In mid-2025, Swiss endurance cyclist Robin Gemperle took on the Tour Divide – a brutal, off-road bikepacking route stretching 4,316 kilometres from Canada all the way to the Mexican border.
The Tour Divide is infamous for its unpredictability – weather, terrain, altitude, and sheer fatigue all stack up over two relentless weeks. Gemperle left nothing to chance, fine-tuning everything from his bike setup to his sleep strategy to maintain consistent speed and endurance.
Ultimately, he averaged around 365 km and over 4,000 metres of climbing each day, pushing the limits of what’s possible in ultra-distance bikepacking racing.
I listened to three podcast interviews with Robin Gemperle to uncover his approach. He’s surprisingly open about his methods, offering a detailed look at how he conquered the route in just 11 days, 19 hours, and 14 minutes.
Here are the podcasts where I pulled this information:
Velo Podcast
Pinkbike Podcast
With Pace Podcast
Inside Robin Gemperle’s Ultra-Endurance Mindset
Gemperle approaches ultra-endurance racing with a level of professionalism few match. He surrounds himself with a team – a coach who pushes his limits, a physiotherapist, and an osteopath – helping him sustain massive daily distances, recover efficiently, stay aligned and injury-free, and remain in peak condition for his key events.
He usually targets one major race per year, with a few shorter ultras in between. The confidence he gains from working with his team means that when he enters a race, he’s aiming to win. More than that, he wants to raise the bar for ultra-endurance cycling. Like most top racers, his strategy focuses on minimising stop time while making sure he gets enough rest.
Experience and temperament are just as important as preparation. Robin seemingly plans meticulously, but he stays flexible enough to adapt to the unexpected. Mental resilience is central to his philosophy, helping him stay calm and composed even during tough moments.
Interestingly, he avoids using music as motivation. While it can create temporary spikes in energy, he prefers to rely on mental focus and structured pacing to carry him through the long days.
Training & Preparation For the Tour Divide
Gemperle hasn’t revealed a specific training plan for the Tour Divide, but he has said that before events like the Transcontinental Race, he trained roughly 15 hours per week… while completing a master’s thesis. Since he now races ultras full time, it’s reasonable to assume his training was even more intense leading up to the Tour Divide.
He usually tackles his endurance training rides at around 200 watts, or 2.85 watts per kilogram, following coaching that pushes him hard while avoiding excessive fatigue.
He also carried a bit of extra weight into the race (about 2 to 3 kilograms) knowing that over several weeks of riding, some loss was inevitable.
Sustainable Power & Recovery on the Tour Divide
Gemperle’s strategy was simple but effective: go hard in the first third of the race, settle into a steady rhythm in the middle, and then push everything he had left in the final stretch. Throughout the Tour Divide, he never faced any serious competition challenging his lead.
Robin paced the entire ride around sustainable effort and smart recovery. Instead of chasing power numbers, he used heart rate as his main guide – keeping himself under 90% of his max and letting that number settle lower as his body adapted to the rhythm of the race.
In most multi-day ultras, riders eventually reach a stable power level they can hold day after day. Gemperle actually pushed a bit above that level for the first three to four days, taking advantage of the fact that his body wasn’t fully fatigued yet.
On day one, he averaged roughly 220 watts (just over 3 watts per kilo) before gradually dialling back to about 170 to 180 watts as the days wore on. And for a 70 kilogram rider to sustain that kind of output for nearly nineteen hours a day… that’s pretty extraordinary.
Sleep: The Overlooked Edge in Ultra-Endurance Cycling
Gemperle treated the Tour Divide like a series of stage races, putting sleep front and centre to maximise his overall speed. Consistent rest was key for muscle recovery, sustaining power, and maintaining mental sharpness.
Over the 12-day race, he averaged about 5.6 hours of stopped time per day, with roughly 18.4 hours spent moving. He pre-planned potential hotel stops based on where he expected to finish each day, calling ahead to make sure there was space.
His target was around 4.5 hours of sleep per night, aligning with natural 90-minute cycles, which helped him wake feeling more refreshed. He’d tried cutting sleep in past ultra events, but that led to disorientation, missed alarms, and lower performance.
Gemperle had a strict post-ride routine: charging devices, showering, washing clothes, stretching for three minutes, and applying zinc ointment to prevent saddle sores. He also made sure to eat both before and after sleeping to optimise recovery and fuel the next day.
While he carried a sleeping bag and emergency bivvy, he only used them when absolutely necessary, preferring hotels to get the best possible rest.
Robin’s Tour Divide Food Strategy
Gemperle’s nutrition strategy was simple but effective.
On day one, he pushed hard – taking in around 80 grams of carbs per hour for nearly 20 hours, mostly through energy gels. He knew he could use proper sports nutrition early on to stay fuelled and build a gap.
After that first day, he switched to whatever he could find in rural gas stations: burgers, sandwiches, corn dogs, anything sugary and easy to digest. He didn’t take any supplements; however, he did add electrolytes to his bottles to maintain hydration and replace salts lost through sweat.
And while some riders cut out caffeine before the event so they can “save” it for later, Gemperle didn’t use that strategy. He used caffeine from the very start, but kept it controlled – two or three pills a day, taken in the morning or early afternoon. Just enough to stay alert without interfering with sleep.
So overall, his nutrition was built on practicality and whatever was available. It kept his energy steady and his stomach happy across the most remote stretches of the Tour Divide.
