Ep. 167 ~ Kurt Refsnider, Continental Divide Trail by Bike
Bikes or Death
Patrick Farnsworth
4.8 • 563 Ratings
🗓️ 8 November 2023
⏱️ 120 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Kurt Refsnider just became one of only a handful of people to have ever successfully traversed the Continental Divide Trail by bike. The trail is 3,300 miles long and spans the length of the United States along the Continental Divide. In many ways it's similar to the popular Great Divide Mountain Bike Route. However, there is one big distinction, the CTS is primarily singletrack. And much of it is unmaintained, overgrown, and sometimes nonexistent trails.
It's not surprising that Kurt would be included in the elite group to have completed this trail. He's been a cyclist and athlete from a very young age. In fact, we hear about his first century on today's episode. He's gone on to set so many records in cycling it's easier to point you to his website for a full list.
Kurt also holds many hats in the cycling industry. He is a profissional adventure cyclist, the co-founder and Route Developer for Bikepack Roots, and he is an endurance coach, among other things. Today's episode touches on all of these topics and more.
⚡️️EPISODE SPONSORS⚡️️
Old Man Mountain - Use our affiliate link to get 15% off your order!
BoD Affiliate Links - We've made it easier to find the links that support this show and provide deals for our listeners. You can find them on our website! When you use our links you support this show and the partners who support us.
🎉New Patrons🎉
Andrew Dordal
Join them won't you? Find out more at www.Patreon.com/BikesorDeath
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Hello, friends, and welcome back to the Bikes for Death podcast. As always, my name is Patrick, |
| 0:04.7 | and I'm your host. And on today's episode, I'm talking to Kurt Reff Snyder, who is an absolute |
| 0:10.4 | legend in the sport and probably has more experience in the world of cycling as an athlete |
| 0:17.3 | specifically than a lot of people in the bike packing space and endurance |
| 0:22.5 | bike packing space specifically. If you don't know Kurt, he has his hand in a lot of different |
| 0:28.7 | pots in the cycling industry and I'm going to let him introduce himself on today's episode. |
| 0:34.4 | But I will tell you some of the things that you can look forward to hearing about. |
| 0:38.2 | One of my favorite stories was about the first century he ever did at 13 years old. |
| 0:43.7 | Another big topic for today is the Continental Divide Trail, which is a 3,300-mile trail along |
| 0:52.9 | the Continental Divide that starts in Canada and ends in Mexico or at the American |
| 0:59.8 | Mexico border. It parallels the tour divide route. And the biggest distinction here is that the |
| 1:06.5 | CDT is primarily single track and that it's pretty much a hiking trail. In the past eight years, |
| 1:14.2 | only about four or a handful of people have even attempted or ridden the entire thing. So that is |
| 1:21.3 | going to be a big topic on today's episode. We're also going to be talking about bikepacking |
| 1:25.7 | routes, Kurt's role there and some of the |
| 1:28.4 | functions of that organization as well as some of kurt's training because yes among other things |
| 1:35.0 | he's also a coach so those are just some of the highlights that you have to look forward to on |
| 1:40.8 | today's episode but before we get to, let's take a moment to thank the |
| 1:44.5 | latest batch of patrons starting with the one and only Andrew Dordle. Thank you so much, Andrew. |
| 1:51.6 | You are our only new patron this week, and we appreciate you very much. And we appreciate |
| 1:56.1 | everybody who supports this show. If you would like to help support this independent podcast, you can find out more over |
| 2:02.9 | at patreon.com forward slash bikes or death. |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Patrick Farnsworth, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of Patrick Farnsworth and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.