My friend Meghan and I came up with the idea to ride the Great Divide Mountain Bike Route two years ago, after she had knee surgery and couldnt ride during our annual mountain bike vacation at Raystown Lake, Pennsylvania. The Great Divide trip was something for us to look forward to, but few people believed wed actually follow through with such nonsense.Its 2,700 miles of mostly backcountry, single-track dirt roads, from Banff, Alberta to the Mexican border station in Antelope Wells, New Mexico. We are strong, wild spirits, but we are also dreamers, not planners, and we agreed to do the trip at a time when were both feeling trapped -- in our mid-30s and feeling for the first time the constraints of adulthood wed avoided for so long. The adventure would be the key to our mental cuffs.Six months before leaving on our trip, we welcomed Taylor, a woman on Meghans cycling team whos in her late 20s, to our crew. Shes a strong cyclist and an ambitious, organized person -- a good counterpoint to Meghan and me. Having a third cyclist added a level of safety Ive been trying on lately like a wig, feeling fancy and not quite like myself.By the time we invited Taylor, my husband and I had left Pittsburgh to live in a travel trailer, picking up odd jobs around the country, riding every mountain bike trail, and soaking our tired muscles in hot springs. I felt free, but wanted to keep the promise Id made to Meghan. Still, I wondered how our group would mesh. Meghan and I have known each other for six years; Taylor and I had only talked on the phone in preparation of the trip. We were all about to spend 45 grueling days together -- enough to test the strongest bond, not to mention one that was newly formed.People often attest that mutual struggle brings people together, and we certainly had a lot of that. We had complications before we even left home, from flight cancellations and denied access to Canada because of a scratched-up passport and cranky airport employee, to nine days of hard rain and the consequential mud that weighed down our bikes like cement.I panicked on a mountain in British Columbia when my knee gave out and I didnt think I would make it to civilization, never mind survive the next 2,500 miles.But we kept moving, through injury and mechanical problems (Taylor ingeniously rigged a severed shift cable with a zip tie to get moving again until the bike shop 200 miles away). We all got food poisoning in the brush behind a train station in Chama, New Mexico. We had to reroute several times around wildfires. We ran out of water in Wyomings Great Basin when all the rivers and reservoirs were barren.Amid all the chaos, we always chose kindness. We worked hard to talk to each other, to understand each other and what the group needed. We respected each other and what each person brought to the group.In the ideal story of three women traveling together, we meet and bond like sisters, sync our cycles and have a great vacation with great hair and limited turmoil. But in the real world of real adventure with real women, there is a lot of strife and legitimate danger. We encountered bears, wolves and Canadian lynx on our ride. There were steep cliffs and food shortages during 500-mile stretches between towns. There was the risk of serious injury from crashing or overuse.We bonded over all of that. We also bonded over splitting our last packet of oatmeal, laughing over the shared, miserable encounter with the only other humans we saw in the Great Divide Basin: two creepy through-hiker men who took off all their clothes near the river where we stopped for lunch, then swung their genitals at us and asked if we wanted to catch their river snakes.My friends and I bonded, especially, over the real decisions that had to be made collectively to ensure our safety and psychological well-being: how to navigate around wildfires, when to hitchhike or sleep indoors, how to support each other when our bodies broke down.Meghan told me, once we finished, that there were times early on when she wanted to quit. There were times I wanted to bail, too, when we were soaked through with rain and mud and it just wasnt fun anymore. The difference between who we feared we were and who we rose to become, however, is that we all stayed. For ourselves, for each other. We kept riding, and stayed together as a group. There were times when I sprinted up a mountain just to give myself some space, but I was always there, waiting at the top for my friends.We werent always in sync, but we were always a collective. Its OK that we dont all communicate in the same way, because three of any one of us might cause the world to explode. In the end, we each brought something important to the journey. Taylor brought structure and organization, Meghan brought compassion and levity, and I brought nonchalance which, admittedly, might have been infuriating at times but helpful at others when it was so easy to get caught up in a whirlwind of planning and change and forget that we were on a really epic bike ride.I was humbled in the presence of these monumentally strong and incredible women, who made me thankful for a world filled with cool, strong, smart, inventive and adventurous women. 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Hawkins, who turns 41 in December, will compete with Rex Brothers for the closers role at spring training. TWICKENHAM -- Eddie Jones has opened the door on the possibility of staying on beyond 2019 but sounded a note of caution over how fickle sport and reputations are.When Jones took the job in November he was adamant that he would be in the job until the next Rugby World Cup and would then head to Barbados to rest and watch cricket. But this week both the Rugby Football Union and Jones have raised the possibility of him staying on beyond the next World Cup.But Jones says any discussions will be parked until after the Japan tournament in 2019 and warned how quickly a coachs stock can fall if results start going the wrong way.Its very flattering that people even talk about it but these things run their natural course, Jones said. Look at Jose Mourinho after three games.Everyone thought he was going to change Manchester United; two games later theyre saying hes made all these mistakes.Thats the life we live; I understand that. When you win games your stocks are pretty high; if we lose against South Africa people will be saying Why have we employed this Australian? There wont be any discussion about 2019.He added: If we dont deliver, the only thing theyll be asking me is what time does your flight leave. If we do well, then therell be a discussion and if we do well the discussion will take place after we do well.At this stage I have a plan in place which is to give everything Ive got for England over the next four years.Jones confirmed the 45-man Elite Player Squad on Friday -- the administrative side of the England squad which sees the RFU pay the clubs a set amount per player in the group -- and the 37-man group that will train together ahead of their November Test against South Africa.Saracens Alex Lozowsski was included in the 45-man group but not in the training squad with Jones seeing him as a player for the future while Sam Jones and Mike Williams will be given the chance to impress in next weeks camp in Brighton ahead of the Nov.dddddddddddd 12 match against the Springboks.Sam Jones appears to be in the box seat for the openside berth with both Jack Clifford and James Haskell sidelined.Hes probably one of the most destructive tacklers in the league at the moment, Eddie Jones said of Sam Jones. And that gives him the opportunity to play Test rugby, because he brings something different to the table.Guys like him, its about how they can make the adjustment from being a club player to an international player.Ben Morgan also earned a recall with Jones impressed by his form before he took charge of England -- I think having watched him play that hes got the potential to be a successful Test player - but Danny Cipriani continues in international exile.Look hes a talented player but I said it quite clearly to him: at the moment hes not one or two in England in terms of stand-offs, Jones said. We see George [Ford] and Owen [Farrell] together as one and two. They are 23 and 24 years old, they are the heart of the England side. They can organise the team, they are tactically smart.So for Cipriani to get into the squad hes got to be able to show he can be number one. I dont see him as a player who comes in the squad as a number three or four player.To me hes not that sort of player; he likes to be the main man. And when he plays well enough to be number one hell be in the squad. ' ' '