The Route
The GDMBR is the world's longest off-pavement biking route. It's highlighted by long dirt roads and jeep trails that wend their way through forgotten passes of the Continental Divide. It travels through Canadian Provinces of Alberta, British Columbia and the United States of Montana, Idaho, Wyoming, Colorado, and New Mexico. By route's end a thru-rider will climb nearly 200,000
vertical feet (the equivalent of ascending Mount Everest from sea-level to summit 7 times).
Divide racers must not only be conditioned for consecutive 18 hour days in the saddle, they need to bring other skills to the route. The course is unmarked and circuitous, requiring good map literacy. It travels through remote backcountry with Grizzly and Mountain Lion density. Distance between services can be hundreds of miles, demanding calculated food/water resupplies - or else. Racers must also find shelter each night or bivouac
trailside. In minutes the Rockies' dynamic mountain weather can wreak havoc on route conditions, skewing even the most near-term travel projections. And it wouldn't be a grand tour without the geopolitics of negotiating the, albeit lower-security international border crossing at Port of Roosville.
vertical feet (the equivalent of ascending Mount Everest from sea-level to summit 7 times).Divide racers must not only be conditioned for consecutive 18 hour days in the saddle, they need to bring other skills to the route. The course is unmarked and circuitous, requiring good map literacy. It travels through remote backcountry with Grizzly and Mountain Lion density. Distance between services can be hundreds of miles, demanding calculated food/water resupplies - or else. Racers must also find shelter each night or bivouac
trailside. In minutes the Rockies' dynamic mountain weather can wreak havoc on route conditions, skewing even the most near-term travel projections. And it wouldn't be a grand tour without the geopolitics of negotiating the, albeit lower-security international border crossing at Port of Roosville.
