Lonely Planet Epic Bike Rides of the World: Explore the Planet's Most Thrilling Cycling Routes

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Epic Bike Rides of the World is a fitting title for this book. Rides are graded as Easy, Harder and Epic with pretty much a three-way split of content. But the grading, of course, depends on the fitness, motivation and endurance level of the reader. I liked how the trips, while they do show a total distance, do not give any estimate of time needed to complete them, leaving the reader to make their own decision on this. Being an older rider, who appreciates the stops, more than the cycling, this feature appealed to me. The best ride is the one you’re on right now. Which is why we’re including the BC Bike Race in this roundup. Instead of telling you which section of trail in B.C. is our favorite, you can tell us. The race covers seven stages and includes the rooty, loamy boreal riding that western Canada is famous for. It can be grindingly technical. It can be fast and flowy. What is constant is Canadian beer. In short, it’s like cycling: wildly diverse in its excellence and all the better for it.

The 25 Best Bike Rides in the World Right Now - Outside Online

I think you could easily subtitle this book "All the places you're never going to ride your bike in this world." Lonely Planet. It's on everyone's bookshelves, it's in every traveller's hands. It's on mobile phones. It's on the Internet. It's everywhere, and it's telling entire generations of people how to travel the world.' - Fairfax Media (Australia) Let’s be clear: this is a subjective list, and you’re going to curse us on social media before you even read it. But just know that this roundup of the best rides on the planet—culled from my own personal experience of riding bikes for the past 30-plus years, as well as the advice of passionate cycling friends—is just gravy. My favorite rides have always been the ones that leave from my garage. But even though bikes are a great form of environmentally friendly recreation and transportation doesn’t mean we all don’t daydream about century-distance rides through the European countryside and fat-tire epics across the Mountain West.New Zealand’s cycling revolution is seeing scores of new routes opening up, and the wild landscape of the islands becoming better setup up for cyclists of all types. The Southern Alps have always been great for mountain biking, and Rotorua is, of course, a global hotspot for the sport. But increasingly the infrastructure has been put in place for long distance cycle touring too. The format is puzzling. It isn't a coffee table book, but is large-ish format. Physically it reminds me of a high school text book. You can ride this route as part of the Mount Tam Century or on your own whenever it suits you. But you must ride it. Our friends that are familiar with the route rave about both the ride quality of its beautiful California tarmac and the views as you emerge from the fog of the redwood forests. Loops in this area can run any length you like. We recommend the 94-mile option that includes the climb up 2,560-foot Mount Tamalpais, but whatever route you choose, you’ll likely gain 3,000 feet or more.

Epic Bike Rides of the World | Lonely Planet

Heaven in a road trip. This 185-mile route snakes all around the edge of Cape Breton Island, the most easterly point of Nova Scotia, in Canada. It's named after John Cabot, the Italian explorer who was the first European to sail to continental North America since the Vikings centuries earlier. (If you're thinking that John Cabot doesn't sound particularly Italian, you're right - his real name was Giovanni Caboto, but he used the anglicised version to make things easier for his patron and sponsor, the English King Henry VII). The organizers of the Barry-Roubaix call it the largest gravel race in the world, and with 3,500 contestants, who are we to doubt them? There’s tons of prize money and whatnot, but really, the Barry is more of a celebration of cycling and a spring throwdown than it is a race. The huge peloton is filled with people excited to cast off the winter blanket and embrace a new riding season, and we love everything about it, especially the fact that the 100-mile route is called Psycho Killer. Want to ride it another weekend? The race organizers put together a comprehensive course map that you can tweak to choose your own adventure.I genuinely found it so interesting that I read it from cover to cover and loved spotting the Hebridean Way that runs the length of my home islands the Outer Hebrides in it :) The photography throughout the book is stunning and I loved the artwork style. The good news is that "Epic Bikes of the World" is for the most part a well written travelogue, a series of writers sharing their actual experiences on these trails. At times, you can feel their experience in the writing and you can feel how meaningful that experience had been in their lives.

