β Scribed by Homer, Jill
No coin nor oath required. For personal study only.
Jill is a newspaper editor from small-town Alaska who harbors an outlandish ambition: to compete in the "world's toughest mountain bike race," a 2,740-mile journey from Canada to Mexico along the rugged spine of the Rocky Mountains.
Her timid nature and chronic lack of self-confidence defy her desire to face the world as an endurance athlete. As she launches preparations that will take her from the frozen Alaska wilderness to the parched Utah desert, Jill's fears become her fuel. She is fierce when she wants to flee, but every monster she faces only brings more setbacks. A mishap during a winter race in Alaska leaves her with serious frostbite. Her career also teeters on thin ice. Her long-term relationship starts to crumble. Does racing a mountain bike down the spine of the continent even matter anymore? Still, Jill senses that this journey carries deeper meaning β even at the likely expense of spectacular failure. As she explains to a skeptical friend, "The fact that somethingβs impossible has never been a good reason not to try."
"Be Brave, Be Strong" is the true story of an adventure driven relentlessly forward as foundations crumble. This is an honest account of one woman's incredible journey and simple discovery: To take on the world's toughest mountain bike race, one doesn't have to be the world's toughest woman. Not even close. **
"Beneath the stories of tire-sucking mud singletrack, of white-knuckle lightning storms on a barren plain, Homer weaves a tale of sorrow, heartbreak, growth and survival as she traverses the spine of the Great Divide on a mountain bike tour from Banff, Canada to the southern border of the United States." -- Abby Lowell, Juneau Empire
"I am in awe of this woman... not only can she write a good yarn, but her story is amazing. I mean how many of us would ride a mountain bike from Canada to Mexico in rain and over 11,000 foot mountains in just 24 days? With only two outfits and a bag of junk food and a sleeping bag?" -- Book Babe
"Out of all the adventure cycling books I've ever read this one is the best--once I started reading it I couldn't put it down! This book is a model of what adventure cycling books ought to be." -- All Seasons Cyclist
"Vivid images of the people and situations encountered are both profound and simple, just like life's own mysteries and realities. Courageous and astonishing, I believe this is one of the best personal testaments of its kind that I've read." -- Red Haircrow
"Jill Homer grants us plenty of personal insights into the background to her Tour Divide ride, and her feelings during the ride itself. This is a very open, female perspective on what I assume is normally the predominantly macho and insular world of extreme bike racing, and means the book is never just a dry account of a bike ride." -- Jim Speakman
Each year on the second Friday in June, several dozen mountain bikers from around the world set out to challenge speed records on the world's longest off-pavement cycling route, the Great Divide Mountain Bike Route. Scouted and mapped by Adventure Cycling Association in 1998, the unmarked route features gravel roads, dirt tracks and jeep trails that wend along the edges of the Continental Divide.
The Great Divide Mountain Bike Route begins in Banff, Alberta, and travels 2,740 miles through the Canadian provinces of Alberta and British Columbia, and the United States of Montana, Idaho, Wyoming, Colorado, and New Mexico. By the time cyclists reach the Mexican border, they will have climbed nearly 200,000 feet over some of the highest and most remote passes in the Rocky Mountains.
Endurance legend John Stamstad became the first to set a speed record on the Great Divide, blitzing the route in eighteen days and five hours in 1998. In 2004, a handful of mountain bikers collaborated to challenge that time, organizing a self-supported race on the route. Mike Curiak established a new record at sixteen days. Since then, Divide racing has steadily grown and evolved. However, it maintains the same minimalist format: No entry fee, no course markings and no support. For many distance mountain bikers, completing the Great Divide Mountain Bike Route as fast as possible has become the ultimate challenge.
The following is the story of one woman's journey to do just that.
United States -- Continental Divide National Scenic Trail
π SIMILAR VOLUMES
Jill Homer, a newspaper editor in the isolated, soggy hamlet of Juneau, Alaska, has an outlandish ambition: Racing a mountain bike 2,740 miles from Canada to Mexico along the Continental Divide. Her preparation plans are equally ambitious: A 350-mile winter bicycle race on Alaska's frozen Iditarod T
Lexington, Kentucky, 1859. After saving John Hunt Morgan from a puma attack, fifteen-year-old farm boy Will Crump joins Hunt's militia, the Lexington Rifles. Morgan mentors Will and enrolls him in the local university, where he hopes to study law. As tensions rise between the North and South, Will i
Lexington, Kentucky, 1859. After saving John Hunt Morgan from a puma attack, fifteen-year-old farm boy Will Crump joins Hunt's militia, the Lexington Rifles. Morgan mentors Will and enrolls him in the local university, where he hopes to study law. As tensions rise between the North and South, Will i
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