{"id":797328,"date":"2019-07-03T16:32:00","date_gmt":"2019-07-03T22:32:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.summitdaily.com\/news\/steamboat-cyclist-uses-mental-toughness-to-push-through-injury-on-tour-divide\/"},"modified":"2019-07-03T16:32:00","modified_gmt":"2019-07-03T22:32:00","slug":"steamboat-cyclist-uses-mental-toughness-to-push-through-injury-on-tour-divide","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/local-news\/steamboat-cyclist-uses-mental-toughness-to-push-through-injury-on-tour-divide\/","title":{"rendered":"Steamboat cyclist uses mental toughness to push through injury on Tour Divide"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"swift-gallery p402_hide\" readability=\"6.5345268542199\">\n<ul id=\"imageGallery-368330-388\" class=\"gallery list-unstyled\">\n<li data-thumb=\"https:\/\/cdn.summitdaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2019\/07\/tourdivide-sbt-070319-1-150x150.jpg\" data-src=\"https:\/\/cdn.summitdaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2019\/07\/tourdivide-sbt-070319-1.jpg\" data-sub-html=\"Shelby Reardon \/ Steamboat Pilot &amp; Today | Steamboat Springs native Michael de Jong, left, poses with fellow Tour Divide competitors Simon Maindonald, middle, and Martyn Gibbons, right.\" class=\"h-100\" readability=\"1\">\n<div class=\"caption\" readability=\"13\">\n<p><strong>Steamboat Springs native Michael de Jong, left, poses with fellow Tour Divide competitors Simon Maindonald, middle, and Martyn Gibbons, right.<\/strong><br \/>Shelby Reardon \/ Steamboat Pilot &amp; Today<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"row no-gutters h-100\">\n<div class=\"col my-auto\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.summitdaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2019\/07\/tourdivide-sbt-070319-1.jpg\" alt=\"Steamboat Springs native Michael de Jong, left, poses with fellow Tour Divide competitors Simon Maindonald, middle, and Martyn Gibbons, right.\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li data-thumb=\"https:\/\/cdn.summitdaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2019\/07\/tourdivide-sbt-070319-1-1-150x150.jpg\" data-src=\"https:\/\/cdn.summitdaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2019\/07\/tourdivide-sbt-070319-1-1.jpg\" data-sub-html=\"Shelby Reardon \/ Steamboat Pilot &amp; Today | Steamboat Springs native Michael de Jong is greeted by friends and family upon arriving in his hometown while competing in the Tour Divide.\" class=\"h-100\" readability=\"-1.5\">\n<div class=\"caption\" readability=\"8\">\n<p><strong>Steamboat Springs native Michael de Jong is greeted by friends and family upon arriving in his hometown while competing in the Tour Divide.<\/strong><br \/>Shelby Reardon \/ Steamboat Pilot &amp; Today<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"row no-gutters h-100\">\n<div class=\"col my-auto\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.summitdaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2019\/07\/tourdivide-sbt-070319-1-1.jpg\" alt=\"Steamboat Springs native Michael de Jong is greeted by friends and family upon arriving in his hometown while competing in the Tour Divide.\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p class=\"caption-toggle\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.summitdaily.com\/news\/steamboat-cyclist-uses-mental-toughness-to-push-through-injury-on-tour-divide\/#\" class=\"show-captions\">Show Captions<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.summitdaily.com\/news\/steamboat-cyclist-uses-mental-toughness-to-push-through-injury-on-tour-divide\/#\" class=\"hide-captions\">Hide Captions<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">STEAMBOAT SPRINGS \u2014 On June 14, Steamboat Springs native Michael de Jong began the Tour Divide, a 2,700-mile journey from Canada to the Mexico border. He was planning on finishing the route, which takes bikers along the Continental Divide, in 31 days.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">However, on the third day, he fell head over handlebars, ripping open his right calf on a stick. The fall prompted de Jong, 56, to get stitches and spend a day resting. The injury may have knocked back his original schedule, but it didn\u2019t stop him from continuing.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Two weeks later, on Tuesday, de Jong pedaled into his hometown, greeted by friends and family outside Orange Peel Bicycle Service.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">\u201cEvery single day has moments where you go, \u2018This is exactly what I want to be doing, and I\u2019m so lucky to be here,\u2019\u201d de Jong said. \u201cThen three hours later, it can be like, \u2018This is the worst moment of my life.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">In a race as grueling and long as the Tour Divide, physical fitness isn\u2019t enough. Mental toughness is the key to pushing the body to the brink, something de Jong practices regularly at the local CrossFit gym.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">\u201cBeing mentally ready from CrossFit helped a lot, but it\u2019s mainly just struggling through adversity because we get thrown curveballs every day,\u201d de Jong said. \u201cThe passes we go over are incredibly hard and test you mentally, but we get through it, and tomorrow is another day.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">A handful of CrossFit friends and family members welcomed de Jong and a small group of riders with a cow bell, signs and balloons.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">\u201cWe think it\u2019s incredible,\u201d said Sarah Coleman, a fellow CrossFit member and coach. \u201cWe have a hashtag. It\u2019s called #BeReady, to be ready for anything. Whether that\u2019s helping someone move a couch or coming back after having a baby. It can be anything and everything in between. Michael blows everyone out of the water going out and doing something amazing.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">While he has been biking for about 20 years, de Jong had never done any race of this scale before, but a knee replacement a year-and-a-half ago served as a new surge of inspiration.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">\u201cI thought, it\u2019s time I got to do something epic and see if I can still do it because time is running out,\u201d de Jong said. \u201cThe other (reason for racing) is trying to control your mind and your body and seeing if you can do something like this. If you can overcome this, you can do anything.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Riding alongside de Jong, a local real estate agent, is Simon Maindonald of New Zealand and Martyn Gibbons of the United Kingdom.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">\u201cFor me, living in England and coming south of Canada and coming through the U.S. and seeing all the different parts of the country through Wyoming, Idaho and coming into Colorado,\u201d Gibbons said. \u201cIt\u2019s been amazing, just fantastic.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">The group of three, which is 1,600 miles into the ride, met early in the race and have been biking together ever since, facing adversity together.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Suffering an early setback, Maindonald spent two days out of the saddle with food poisoning.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">\u201cWhen I met Michael for the second time, I had just left Helena (Montana) after two days of doing nothing with food poisoning,\u201d Maindonald said. \u201cTo be fair, I was completely struggling. \u2026 Michael was incredibly generous in taking me under his wing at that stage because I was in a pretty bad way. I was pretty weak. He patiently coached and coaxed me up those next two or three days of hill climbs, and we\u2019ve been riding happily ever since really.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText Tagline\">This story is from SteamboatPilot.com<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.summitdaily.com\/news\/steamboat-cyclist-uses-mental-toughness-to-push-through-injury-on-tour-divide\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">via:: Summit Daily<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Steamboat Springs native Michael de Jong, left, poses with fellow Tour Divide competitors Simon Maindonald, middle, and Martyn Gibbons, right.Shelby Reardon \/ Steamboat Pilot &amp; Today Steamboat Springs native Michael de Jong is greeted by friends and family upon arriving in his hometown while competing in the Tour Divide.Shelby Reardon \/ Steamboat Pilot &amp; Today [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[99],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-797328","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-17 12:19:16","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSMT The Mountain","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/797328","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=797328"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/797328\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=797328"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=797328"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=797328"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}