Can you imagine packing up everything you own on a bicycle, riding away from your home with plans to cycle the world over the next four years? Now imagine it's your first bike tour.

That's exactly what Jacob Ashton did in 2016 when he rolled away from his home in Idaho.

Over the next four years, he would cover roughly 77,000 miles, visit 100 countries, and ride across six continents. His travels were not without challenges. He was confronted by machete-wielding villagers in Mozambique, lost a finger to frostbite while climbing Ojos del Salado in Chile, and experienced a bowel obstruction in Khorog, Tajikistan that required major surgery and temporarily paused his tour.

To date, he's accumulated over 120,000 miles, visited 108 countries, and ridden on six continents—and he's not done.

Recently, Jacob has been trading touring miles for racing miles, testing his skills in events like the Tour Divide, the AZT, and most recently, DOOM and the East Texas Showdown.

Jacob and I both competed at this year's DOOM, which is where we first met. He rode the long course and came in a respectable 7th place, following up a 2nd place finish the previous year.

After a 32-hour "nap," he loaded up his full-suspension Starling Murmur and rode 400 miles to Point Blank, Texas, to compete in the 400-mile East Texas Showdown.

ETS is a solidly a gravel ultra, and he was the only rider on a full-suspension bike—but he rode that thing like it was on fire, averaging 15 mph moving speed and finishing in an impressive 6th place.

Coincidentally, after ETS he had plans to ride over to my hometown to visit an old friend, so I took the opportunity to meet up with him and dive deeper into his story.

You can learn more and follow along with Jacob here:

Instagram - @occasional_bikepacker Tour Reports - Read it here His book, "Until the Road Ends" - Buy it here

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