If this sounds made for Netflix, you bet it is. Every day, they do more than they knew they were capable of. They shed tears of joy when they get to the gas station five minutes before it closes. Pronghorn antelope and elk and deer run alongside. However, these riders also achieve the highest highs on the Tour Divide, usually in the simplest of ways. On days like these, their minds, which can only take so much of the lightning and snow and saddle sores and canker sores, become adamant in their requests to please. Sometimes, they have to sleep in a US Forest Service pit toilet stall because it’s just too bad outside to camp. The days can be monotonous, head down and legs spinning cranks for hours on end, or downright savage, as they dodge lightning on high mountain passes or trudge through rotten winter snow. Most nights, however, they sleep outside with minimalist camping gear, and most days they eat a combination of junk food from gas stations and, if they’re that type, some things they’ve dehydrated at home. They can go to hospitals and restaurants, use bike shops and sleep at hotels. On the journey, the riders - 29 of whom identify as women or non-binary - are not allowed to receive any support other than that which is available to everyone. The route is 2,745 miles and climbs 200,000 feet, crisscrossing the Continental Divide multiple times. They will then try to ride - many of them as fast as they can - to the border of the United States and Mexico in Antelope Wells, New Mexico. It’s called the Tour Divide.īasically, about 200 riders - who have not paid an entry fee or signed up in any official manner, beyond using a required GPS tracking unit - will leave the YWCA Hotel in Banff, Canada at 8:00 a.m. If that all sounds too ‘Hollywood in stretchy pants,’ however, there is a bike race that starts on Friday that is pretty much the opposite of that. There is a lot about bike racing that many people (Americans) do not understand, and there’s a new show on Netflix that aims to bring more people inside the world’s biggest bike race, the Tour de France. Heading out the door? Read this article on the new Outside+ app available now on iOS devices for members!
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