Book excerpt: Each early June the world's toughest mountain bike race kicks off from Banff Canada. The race course follows dirt roads, muddy tracks, and snow covered mountains along the Continental Divide to the Mexican border, some 2,750 miles in total. This race, this cannonball run of pain, is called the Tour Divide and is unique in the world of sport: the clock never stops and no outside support is allowed. The Cordillera is the journal of the Tour Divide. The Cordillera is about things that break - broken bodies, broken bikes, broken spirits. Between these covers are people at their lowest, their most physically and emotionally depleted. Volume 6 of The Cordillera describes the 2014 race. But as always, the Cordillera is about focusing and getting on with the job of trying to reach Antelope Wells. The common thread to all stories is the incredible strength of the human spirit, and what can be achieved if we really try.