Soreness on a Bike Tour

Welcome to the Bike Bulletin. Shifting into high gear to keep you informed.

—Sam Westby @samcwestby

Here’s what we have today.

• 🌍 RIDE: Alps Divide Ultra 2025

• ❓ QUESTION: Do You Get Sore?

• 🎥 WATCH: Bikepacking Adventure Kyrgyzstan - Episode 4

• 🚲 ARCHIVES: Poppo the Clown [1954]

• 📰 NEWS: Tour de France starting and new bikeshare prices

ROUTE ON MY RADAR

Alps Divide Ultra 2025

I won’t be going back to the Alps for a little while, but I’ll be following the Alps Divide starting September 6th, 2025. Riders travel north from the Mediterranean Sea to Geneva, a distance of over 1,000 km (620 miles).

Here’s what you’d be getting yourself into.

• 32,000 meters (105,000 feet) of climbing

• Recommended to have front suspension, low gearing, and > 2.0” tires

• 2024 clips on YouTube

• 2025 Provisional Route

• Official Website

QUESTION OF THE WEEK

Do You Get Sore?

The funny thing is, no, on my multi-day bike trips, I usually don’t get sore. Is that because I’m a freak athlete? Also no. It’s because of my riding strategy

You can go as slow or fast, and short or long, as you want. There is a sweet spot. If you stay in that sweet spot, then you’ll be able to get up day after day with happy legs and crush miles (or kilometers). Where is the sweet spot?

You don’t need to track power or heart rate to find it. You just need to keep checking in with your body. Am I out of breath? Am I pushing the pedals as hard as possible? Do I feel like I need to slow down? All three situations are past the sweet spot and a recipe for soreness.

Every day:

• Ride slower than I know I can.

• Avoid the temptation to smash up hills. It’s painful how slow I go.

• Try to ride slow enough so that I can breathe through my nose.

• Stop riding when the tank feels empty.

This is a tortoise and the hare situation. Go too hard one day, and you’ll regret it the next. Go easy every day, and you’ll have an amazing time. It sounds easy, but it can be hard to hold back.

WHAT’S ON MY PLATE?

Long-Form Videos

I’m working on longer YouTube videos about each week of the Europe trip. I filmed hours of horizontal video, and now is the time to use it. Anyone who has edited videos knows the daunting feeling of staring at gigabytes of footage. That’s where I’m at.

It’s time to get cracking. I planned to edit and release the long-form vlogs during the trip, but it turns out that taking a full day off each week to edit videos is less fun than riding. I just stuck with my 45 minutes of editing each night for the short-form vlogs and left the long-form editing for future-Sam.

What are these vlogs going to look like? My idea is raw, low production, and around 20 minutes.

It’ll be a much slower pace than my Gen Z bing-bang-boom 1-minute vlog style.

WHAT I’M WATCHING

Bikepacking Adventure Kyrgyzstan - Episode 4

Although Fritz Meinecke is a German creator, YouTube now has auto-dubbing (or auto-subtitles if that’s your preference). The dubs are funny, but Kyrgyzstan looks like an adventure. They have everything.

Watch all 21 minutes on YouTube.

FROM THE ARCHIVES

• July 5th. The Men’s Tour de France start date when riders go through 21 stages over 23 days.

• Increasing. Washington D.C. is raising its bikeshare prices. They say record ridership means higher operational costs. Wouldn’t record ridership mean record profit? (Capital Bike Share)

• 47%. The percent lower risk of all-cause mortality that a study found when comparing regular cycle commuters to car or public transit commuters. (Momentum)

• 16 days, 10 hours, and 17 minutes. Nathalie Baillon’s winning time for the women’s Tour Divide. (bikepacking.com)

A Note From Sam

To share this email, you can forward it or send someone this link: https://bikebulletin.beehiiv.com/subscribe.

Find me on Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, and Strava