Epic Bike Rides of The World - General | PDF | Guide Book Epic Bike Rides of The World - General | PDF | Guide Book

Boulder is famous for its paved road riding. It should be known for its steep dirt. On a gravel bike, head up the Boulder Creek Path to Four Mile Canyon, then bang a left on Logan Mill and follow signs for the Escape Route, a forest-fire egress that’s steep enough to put you on the rivet. From there it’s on to Sugarloaf Road (paved and dirt) and the Peak to Peak Highway (paved). Make sure to stop at Salto in Nederland to refuel on pecan sandies and a macchiato for the big ring push down Magnolia Road to the Boulder Creek Path to complete the circuit. And this is but one of a half-dozen mixed-surface routes above Boulder that are nearly devoid of cars and feature soaring views of the Continental Divide. Cycle the fabled Silk Road and discover the magic of Central Asia on this mountain biking holiday through the south-eastern corner of Kazakhstan with KE Adventure Travels.Lonely Planet seems to have decided to publish more specialized guides - although this isn't a take-it-with-you sort of guide but more of a this-may-inspire-you introduction to possibilities for longer distant cycling (generally at some non-trivial expense, by the way). An iconic road trip, South Africa’s much-loved Garden Route is even more rewarding when conquered on two wheels. It doesn’t wind through manicured gardens, if that’s what you’re thinking – the route is so named for the gorgeous indigenous forest surrounding it as well as the deep gorges, blue lagoons and secret coves it passes, a landscape that is constantly changing, even over just a few days of riding. The book covers in some detail fifty different possible cycling routes (as they call them) in thirty different countries, organized by region (Africa, Americas, Asia, Europe, Oceania). The number of routes per region varies widely, with all of two for Africa but nineteen for Europe and fourteen for the Americas. The rides are categorized "easy, harder, epic." For each route, there is a "tools" section that gives some information for someone who might actually be considering one of these rides, but since these are mostly not in one's neighborhood and would require considerable preparation, they are just a bare bones start at the research that would be required.

Epic Bike Rides of the World | Lonely Planet Epic Bike Rides of the World | Lonely Planet

Similarly, while I found the "toolkit" to be helpful in a general sense there was never really a differentiation regarding when these were actual "trails" and when these were simply rides along lonely highways that might not be as friendly to walkers, runners or, in my case, wheelers. There’s no landscape more lushly rewarding than Costa Rica, and if you can handle the heat, it’s best explored by bike. The Coast to Coast cycle path takes in rainforest, volcanoes and coastline on its way from San Jose, on the Pacific side to Tortuguero on the Caribbean. You'll cross over the 3,400 metre-high Cerro de la Muerte pass and meander through the coffee and banana plantations of the Orosi valley, making this simultaneously one of the best cycle paths on this list both in terms of diversity of landscape, and metres climbed. In my ongoing effort to get through some of my "coffee table" books, I have finally gotten around to reading this Lonely Planet book of "Epic Rides". Riding to Everest Base Camp itself is a major cycling challenge - the road climbs almost fifty hairpin bends over the Pang La Pass, but up at 5,150 metres you’ll be rewarded with jaw-dropping views of Everest itself, before a marathon downhill cycle to Nepal. TripAdvisor Travelers' Choice Awards 2012, 2013, 2014, and 2015 winner in Favorite Travel Guide categoryI fully admit to gravitating towards this because of the cute illustrated cover and a vague desire to be encouraged to pedal around some picturesque riverside trail, while riding one of those bikes with a basket on the front containing, say, cheese and chocolate. However.... while there are maybe one or two rides like that in here, the majority seem to deal with grinding things out over mountaintops and along windswept and barren looking North Atlantic coastlines, not to mention some hard core mountain biking. I guess I knew this might not be pitched at my level when the first ride is 12,000 km from Egypt to South Africa. The rewards however make all the the lung-busting climbs worth it a million times over. You'll pass monasteries and temples where prayer flags flap in the wind, ride through steep-sided valleys, and stare up at impossibly beautiful mountain vistas. You really are on top of the world, and when you've caught your breath, you'll feel like it too. Brent Soderberg/ Creative Commons) Vermont Gran Fondo, a.k.a. the Gaps Waitsfield and Warren, Vermont