ALYSSA SECRETO’S JOURNEY TO TOUR DIVIDE WITH HER PINHOTI III
For ultra-endurance bikepackers, there's no event bigger than the Tour Divide. The epic 2,745-mile route follows the Great Divide Mountain Bike Route (GDMBR), which crisscrosses the Continental Divide from north to south, starting in Banff, Alberta, Canada, and finishing at the US/Mexico border in Antelope Wells, New Mexico. Just finishing this event once is a lifetime achievement.
This year, Alyssa Secreto will be racing her second Tour Divide. She’s already in Canada for the Grand Départ, which is on Friday, June 12th at 8 AM. We sat down for a quick chat before the start to learn what drives her to do big adventures, what she hopes to achieve this year, and why she’s riding a Litespeed Pinhoti III.
Follow Alyssa's dot on Trackleaders. Also, be sure to follow Alyssa and Litespeed on Instagram for updates as her race progresses!
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Rediscovering Life on the Bike
Photos courtesy of Molly Murrow.
Alyssa is a Chicago native currently living in Colorado, and cycling has been a huge part of her personal mental health journey. From age 13-27, she battled treatment-resistant depression, and during this period, was hospitalized five times following suicide attempts. Alyssa began cycling after college, and initially, it was just cheap transportation to work. Over time, though, cycling became something much more transformative. It became a gateway to recovery, bikepacking, and eventually world travel.
“The bike has been a huge part of opening my world up, which was closed for so long,” she explained. “I realized that there’s so much out there and that I was capable of so much more than I thought.”
Alyssa quit her job and left Chicago to embark on a multi-month bike tour to California. It was on this first trip that she crossed the GDMBR route for the first time. At the time, she had little mountain biking experience, but seeing the terrain and hearing the legends about the route planted the seed for her future adventures.
Arriving in California was only one stop on what became a 1.5-year solo tour that took her across Europe and Morocco in Northern Africa. These experiences helped her build confidence off-road, and by the end, she was hungry to explore more and more remote routes.
Race Strategy, Goals & Training Philosophy
Alyssa only began racing her bike two years ago, and the Tour Divide in 2024 was actually her third-ever bike race! Her only goal at the time was to finish under 30 days (before the race cut-off). She completed the route in 24 days and 1 hour, placing 6th.
This year, she’s on an ambitious new mission to complete five major endurance events: The Mid South Double (a 50k ultramarathon + the 100-mile bike race), Grand Loop, Tour Divide, Colorado Trail Race, and Dakota Five-O. This race calendar is essentially a “recovery celebration,” with each event representing one hospitalization.
“For every time I was given another chance at life, I’m doing a ride to celebrate that,” Alyssa explained. “I’m just out here trying to soak it all up and make up for lost time.”
Alyssa took the win at Grand Loop. Photo courtesy of Tim Tait and Bikepacking.com
She’s already been celebrating in style! She completed the brutal Mid South Double, despite never competing in a running race before. Then she went on to win Grand Loop with a time of 3 days, 22 hours, and 19 minutes. Now, Tour Divide is next, and she’s hoping to go faster than she did in 2024. The goal is to finish under 20 days, and this time around, she’s a lot more confident in her capabilities.
“If you had told me back then that I could ride 180 miles in a day, I would have never believed that!” Alyssa said. In her last Tour Divide, she completed an 180-mile day in Wyoming's Great Basin with no resupply. “I was so grateful to have a body that could do that,” she said. Now, she looks forward to pushing her body through the Great Basin again, surrounded by its wild horses and remote beauty.
Her training approach in the lead-up to Tour Divide has been more intuitive than structured.
“I basically find every hill I can find, and I ride all the hills,” she explained. For her, mental preparation is the priority. “I really have to make sure my head’s in the right spot. You have to be connected to the joy of riding to do well in these.” Not only that, but just like in life, you have to be prepared to handle all the low points and trust that the high points will come.
The Perfect Race Partner(s)
Alyssa completed her first Tour Divide on a Litespeed Watia gravel bike. Her extra-small frame was outfitted with 650b wheels, a 40mm RockShox Rudy gravel suspension fork, and flat bars. This was her first “really nice” bike after years of touring on a steel frame. She chose titanium because she wanted lower weight while maintaining steel’s ride feel and durability.
However, with tough races like Grand Loop and Dakota Five-O on the calendar, Alyssa started looking for a bit more off-road capability to get her to the finish. This led to her latest setup: The Litespeed Pinhoti III.
With 29” carbon wheels and a 120mm RockShox SID, it rolls faster over gnarlier terrain. Her bike is built up with a SRAM X01 Eagle mechanical drivetrain and TRP Spyre mechanical disc brakes, which should make emergency trailside repair easier when she’s deep in the wilderness. She’s also running a rear rack with custom mounts to carry the majority of her gear. Her bike has a dropper post, which she used at Grand Loop, but she plans to remove it to save a bit of weight for the Divide.
Alyssa wanted to stick with Titanium for the 2026 season because she trusts it more than anything else, especially when doing events that take her deep into remote areas where durability is a major concern.
“Titanium is ‘set it and forget it,’” she said. “When I started riding my first titanium bike, I fell in love with [it]. I felt so safe and protected. If something keeps me safe through thousands of miles full of rough roads and grizzly bears, I don’t need to experiment further. It’s a lifetime bike!”
