The Great Race

It was a funny place to watch a mountain-bike race, perched on the stones lining the bank of the Sacandaga River just outside Northville. Soon enough, shadows flashed through the woods, and the three leading riders picked up their bikes and forded the river, battling the current and slippery stones and the creeping knowledge that this was just the beginning. The Adirondack Trail Ride (TATR), a 585-mile unsupported bikepacking race circumnavigating the Adirondack Park, is not a typical mountain-bike race.

TATR is part of a new breed of ultra-endurance bike races—no vans, no teams, no marked or groomed circuits. Racers carry all of their camping