Interview with Max Morris, Tour Divide 2012

Max on the CDO trail, Mt. Lemmon. photo by Chad Brown

Max Morris [no relation] is a Tucson mountain biker riding in this year’s edition of Tour Divide, a 2700 mile mountain bike race across the country. He’s competed in bikepacking races in Arizona and Colorado, and is one of very few riders that have finished the ‘full meal deal’ AZT 750. He’s also a great guy, sometimes a character here on the diary, and known for collecting coats and clothes for the homeless every Christmas season, among other community involvement. He was kind enough to answer a few questions about his prep, outlook and goals for the divide.

SM: Max, are you ready to ride, or what?! Is the anticipation killing you?

Yeah, I’m definitely ready to get this ride underway, I’ve been planning and training for six months, and now IT’S HERE!

SM: We have pretty much the perfect Divide training grounds here in Tucson: Mt. Lemmon, with a hefty 7000′ well graded climb. How many times have you climbed Lemmon this winter/spring?

Really too many times to count. I will say recently, I climbed it seven times within nine days.

SM: Umm, wow. That just might make a week on the divide seem easy, especially with some of the hot temperatures you have been climbing in. Have you actually stopped climbing Lemmon now, or are you answering this on your phone, while pedaling the Catalina Highway?

No, I’m not climbing Lemmon! I started tapering a week ago after getting some messages from two legends about my Lemmon rides. 😉

[We almost had to have an intervention to get Max to stop climbing Lemmon every day. Luckily Facebook is a useful peer pressure tool — SM]

photo by Max Morris

SM: What do you think your biggest challenge out there is going to be?

The mental wear of fifteen hours a day in the saddle on Jeep roads and trying to consume enough calories to recover daily.

SM: Care to share your goal pace? How many days do you hope to take to reach Antelope Wells, NM?

Hopefully under twenty-five, but really, hoping for twenty!

[I think Max can go sub-20 – especially as strong as he has been riding lately. And sub-20 is a very elite club. — SM]

[New this year, we’ll have goal finish times from the racers themselves, displayed on the race tracker. — SM]

SM: Are you scared of grizzly bears? Maybe on Richmond Hill, where they release ‘problem’ bears from Yellowstone?

As long as I don’t smother myself in honey, I’ll be okay.

SM: You’ve been able to secure some sponsorship to make your race happen, including from your employer. Pimp your sponsors a bit and tell us how you were able to score some support.

Well, basically as far as getting sponsored, I just came up with a resume that would demonstrates that by supporting me, you are supporting someone who is more than just a bike racer, I don’t think I was sponsored so much for my racing results so much as my community involvement and my passion for health and fitness, which I will make all of my sponsors a part of. And yes,my title sponsor, UFCW, who I have been a member of for sixteen years, was the first one to step up to the plate, and in such a huge way. It seemed like once they came on board, everything fell into place.

[Awesome. Hard to imagine someone more deserving –SM]

photo by Jerry Quesnel

SM: Tell us about your divide bike. I understand you are running a rigid fork, but with gears.

With help from my secondary title sponsors, Sivilli Financial and Sabino Cycles, I was lucky enough to build my dream divide bike; custom TiSeven-29er hardtail, with a carbon White Brothers fork. The reason I went with a Ti-Hardtail over a full-suspension is 90% of the course Jeep roads, so efficiency was more important than anything, and as far as the carbon rigid fork, on washboard it’s more important for the fork to move for an aft, than up and down, and that’s what the carbon does. I’ll be running 3×10 just to have the widest range of gears, better to have and not use, than to need and not have.

SM: You had some knee issues in this year’s AZT 300. Have they settled down, or are they still a worry? Are you going to try to keep up with Kurt and Caroline on the Tandem?

As far as the knee goes, it’s feelin’ strong as can be, and no I don’t plan on keeping up with Kurt on the tandem: I’m gonna ride my ride.

SM: Sounds like a plan. Thanks Max. Last question – if you can finish and scorch the divide this year, will it be enough to inspire Chad Brown, ever the divide cynic, to pen his ‘letter of intent’ for 2013? The world NEEDS to see a “CB” blue dot on the divide.

Well when I finish the tour divide, I hope that will give Mr.Hollywood, CB, some motivation to experience this grand adventure.

SM: Well said. I’m sure Hollywood will be cheering you all the way. Anything else you want to add?

I would like to thank all of my sponsors:

>UFCW
>Siviili Financial
>Sabino Cycles/Seven
>Safeway
>Pactimo Clothing
>Clif Bar
and everyone else who has made this possible. And especially Matthew Lee and Scott Morris for making this event what it is.

SM: Good luck, Max! We’ll be following along.

Tour Divide starts one week from today, on June 8th, from Banff, Canada. We (at Trackleaders) will be managing around 100 blue and pink dots as they pedal south to Mexico. It’s going to be a good one. Tracking link:

http://trackleaders.com/tourdivide