This may be a bucket list job for me, and at 51 I better get on with it

Not interested in racing it – more a solid 60 – 70 – 80 miles a day. Thing is – is it fun at a more leisurely pace? Or just a long old grind. Over say 40 days, that would be approx 65 miles a day with average 5000 feet climbing per day – sounds doable here typing……

Treat yourself to the ACA guidebook, the recommended pace is a touring not racing one. I’m doing the GD this year, part of me is afraid I’ll miss something if by racing I don’t look around a bit while I’m there!

I just finished reading Dividing the Great. They did it in a similar timeframe, about 38 days, I think. Not a bad book. Would give you some idea of it.

If you want a bimble, there might be much better routes to plan with more stuff on the way – just a thought. I have not checked that possibility out.

Touring it is the way to go imo. The TD race gets the attention and the GDMTBR gets called the tour divide in general, but if you’re not looking to really push yourself into some sort of state I don’t know why you’d do the TD mass start and not simply tour the route another time. I’m going to tour it one day and I really look forward to doing it that way.

There’s an ideal sort of daily distance to be in synch with re-supply points. Some days you could do 50, others may need 100. 65 a day would be relatively easy, the climbing is rarely steep and you have all day.

As molgrips says there’s plenty of other routes, you could do 2000 miles in S America or Asia with good planning or you may need more stuff of some sorts to keep your attention but the GDMTBR is there and it justifies the hype imo.

There are way too many acronyms on this thread. I have no idea what any of you are on about. Care to clarify?

TD I can look up, but…

ACA
GD
GDMTBR

ACA is American Cycling Association
GD is Grand Depart
GDMTBR (or GDMBR) Great Divide Mountain Bike Route

Really keen on doing this, planning on 35days during 2017… Got to see if I can discipline myself to get mileage up though first!

Edit: It would be my 40th B’day present

Care to clarify?

Sorry, GDMBR gets the right google results.

For those of you not retired… how are you managing to commit this time away from normal commitments at home?

Did contemplate it but the time scale seems nigh on possible for me.. just curious

If you’re not going racing – consider going NoBo (North Bound)

Starting at the south will be warmer yes, but you’ll finish up in Canada at Banff and get to chill and relax and enjoy it up there. Otherwise you’ll be finishing at a border checkpoint after a 100mile road section. There is nothing there. Be prepared to turn back around.

Historically the route is raced SoBo – but people do also do it NoBo. I’m still undecided for this year.

If you want info, the historical threads on bikepacking.net are the place to get all you need and more.

ACA book and maps will cost you about £100 delivered. THey are worth it even if you are just wanting to take a look at the route for yourself and potential ideas. If you’re lucky, you can pick up the last print set for cheaper – I’ve sold mine on that way.

If you want to read about the race/tour from peoples persepctive grab a few copies of the Cordillera – it’s not cheap, but there is a reason for that – it goes to the education fund for a racers daughter, Dave Blumenthal, who died on route: http://tourdivide.org/blog2010/memory_dave_blumenthal

Also, Jenns article is a good place to start – issue 67 I think?
Also Johns: http://singletrackworld.com/2015/01/throwback-thursday-riding-the-great-divide/

Alternately, there is so much good info out there now so just use Google 🙂

60 days of this?

If that’s your thing go for it, but just for touring it seems like there’d be better routes in the world. Tour of Europe for eg.

Greg’s right, northbound would be the way I’d go for a tour. Southbound is just the tradition for the race based on John Stamstad’s original ITT. The guys who rode the route first went north.

For those of you not retired… how are you managing to commit this time away from normal commitments at home?

With work – unpaid leave.
With wife – it’s something shes known I’ve wanted to do for years. Also, no kids. Already green lit for another run in 2018 if I want to.
With family – they understand.
With friends – mih, they’ll either be there or not.

It’s about communication, discussion, and eventually understanding. I’m sure there are things they’d like to do, ask them.

Liking the idea of going South- North and finishing with a soak in the hot springs at Banff. MrsMC could fly out to meet me there with the kids. Our honeymoon started in Banff……

*runs off to buy lottery ticket(s)*

Doing anything for that many days is going to get monotonous.
Have you ever tried anything for that length of time ?

Normally when you do stuff you have natural breaks or you stop when you have had enough. If your not racing it perhaps the motivation to keep going wont be there.

I spent almost a year doing the same thing 6 days a week, sure it differed slightly each day, but basically the same. I was glad of my one day off each week. Not sure how Id cope if I didn’t have that escape. Also it was only the same thing from about 7.30am till 6.30pm, so at least I had the night away from it.

It may turn a nice idea into slow torture.

If you’re not going racing – consider going NoBo (North Bound)

Why does racing mean SB? There are some racers doing NB, aren’t there?

I want to go north, because it’ll give me plenty of time on the flatter bits to lose weight for the mountains!

I now have to wait until my kids are old enough to appreciate me trying to do it – I cant’ disappear for four weeks with young kids.

ACA is the Adventure cycling association.

Jekyll, perhaps you’re making a joke but if not do you honestly think that the route from British Columbia through Montana, Idaho, Wyoming, Colorado and New Mexico passes through ecologically, geologically and geographically identical terrain?