Clothing & Comfort For The Tour Divide
Clothing and hygiene played a key role in Gemperle’s Tour Divde performance.
Robin rode in tight-fitting cycling clothes and an aero helmet to slice through the wind efficiently – after all, around 80% of the resistance you feel on a bike comes from air drag. He wore MTB shoes to make walking easier whenever he got off the bike.
For his hands, Robin used short-finger gloves with a lot of padding – but after a few days, he usually gets annoyed by the material between his fingers, and cuts those parts out. Small adjustments like this helped him stay comfortable and keep riding long days without pain.
He kept up strict hygiene routines to prevent saddle sores, applying zinc ointment when resting and diaper rash cream while riding.
For severe saddle sores, he carried Compeed plasters to cushion and protect the area. He also had a “backup saddle position” on the bike, allowing him to shift his weight and keep riding comfortably if sores flared up.
The Fastest Tour Divide Bike
Gemperle’s bike struck a balance between speed and comfort. Thanks to good weather, he didn’t have to change the chain, cassette, or brake pads during the 4,316 km race.
He rode a Scott Scale Gravel hardtail with drop bars and wider-than-normal Continental Dubnital 2.4-inch tyres. These tyres combine low rolling resistance with solid traction and puncture protection, and he used the same set from start to finish. Continental tyres also offer a slight efficiency edge over other brands, likely saving one to five watts per pair compared to a Vittoria Mezcal.
Suspension forks are increasingly popular in ultra racing, and Robin mostly rode with his fork on the medium setting, locking it out only on smoother sections. This reduced fatigue and improved control on rough terrain.
Aero bars were another key feature, lowering his frontal area to ride faster with less effort and providing an alternative hand position to ease long days in the saddle. His bikepacking bags were also low-profile, creating minimal wind resistance.
Battery-powered lights are gradually replacing dynamos in ultra racing. My estimates suggest Robin could have saved up to 10 hours over the full Tour Divide by using efficient battery lighting instead of a dynamo system with similar brightness.
For gearing, he ran a 38-tooth front chainring with a 10–52 cassette, though he said he’d likely opt for a 36-tooth chainring next time to make climbing easier.
Mapping & Navigation
Navigation mistakes can be expensive in ultra-endurance racing, so Gemperle came prepared. He relied on a Garmin Edge 1040 Solar GPS, which offered over 60 hours of battery life, backed up by a Garmin Fenix watch.
He planned his route in RideWithGPS, breaking it into 11 segments of roughly 500 kilometres each. This made the navigation easier to manage and reduced mental load.
Tour Divide Stats For Robin Gemperle
| Day | Distance (km) | Ride Time (Hrs) | Avg Speed (kph) | Rest Period |
| 1 | 648.6 | 30 | 21.6 | 3h45 |
| 2 | 209.2 | 10 | 20.9 | 5h30 |
| 3 | 278.4 | 14 | 20.0 | 5h00 |
| 4 | 455.4 | 22 | 20.8 | 6h00 |
| 5 | 368.5 | 17.5 | 21.1 | 6h00 |
| 6 | 428.1 | 20 | 21.4 | 6h00 |
| 7 | 300.9 | 16 | 18.8 | 6h00 |
| 8 | 254.3 | 15 | 16.9 | 6h00 |
| 9 | 280.0 | 15.5 | 18.0 | 7h00 |
| 10 | 302.6 | 19.5 | 15.4 | 6h30 |
| 11 | 420.0 | 20 | 21.1 | 4h00 |
| 12 | 407.2 | 21 | 19.3 | – |
- Average ride time: 18.4 hours/day
- Average rest period: 5.6 hours/day
- Average moving speed: 19.6 km/h
I dug into Robin Gemperle’s run/rest data from Track Leaders to see how his ride and sleep patterns changed over the course of the race. By day four, his rest periods had grown to around six hours, peaking on day nine, and then he started cutting sleep again as he got closer to the finish line.
His ride times between rests weren’t entirely consistent, which shows he was targeting specific towns and checkpoints along the route.
Looking at average speed between those rest periods, he managed over 20 km/h on seven of the twelve days – even with more than 4,000 metres of climbing per day. That’s an astonishing pace for an 11-and-a-half-day push across the Tour Divide.
Post-Race Recovery
The Tour Divide takes a serious toll on both body and mind. DEXA scans showed that Robin lost more muscle than fat over the course of the race, highlighting just how demanding it was.
Afterwards, he let himself eat freely, ignoring diet or weight, and took about 10 days off training to give his body and mind a proper reset. He points out that the performance lost is only the tip of what he’s capable of, so it’s not too hard to regain.
Even so, he was careful not to get sick after such a gruelling effort, as his body is a bit more vulnerable, and falling ill could seriously set back training for the next ultra event.
Summary
Robin Gemperle’s Tour Divide record run wasn’t just about raw physical ability, it was the result of meticulous planning, smart pacing, and attention to every detail. From his bike setup and nutrition to sleep strategy and mental resilience, every element was seemingly optimised for sustained performance over nearly 11 days and 19 hours.
His approach highlights that ultra-endurance success isn’t just physical – it’s strategic, disciplined, and adaptive. Gemperle has set a new benchmark in ultra-distance racing, showing what’s possible when preparation, fueling, sleeping, technology, and experience come together.
For aspiring ultra-cyclists, his ride is both inspiration and a blueprint for pushing the limits of human endurance.