Today, we have a conversation with the one and only Austin Killips. This year, she set a new overall record for the Arizona Trail and now a new women’s record for the Tour Divide. Spencer got the chance to ask Austin some questions as she prepared for the Colorado Trail to round out her Triple Crown. See what Austin had to reflect on and look forward to below…

First off, how did it feel to have to abandon your first attempt at the TDR in Butte?

I cried for about 10 miles as I pedaled back to Butte. It was a pretty all-consuming feeling of sadness and embarrassment. The thing I kept uttering as I called loved ones and former coach Adam Myerson to brainstorm mid-crisis was, “I just want my career back”. I concocted this whole Triple Crown project as a way to rebuild after the UCI debacle in 2023 ended my multi-year long project to earn a spot on the Women’s World Tour and turned me into a sort of toxic asset on the marketplace. I want/ed to accomplish something notable and undeniable to re-stake my claim and relevance and in the moment, as silly and shortsighted as it sounds, I felt like I had somehow undone all the progress I’d made towards that goal.

Like so many other women in professional cycling I’ve experienced so much precarity while chasing this dream. I’m not a great content creator and haven’t yet secured the financial support to make the short films about cycling that I’ve been plugging away at with some collaborators this past year. Results are what I’ve staked a lot of my value as an athlete on and that can make some mistakes and failures feel more damaging than they actually are.

Looking back, I’m glad it happened as I was riding so much better on my second run. It’s important to experience failure as an athlete. It’s a necessary check on our hubris and an occasion where the veil and filter disappears and you learn what your desires really are. My experience in the moment affirmed that when push comes to shove I’m absolutely all in on this pursuit and project. That felt good, I’d have been worried if my immediate thought wasn’t to go back and try again.

How did you manage to get back to the start and reset for another attempt?

When I landed in Calgary for my first run, an incredibly kind soul, Patrick, reached out to ask if I needed any help or support while I was in town. I scooted out of town quickly and didn’t get the chance to take him up but when things went south and I found myself trapped in Butte he followed up and made the incredibly generous offer to rescue and shuttle me back to Canada.

Like any proper guardian angel, Patrick rolled up to Butte the following afternoon and we scooted back up north together. One could argue that you shouldn’t take rides from strangers willing to drive cross country to pick you up but I was in a bind. In my quest to not let 2023 corrode my soul, I have been intentional about embracing every chance to see the kindness and shared humanity of others.

I’m incredibly grateful for Patrick and will cherish our lil’ roadtrip forever. It was a wonderful and unexpected chance to meet someone new and chat about movies and bikes after a few lonely days on the trail. The kindness and generosity of strangers have pulled me through some really hard times over the last year and I hope that I continue to pay that forward in word and deed.

How did the now-seasonal wildfire smoke affect your ride?

The wildfire smoke dominated the landscape from Banff to Colorado. Jasper [Canada] was under evacuation orders and being leveled as I rolled out. A fire outside of Fernie produced smoke so heavy it blotted out the sun as I climbed that stupid Koko Claims section. Montana was a thick haze from start to finish with a particularly nasty fire raging as I crested the climb out of Wise River. The Tetons were nearly invisible due to smoke. And just when I thought I had finally escaped the horror show, in Wamsutter I got word that a brush fire in Rawlins had jumped across the expressway, forcing the DOT to close I-70 down. The AQI was much better through Colorado but it still wasn’t until maybe Breckenridge that the dominant smell in the air wasn’t smoke.

I thought a lot about wildfire smoke derailing Lael’s last attempt at breaking Mike Hall’s record and the growing number of routes that are basically impossible to set new times on due to wildfire detours. Ultra-racing is obviously the smallest concern and casualty when it comes to wildfires, but when you’re pedaling all day it tends to linger in your mind. It’s hard not to wonder what the landscape of ultra-racing in this region looks like in the coming years. I have to imagine that the time windows to ride a lot of routes are only going to shrink in the coming years.

I remember being on the phone in Yellowstone quipping about how I was unsure if I was sick or hurting from the smoke and the person I was talking to looked up the AQI and got genuinely concerned about being outside. It was definitely an impediment to my performance that I wasn’t fully braced for. I was popping throat lozenges, covering my face whenever possible, and eager to get inside each night so I could sit in a shower and try to soothe my lungs. Future prep for wildfire season should probably include a period of “smoke acclimatization” where I rip darts on climbs and hit a vape when I’m going too fast for them to stay lit.

Performance stuff aside, the real impact was a sense of existential dread. I’ve spent a lot of time out west over the last four years and seen this shared sense of trauma and anxiety around wildfires that people live with out here, but I don’t think I truly understood it. Having now traversed well over a thousand miles, an international border, and multiple states with near-constant wildfires looming I’m starting to understand what it must feel like to have engine backfires and chains rattling on the ground produce a trauma response.

The climate is collapsing around us. Every year an unimaginable amount of lives are upended due to fires. Cities burn to the ground and entire ecosystems get destroyed. The thing about smoke is that you often don’t know where it’s coming from. It just acts as this constant reminder that something is awry. You spend your time in it acutely aware that someone somewhere is risking life and limb to put it out (likely for pennies on the dollar if they’re incarcerated and working as a firefighter in California) while someone else is potentially wondering if their home will still be standing before it gets put out. It’s one big horror show being aggressively stoked by people who choose to recreate on these lands in a reckless manner with little regard for others.

