ABC’s Wild World of Sports used to cover an annual cross-country bicycle race. It looked absolutely grueling. How many people would really want to do this?
Railroads were built where it was flat as much as possible, so rail trails tend to be 2-3% grade at most and best of all, often run through small towns that the railroad left behind but which represent true America.
A Trump Country Trail, you might say!
It does take a real dedicated effort to ride across the country on shared roads with hills, traffic, and hazards. Rail trails remove most of those issues and are more scenic and can be done in much less strenuous ways.
“It looked absolutely grueling. How many people would really want to do this?”
Not many. I have a family member that did a coast to coast trip much far south. Took a month. Worst part supposedly was the Rockies segment with concern about getting hit by a truck. I saw all the daily photos and messages and have somewhat of an idea what it would be like. Major deal.
The TRANSAM was problematic in part because there were no stages. Racers would sleep at the handlebars and fall off cliffs.
This trail seems AWESOME! The dream of a lifetime.
A lot of people do the Appalachian trail. This is pretty much the same thing except on a bike.
I have done RAGBRAI a half-dozen times. If I still had knees I’d be interested in doing part of it.
Part of it is actually within a mile of my house and I used to ride it all the time. I could start the trip from my driveway.
But the article kind of jumps the gun.
"Decades" to finish the trails
“ABC’s Wild World of Sports used to cover an annual cross-country bicycle race.”
True. And the race continues. About five years ago a woman won the race (Seattle to Norfolk VA) won in seven days. She said Kansas just goes on forever and ever.
The related question is how many people would tackle a cross country trail in stages. Quite a few, I think. A trail like this opens up parts of the country that most people will never see. It's a little like driving across the country, avoiding interstates and high traffic roads, staying on the rural scenic routes.
I've met a couple of cross country hikers on the C&O Canal. The most ambitious was a woman who had started on the west coast three years before. She hiked in warm weather months, went home for the winter, and picked up where she had left off the next spring. The others had knocked it off in sections over a longer period.
The long distance hikers are a dime a dozen on the Appalachian Trail, but that's cross country on the short axis.
I don't know about the particular race you're describing, but the World Tour races -- most famously the Tour de France -- is one of (if not THE) most demanding endurance sporting events on earth.
What's described here isn't a race though.
My cousin had a man and women stay over at his place who came from Canada and were going thru Mexico and South America down to the tip then back up again to Canada all by bicycle.
Going down was the easy part but having to pedal back UP was the hard part...