Most people think of trekking when it comes to outdoor adventure in Bhutan, but did you know that mountain biking is the fastest growing sport in this incredible country?
Biking in Bhutan may be evolving at lightning speed, but the trails are ancient and there is a mind-boggling amount of them. No one knows how many kilometers of trails are out there waiting to be discovered. The whole country is crisscrossed with walking trails, beaten smooth by untold generations of feet, walking across the valley or across the country for trade, festivals or family visits and there are kilometers of farm roads and forest roads as well as winding tarmac that lead through cultivated land and pristine nature.
Some of our favorite areas are rugged and truly wild, while some are close to towns and offer almost limitless variations on the ride combined with plenty of visits to interesting cultural sites and natural spots – from a day to a week or more, crossing the whole country from west to east, staying in stylish hotels, it in home stay’s or camping.
With so much to choose from, it’s hard to know where to start, let us know how many days you would like to spend in Bhutan and we design your personal Mountain biking Trip.
If you are an ambiguous mountain biker, then the Tour of the Dragon or its shorter version, The Dragon’s Fury, might be what you are looking for.
The Tour of the Dragon is neither a road bike race nor a classic mountain bike race. It doesn’t fit into any of the categories defined by the International Cycling Union. The distance of the race is more then 200 kilometers, and was categorized by the organizers as an ultra-marathon mountain bike race on roads that happens to be extremely challenging.
The Tour of the Dragon starts in Bumthang, Central Bhutan, and travels 255 km over 4 mountain passes to Bhutan’s capital Thimphu. It is definitely one of the toughest one-day mountain bike races in the world.
The Dragon’s Fury race was inaugurated in the year 2015 to celebrate the 60th Birth Anniversary of His Majesty, the 4th Druk Gyalpo. Therefore the distance of the race is 60 kilometers. The race starts in Messina, in Punakha District, at an altitude of 1410 m (4625 ft.). The route leads up to Dochula Pass at 3150 m (10,330 ft.), After the pass it is all the way downhill until the finish in Thimphu.
