Ride the Divide

Ride the Divide ★★★
While exploring the feasibility and practicality of doing the Continental Divide Mountain Bike Trail, I thought it best to see a documentary of this being done. This documentary actually details a race involving 17 people, 10 of who drop out, going from Banff to the Mexican Border. The film showed not only the beauty of this undertaking but also the challenges that the ride presents. Unfortunately, the ride was presented as a race, which in my mind is quite stupid. Why ruin a beautiful ride by forcing yourself to go as fast as possible? The sole girl in the race actually drops out twice, and whines continually, before actually completing the course. The only people who seemed to enjoy the trip were a group of four riders, several from Europe, who rode together, did not come in first and were not well documented in this film. I was able to grasp from this that it is feasible, that it should probably be ridden in the late year (August/Sept) rather than early year when there is much snow, that it should not be done as a race, that it should definitely be ridden with another person, and that one might expect some aches and pains on the way. Most of the path was quite clear, and it didn’t seem like there was much cycling on footpaths, though a modest amount appeared to be on gravel and dirt roads. I doubt if I could talk Russ into doing this one.