With each passing multiday, self-supported endurance bikepacking race, it becomes increasingly clear this is Lael Wilcox’s world. We’re just riding in it. But hit her with a few off-the-wall questions — like why Oprah would be her perfect riding buddy — and you uncover a charming and infectiously positive (if relentlessly motivated) person.
Lael Wilcox galvanized endurance bikepacking fans of all backgrounds this year when word spread she had a real shot at winning the Tour Divide outright — a feat no woman has ever achieved.
But though that effort was thwarted by a mix of foul weather and a gray cloud of controversy, Wilcox remains undaunted. The Anchorage, Alaska, native, who now makes her living biking insane distances all around the world, stopped by the GearJunkie office to sit in our hot seat.
But what we got was more than some funny one-liners. Find out why Wilcox has a driver’s license despite the fact she “can’t drive any car,” what’s up with her milk obsession, and how she once found herself locked inside a toothless man’s trailer on the “Highway of Tears.”
Enjoy!
