Review
"Be Brave, Be Strong" is a book both simple and enormously complex, a story both nuanced and quick-reading, and an adventure narrative of both personal and cultural significance. Most of all, it elevates the joy of suffering on a bike to high intrapersonal art. -- David Chenault, Bedrock and Paradox
We're given fascinating views into the internal struggle and psychological influences that allow some people to push their mind and body to the edge and actually achieve heightened awareness and ability that forever creates in them a craving to experience it again and again. -- "Flying With Red Haircrow"
I am in awe of this woman... not only can she write a good yarn, but her story is amazing. I mean how many of us would ride a mountain bike from Canada to Mexico in rain and over 11,000 foot mountains in just 24 days? With only two outfits and a bag of junk food and a sleeping bag? -- Tara Chevrestt, "Book Babe"
Another great adventure story from Jill. If you enjoy adventure and cycling, you'll enjoy this book. And be careful because you might just develop dreams of one day riding the Tour Divide yourself. -- Andy Amick
Jill Homer grants us plenty of personal insights into the background to her Tour Divide ride, and her feelings during the ride itself. This is a very open, female perspective on what I assume is normally the predominantly macho and insular world of extreme bike racing, and means the book is never just a dry account of a bike ride. -- Jim Speakman
We're given fascinating views into the internal struggle and psychological influences that allow some people to push their mind and body to the edge and actually achieve heightened awareness and ability that forever creates in them a craving to experience it again and again. -- "Flying With Red Haircrow"
I am in awe of this woman... not only can she write a good yarn, but her story is amazing. I mean how many of us would ride a mountain bike from Canada to Mexico in rain and over 11,000 foot mountains in just 24 days? With only two outfits and a bag of junk food and a sleeping bag? -- Tara Chevrestt, "Book Babe"
Another great adventure story from Jill. If you enjoy adventure and cycling, you'll enjoy this book. And be careful because you might just develop dreams of one day riding the Tour Divide yourself. -- Andy Amick
Jill Homer grants us plenty of personal insights into the background to her Tour Divide ride, and her feelings during the ride itself. This is a very open, female perspective on what I assume is normally the predominantly macho and insular world of extreme bike racing, and means the book is never just a dry account of a bike ride. -- Jim Speakman
Product Description
Jill is an unassuming recreational cyclist who has about as much in common with Lance Armstrong as she does with Michael Jordan. But despite her perceived athletic mediocrity, the newspaper editor from Alaska harbors an outlandish ambition: the "world's toughest mountain bike race," a 2,740-mile journey from Canada to Mexico along the rugged spine of the Rocky Mountains.
A race of that magnitude demands a daunting training plan, which Jill aspires to until she literally breaks the ice on a frozen lake in the Alaska wilderness. Serious frostbite proves to only be the beginning in a series of setbacks that threaten to change her dream from outlandish to impossible. But, as Jill explains to a skeptical friend, "The fact that something’s impossible has never been a good reason not to try."
"Be Brave, Be Strong," is the true story of an adventure driven relentlessly forward as foundations crumble. This is a brutally honest account of one woman's incredible journey and simple discovery — to take on the world's toughest mountain bike race, one doesn't have to be the world's toughest woman. Not even close.
A race of that magnitude demands a daunting training plan, which Jill aspires to until she literally breaks the ice on a frozen lake in the Alaska wilderness. Serious frostbite proves to only be the beginning in a series of setbacks that threaten to change her dream from outlandish to impossible. But, as Jill explains to a skeptical friend, "The fact that something’s impossible has never been a good reason not to try."
"Be Brave, Be Strong," is the true story of an adventure driven relentlessly forward as foundations crumble. This is a brutally honest account of one woman's incredible journey and simple discovery — to take on the world's toughest mountain bike race, one doesn't have to be the world's toughest woman. Not even close.
