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Meaghan Hackinen shatters women’s record on the 4,400 km Tour Divide

Canadian ultra-endurance rider Meaghan Hackinen has rewritten the history of the Tour Divide, completing the 4,400-kilometre route from Banff, Alberta to Antelope Wells, New Mexico in 14 days, 10 hours and 2 minutes — the fastest women’s time ever recorded on the legendary off-road epic, becoming the first woman to reach the finish this year and placing eighth overall.

The Tour Divide is notorious for breaking riders long before they reach New Mexico. It’s a route that throws everything at you: freezing rain that turns trails into sludge, surprise snowstorms on high passes, mud so thick it can stop a bike dead, and long stretches of wind-blasted prairie where progress feels painfully slow. Temperatures swing from mountain cold to desert heat, and the terrain shifts constantly between singletrack, forest roads, remote gravel and the occasional strip of pavement. It’s the kind of ride that tests every part of a rider’s body and mind.

Hackinen pushed through all of it with remarkable consistency. She spent close to eighteen hours a day on the bike, stopping only long enough to grab food, refill bottles, fix whatever needed fixing, and sleep just enough to keep moving. Like every Tour Divide racer, she travelled completely unsupported, relying on whatever shops, gas stations or motels happened to exist along the route. In the more remote sections, she had to carry enough supplies to survive stretches of more than four hundred kilometres between towns.

Her effort didn’t just break the women’s record — it reset the standard entirely, beating the previous best by more than a full day and establishing the fastest known women’s time on the route. After reaching Antelope Wells, Hackinen shifted immediately into recovery mode, focusing on rest and food after two relentless weeks on the bike.

A record-breaking year on both sides of the race

The 2026 men’s race delivered its own shockwaves. Victor Bosoni reached Antelope Wells in 11 days, 8 hours and 27 minutes, destroying the previous official men’s record by nearly two full days and stamping his name onto one of the most coveted achievements in endurance cycling.

Victor Bosoni reached Antelope Wells in 11 days, 8 hours and 27 minutes, destroying the previous official men’s record by nearly two full days