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Is the great divide race the hardest bike race in the world? |
I am having this discussion with my girlfriend, she says it is the tour de france I say it is the GDR it is hard to answer this. they are both completely different types of races. GDR- solo, unassisted, mountain bike the Tour- teams, support crew/cars, road bike ultimately, i have to side with your old lady. and the reason comes down to one word--intensity. the level at which pro riders in the tour ride is unlike anything in the world. they do it for 21 days, almost every day. to really understand what these guys do, even with performance enhancing drugs, is difficult. if either of you are cyclists, you have a better understanding compared to the everyday person of what is involved in the tour. if not, hop on a rode bike in the 95 degree weather and try just to FINISH the equivalent of just one tour stage. What about the Race Across America? Although the speeds are nowhere near the Tour de France speeds, 3000+ miles in 8-10 days puts it at or near the top of tough races. The GDR sounds pretty tough, too. They're tough to compare to each other, they're all so tough in different ways. The Tour is probably the toughest pro race, the RAAM is the toughest open race (although you do have to qualify, not just anyone can enter) and the GDR sounds like the toughest Mountain Bike race. Obviously nobody here has ever been a competitive cyclist. It's not the length of the race, or the steepness of the climbs, that determines how difficult a race is, it's the level of competition that determines the difficulty of a race. It's how bad you want to win, and how bad the other guys want to win that determines the difficulty of any race. That's why the Tour is the toughest race in cycling. Because so many people have sacrificed so much to win it. They are willing to push themselves beyond what they would in any other race. It's the collective desire to win that makes the Tour tough. |
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