Good documentary on Netflix called, "Ride the Divide" about bikepacking the Great Divide Race. It's worth watching.

Thanks for the tip. I was just looking at ordering the DVD, and this would save me the $$$, since I already have a Netflix account.

Watched it last night, definitely a must see for everyone on this website, whether or not you are into mountain biking. It has lots of good thoughts on the mental endurance aspect of a long distance journey. Absolutely recommended.

As a fan of endurance sports I'm usually a sucker for this sort of movie.
I tried to watch this last night with my wife...and turned it off about 35 minutes into it. She was ready to quit in 10 but stayed strong to humor me.

Now I didn't watch the whole thing, but from what I saw, I thought it was thoroughly unspectacular. The camera crew wasn't even present for the start? It seemed like 90% of it was going to be filmed in gas station snack isles, supermarkets, and roadside diners with the cyclists talking about how hard it was out there...and then in high drama the camera pans to dirty legs and glasses with mud splatter on them.

Disappointing, because I've read quite a bit about this race; I've found most blogs and trip reports on it to be far more interesting than this film was.

Sorry, but...yawn.

Not a flick, but it won't put you sleep.

Edited by greg23 on 02/11/2013 09:28:04 MST.

very nice photo essay Greg, but not a lot of actual bike "riding" :-)

True.
But probably more off-road riding than the GDR ;-)

Ride the Divide wasn't bad IMO, but could have been much better. It was a start for bikepacking features, and hopefully someone will come around and show bikepacking in a better light. Mike Dion was in the movie and was one of the first to drop, which should have given him plenty of time to polish production and the storyline.

If you really want a snooze fest, watch the sister flick from Salsa called "Reveal the Path"....

I drove to El Paso, TX for a screening of this movie which touted "great adventure" and literally snoozed off in the venue during the middle of the film. I stuck around for a post film raffle that consisted of a bunch of bikepacking gear and walked away empty handed. A dirty El Paso bar and cheap beer was the only highlight of that evening.

On a better note, here's some dudes that really seem to get it.

http://therepublicofdoom.blogspot.com/