Nearly 60 determined cyclists from all over the globe will depart from Banff, Alberta, at 10:00 am this morning for the start of the
2012 Tour Divide Race. This grueling, off-road adventure has been dubbed ?the world?s toughest mountain-bike race? and for good reasons -- the epic
Great Divide Mountain Bike Route (GDMBR) traverses over 2700 miles, climbing a total of over 200,000 cumulative feet as it crisscrosses the Continental Divide from Banff to the US/Mexico border at Antelope Wells, New Mexico.
Tour Divide racers are completely self-supported and have to finish the ride in about a month?s time to qualify as finishers: 27 days for men and 31 days for women. They carry their own gear and stop for resupply (and lots of frozen burritos) in towns along the route.
Thanks to satellite tracking technology, you can track the Tour Divide race progress in
real time and listen to audio updates via podcasts and racer
phone check-ins. There?s also lively, ongoing discussion of the race and other MTB-endurance events over at
bikepacking.net.
If you?re interested in tackling a Great Divide cycling adventure at your own pace, Adventure Cycling can provide you with the
maps and the
gear to do it.
Photos by Aaron Teasdale--
BIKEPACKER is written by Casey Greene and Paul Hansbarger -- Adventure Cycling staff, part-time adventure seekers and gear nerds alike. It appears on the 2nd and 4th Wednesdays of the month.
Source: http://blog.adventurecycling.org/2012/06/tour-divide-starts-today.html
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