I appreciate that none of those pics might float your boat but it’s fair to say you’ll see some different things along the way. 😆

Re: time constraints….at work I’ve tried to be extra useful for brownie points, at home I’ve just waffled on about it enough that swmbo is happy to see the back of me so I’ll stop banging on about it.

As someone who is also GDMTBR curious and has done lots of mental planning, i’ve not thought about going northbound but it makes sense. I looked on google streetview/Earth at Antelope Wells a while ago, and it is just a couple of buildings and a gate in the desert in one of the least populated counties of NM, so a very good point!

I’ve always thought that a good bit of training/conditioning for the tour, closer to home, would be going from northern Lapland (maybe near an airport like Tromso or Kittila) down through Sweden or Finland. You’d get a taste of the beautiful monotony and day-on-day similarity and sparser population, and there are plenty of dirt roads. Finland might be too flat, but Sweden’s high coast might make for a bit more climbing. I’ve always thought this a good taster for TD/GDMTBR style riding, and a nice one to do in itself. You also end the route a short flight home and near a decent town/city. You wouldn’t need too much time off work to do it either.

Edit – when i say a bit more climbing, i mean still a long way off what might be experienced in the Rockies!

I’m with Jekyll. Pictures I’ve seen don’t inspire me and, as an offical ‘thing,’ I suspect it’s mingin’ busy. More interesting routes to do, but that’d require you to do your own route planning…

I want to go north, because it’ll give me plenty of time on the flatter bits to lose weight for the mountains!

Molgrips – don’t underestimate how hilly New Mexico is. Really, don’t.

@johnnystorm Oops! My mistake regarding ACA. Silly really as I have their Tour Divide book.

Montgomery, don’t base your opinion of the route on a Google image search. I’ve seen pics from a friend who rode it last year, google’s tags do it no justice.

As for minging busy, 150 riders spread out across nearly 3000 miles? 500 around a 7 mile XC course in Thetford it isn’t!

Edit:
Have a look here:

https://m.flickr.com/#/photos/gabes/sets/72157656139130996/

I just pulled that image off the web searching for ‘mountain fire road’ I appreciate the scenery does change greatly but it’s still seems very monotonous when compared to other places in the world you might tour. There’s also a distinct lack of restaurants and bars and a great chance of meeting bears, snakes and other things that could kill you.

We are spoilt in this country in that we can travel 50Km and be in completely different scenery. I went rock climbing to New England one autumn and was there for “peak foliage weekend”, by the time you’ve travelled through 500Km of stunning red, orange and yellow leaved trees it gets boring!

Trying to find that thread from last year from a lad who went out to do it and came back after a week or so saying it just wasn’t what he was expecting.

There’s also a distinct lack of restaurants and bars and a great chance of meeting bears, snakes and other things that could kill you.

Thats sort of the whole point…. it wouldn’t be so much fun otherwise.

yeh, that bit was light hearted Greg, just pointing out why it’s not for me but I appreciate some people might find the solitude a draw.

My bad 🙂

The solitude is a massive draw for me. Not being about the noisy world we live in is wonderful.

+1 to that Greg.

Can’t remember if I said on here but for ITTs and the like you do need to enjoy your own company, if you need the company of others and consequent constant stimuli then it’s likely not for you.

Totally agree whitestone. Amazes me that people can’t deal with being totally alone bar for extended periods of time. Not saying I’m 100% comfortable with only myself to talk to , but there is a real draw in leaving people behind – so when you do meet someone, its a real pleasure to talk to them.

It’s what I love about doing an ITT of any form. I can only imagine an ITT on the Divide will have more intense swings both ways.

I raced the Tour Divide last year and there are definitely parts that are a bit tedious (especially in New Mexico & the Great Divide basin) but on the whole it’s an amazing route.

The vast majority of the time I was riding alone but you always bump into other racers in the towns & gas stations and there’s a really good comradery, even with the guys at the front.

I’m GDMBR-curious too (hope I’ve gotten the acronym right!).

I do worry that I’d become an ‘idiot Brit tourist in bear attack’ statistic.

There are some (shorter) European off-road tours I’ve been thinking about anyway, so those might be a better first step.

Def on the bucket list, got something on both of the next 2 summers, but maybe for 2018 – or may have to pull the old “it’s my 50th, surely you will let me have one last adventure ….”

These guys are sometime STW posters I think….With TourDivide honeymoon content.

http://www.megamoon.co.uk/

And regarding experience etc. the TD was my first bikepacking trip and I’d only ridden with a loaded bike once before (probably me being a bit naive more than anything).

I didn’t carry bear spray and didn’t see any bears (thankfully).

Molgrips – don’t underestimate how hilly New Mexico is. Really, don’t

As if I would do anything without over-analysing it to death first 🙂

I have been told that the NM part is flatter than the Alberta part, but it’s further between water sources. I guess it depends on how close I am to racing weight at the time. Given how much riding would be required to train, probably significantly closer than I am now 🙂

Trying to find that thread from last year from a lad who went out to do it and came back after a week or so saying it just wasn’t what he was expecting.

I Found the TDR Boring

Hence my original comment. Racing it would give you an impetus, plus it would be over quicker if you were well trained and able to knock out more miles per day.

I think you could plan a tour with more variety of trail and more stuff to see, whilst still enjoying amazing scenery, if you didn’t stick to the TDR.