Triathlon legend Alistair Brownlee battled through incredibly challenging conditions to win a UK coast-to-coast off-road bike ride event over the Easter holiday.
The two-time Olympic champion retired from swim, bike and run at the end of the 2024 campaign but has kept himself busy in the meantime with a number of epic challenges around the world.
The latest of those came close to home – with the Dales Divide starting on Good Friday in Arnside in Cumbria and crossing England to Scarborough on the east coast through the Yorkshire Dales, the Vale of York and the Yorkshire Wolds. It then returned to the west coast via the North York Moors and the Northern Yorkshire Dales.
As if the distance and over 11,000 metres of climbing wasn’t tough enough, some seriously high winds on the back of the latest named storm to hit the UK added an extra dimension.
‘An incredible ride’
Brownlee was first to complete the mammoth route on some of the most challenging tracks and trails in the north of England, doing so in just under 35 hours which was some two-and-a-half hours ahead of second-placed finisher Donnie Campbell.
He had to deal with a brutal headwind on the way back as Storm Dave began to move from east to west, with runner-up Campbell giving a flavour of that when he said on Strava: “Cycling to the finish through Storm Dave (amber Weather warning) was the worst conditions I have ever cycled in, I was so relieved to get off the highest point of the route before the storm hit!
“The last 5 km into the headwind into Arnside was ridiculous, doing 200 watts to basically go at walking pace!”
Which made it all the more impressive that Brownlee came close to the record time for the route, held by Angus Young.
“An incredible ride by Alistair Brownlee in tough weather and trail conditions,” said the Dales Divide organisers BikePacking.com: “34.46hrs (but will be adjusted by +5min due to 08.25 start). Pictured with Captain Chris Ellison – the DD creator
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‘No idea what to expect’
After dusting himself down, Brownlee himself posted on Instagram, alongside some stunning images: “Dales Divide. One I’ve wanted to do for a while. 600km traversing the country from west to east to west.
“I know most of the route, but had no idea what to expect from a long 35 hour continuous ride. 600km, 11,000m, approx 1 hour of total stop time.
“Riding through the night over the North York Moors was a highlight, especially seeing the sunrise above Rosedale. There were some great moments and some tough hours. Seeing people in remote farms cheering and offering water always made me smile!”
Deep dive into the data
And having caught up on some recovery, Brownlee then delved into the stats from his ride to create a number of charts which you can also view below.
He said: “I’ve spent the last few days digging into the data from last week’s ride, and a few things really surprised me.
“My heart rate at the same power output dropped 15 bpm from early to late in the effort (Slide 2).
“As expected, there’s a clear downward trend in power over the ride (Slides 2 & 6). Also known as… fatigue!
“I was curious how my power drop compared to what’s been reported in the scientific literature. There are no perfect apples-to-apples comparisons for a 35h solo no-sleep effort, but some excellent ultra-cycling studies provide interesting benchmarks (Slide 5).
“And Slide 6? Just a beautiful chart. It shows how my ability to push power on climbs steadily reduced as the hours ticked on.”
