Tour Divide Race Underway
Originally posted on June 20, 2008 at 14:39 pm
The Tour Divide, touted as the world’s longest mountain bike race, started on June 13th in Banff, Alberta, Canada—with 16 racers setting off to test their endurance on a 2,711-mile journey that follows Adventure Cycling’s Great Divide Mountain Bike Route all the way to the USA/Mexico border.
This year SPOT Inc. has partnered with the Tour Divide to equip each racer with a SPOT Satellite Messenger, which provides online GPS tracking of each racer on Google Mapsâ„¢. New SPOT shared pages functionality, currently in beta format, will post the last updated location of the racers on a Google map, viewable online throughout the race. Fans can also follow the action on the Tour Divide blog.
On June 20th, at the Montana/Canada border, another group of riders will set off on the route’s original race—the fifth annual Great Divide Race, which covers the 2,490-mile American portion of the route.
For daily podcasts from both the Tour Divide and the Great Divide Race, visit www.mtbcast.com for the duration of the respective events.
–Karl Rosengarth