How does it feel to have the only pair of Zipp Motos that will fit a Slime tube with a Schrader valve?

I take pride in a rig that’s #builtnotbought and think I did an excellent job of converting my Wolf Tooth quick link tool into a reamer. If anyone is interested in this mod, I expect my schedule to open up in the coming months and will happily do irrevocable damage to your rims in service of making them Slime tube compatible.

It would be nice if they were still capable of being set up tubeless, but alas the tubeless Schrader valves seem to drop right through the hole I bored out.

After your AZT record, you wrote an ode to your support network in contrast to “self-supported” endurance racing. Has the TDR affected your thoughts on this aspect of ultra racing?

I couldn’t have done this ITT without my ever-expanding network of bike homies. I remain steadfast in my belief that the way people talk about self-support is as much about mythmaking and roleplaying as it is about maintaining a level playing field.

Kyle Messier and Sarah Hornby put me up not once but twice in Canmore as I geared up for my attempts. I’m still using bags that you [Spencer Harding] gave me for the AZT. A straight-up guardian angel (Patrick Dornian) rescued me from Butte. So much of my planning and prep was possible thanks to the people who’ve dedicated time to sharing knowledge and resources about this route. I definitely felt lonely out there on the trail at times and had hard moments where no one was around to help me (or I guess document and by proxy help me emotionally), but I still don’t care for the way this sport seems to frame self-support. When I’m up a creek I don’t feel alone and scared, I think of the people who believe in me and how special it is to embrace these challenges thanks to their support. In those moments, even when I’m alone in the woods trudging through some bullshit CDT section that no one would ride for fun, I think about the circumstances that led me there and I feel held.

What gear failed and what gear held up in your setup?

• Well, I ripped the Revelate drybag you gave me on my first run, sewed it together, and then ripped it in another sport.
• I broke the bite valve for my bladder which provided a refreshing steady drip of water on my legs during the day and then made me very cold while pedaling in the wee hours of the morning.
• At some point I ripped the entire back panel of my beloved $25 extra-small hydration vest that I got at a gear consignment store
• My dropper post is absolutely fried
• Many tubes failed but the Slime tube did last the longest (Cuba to ~70 or so miles out of Silver City)
• My pump broke but it served faithfully until the end
• Chain exploded outside of Kremmling
• My Velocio jersey was barely held together by a few threads

Things that worked well include but are not limited to:

• The bags my friend Cole Sewed for me
• My SRAM transmission derailleur that really does seem to be bulletproof
• An old Fizik Gobi saddle
• The Outbound Lighting Hangover and Detour have proved to be incredibly reliable.

For a video tour of the gear post TDR check out her video.

What did you listen to while you ride?

I was on a steady diet of basically two distinct aural experiences. A medley of Hardcore, Gabber, Breakcore, Jungle, and House sets (shouts out to Danny L. Harle and Petal Supply among many others) and the Boonta Vista podcast. Both were strategically deployed to meet either my need to not be lonely and or scared in the dark or my need to go stupid fast.

I think I spent the last 10 hours listening to a non-stop stream of sets above 165 bpm.

What records are you working toward, and where do you currently stand against them?

It would be cool to set the overall fastest Bikepacking Triple Crown time but doing so would require an FKT pace on the Colorado Trail. I’ve heard that doing so requires a willingness to die which is not something I necessarily lack but we’ll see how my legs are after the Divide.

Other than that, I don’t really know. Everything has an asterisk and even chasing Jay’s time is silly because it was set on much different *cough* easier *cough* courses. I am optimistic that I will set a rather notable overall Triple Crown time. It will have some sort of asterisk because I didn’t do the grand departs but I think these efforts speak for themselves at the end of the day and that’s all I really care about.

If you could have one company sponsor your efforts who would it be?

Slime, please return my hundreds of calls and emails.

Because I have so many gaps in my sponsor list at the moment I haven’t dedicated much time to thinking about the holy grail company to have sponsoring my program. I guess I’d say if your company doesn’t have military contracts and wants to give me cash money to set records and make experimental short films about cycling, I would love to be in conversation.

If by some feat of hacking you were able to watch a movie on your cycling computer for those head-down, headwind moments on the TDR, what would you have watched?

Oh cool, an impossible question. Since I would still be riding a bike in this hypothetical, I guess I have to opt for something that I’ve already seen and doesn’t require subtitles. A good soundtrack is probably the biggest priority here. I think a Gregg Araki flick like Nowhere, or The Doom Generation would be my go-to’s since they’re fast-paced and have an amazing mix of shoegaze and 90’s electronic music.

Funny enough, in lieu of the ability to actually watch things, I have actually downloaded and queued up a bunch of commentary tracks from my favorite movies to listen to on the CT.

Anything you are changing up for the CT ride, gear-wise or personally?

I’m on the same brand redacted hardtail as I used on the AZT and Tour Divide. It’ll have a fork with 120mm of travel instead of 110, a dropper that hopefully works, even thicker grips, and some XTR Trail pedals because I finally was able to purchase some shoes that aren’t stiff as a rock and designed for XC racing. I also have a pair of neoprene gloves that I purchased from a fishing shop, praying they do me well for at least one of the rainstorms I’ll inevitably encounter. I’ve been encouraged to bring a candle in case I spend a night in a pit toilet, but I think a more ultralight solution to that problem exists.

If you want to keep up with Austin’s CT check her Trackleader and if you would like to support her efforts directly check out her Patreaon!