
About a year ago at this time, Pete basically saved a girl’s life after her now-infamous bear attack in Anchorage. This year, Pete was on the other end of a nasty mountain bike accident. He was descending a pass in southern Colorado when he was hit by a truck towing a horse trailer. Luckly, it sounds like he escaped with only a broken clavicle. That’s good news, but a broken clavicle is still a bummer unless you’ve got Lance Armstrong’s medical team.
Before the crash, Pete was absolutely crushing it in BOTH divide races. In typical Pete fashion, one 2,500 mile race wasn’t enough, so he worked some logistical magic in order to do both at the same time. He started in Banff (the start of the Tour Divide race) by himself and then managed to make it to the Montana border in time to offically start the Great Divide Race as well. He was possibly setting course records along the way, but it was hard to tell because he was in stealth mode. It took days before people even figured out he was on the course. It was a really cool feat and was the most interesting story line of this year’s race. It’s a shame he didn’t get to finish it off.
Pete is a remarkable athlete and a great guy. I feel very lucky that got to ski near him for this year’s Iditarod Invitational. Get well soon, Pete!
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