Furnace Creek 508 Race Route

This 508 mile bicycle race is revered the world over for its epic mountain climbs, stark desert scenery, desolate roads, and its reputation as one of the toughest but most gratifying endurance challenges available, bar none. Total elevation gain: 35,000'.

	The 508 captured on a Garmin Forerunner 305 Lane Parker gathered this data for us during his team's 2007 race. It doesn't calculate total elevation gain properly and it came up with an average speed of 20mph but that was his moving average, not total. It also recorded a max speed of of 78mph but Lane doubts that any rider on the team rode much faster than around 50mph on the steep downhills.
	GPX file download of the 508 route Michael Pyle converted Google Map directions of the Furnace Creek 508 route into a GPX file. Each stage is its own route. This can then be imported into a GPS (like a Garmin). To download the file, right click (PC) or Ctl click (Mac) on the "Go" button to the left.
	The 508 in Ten Minutes Furnace Creek 508 rookie soloist (and finisher) Rock Rabbit had a camera mounted on the dash of his support vehicle which took a photo every 15 seconds for the duration of his 508 experience. Those quadzillion images have now been turned into a timelapse video of the whole race in this ten-minute YouTube video.
	508 Routesheet Download the 2008 Furnace Creek 508 Routesheet: 13 pages; Pdf file: 1.3MB (Excel version)
	Furnace Creek 508 Route Reconaissance By Ole Eichhorn, rookie 508 entrant in 2008 on 2x Team Charlotte the Spider
	ONLINE MAPS OF THE 508, STAGE BY STAGE 2D maps, elevation profiles, and 3D aerial views of the 508 route, courtesy of Doug Dog Sloan. This is a very useful resource. Also includes stage-by-stage elevation gain.
	GOOGLE MAPS ROUTE OF THE 508 ROUTE This is great! Cindi PitSnake Staiger put together a turn-by-turn version of the map on Google.
	GOOGLE EARTH FLY-OVER OF THE 508 ROUTE Matt, a crew member for 2006 rookie entrant Jason "Wookie" Nemecek, created an entire "fly-over" of the 508 route using Google Earth. It's like flying along over the whole course in a helicopter! (Well, OK, it's like a video game version of such a flight.) It's really fun and gives the proverbial bird's eye view of the race course. Veteran and rookie entrants alike, as well as crews, will benefit from this. Crews could even download the file into a laptop, then bring it in their support vehicle. Then, they would be able to tell their rider exactly what the terrain looks like around the next turn! (Hmmm, maybe that takes a bit of the mystery out of it for first-timers.) Thanks a ton to Matt of Team Wookie for this awesome effort! You can read how it works, and download the file, by clicking the blue botton at left.
	Incredible 2D and 3D tour of the race course by Doug Dog Sloan (2002 edition; some text out of date)
	Time Station Outline
	Course Description by Beth Dawson
	Detailed Course Description by John Hamster Hughes
	The Insider's Guide to the 508 by Mike Whale Wilson
	Furnace Creek, the story..., by Timothy S. Kinkajou Kinkeade, 1997 finisher, and Pat King, with many photos. NOTE: If you read only one story about the 508 and how to do it, read this one!