So Im reading that:
If a file name extension has not been mapped to ASP.NET, ASP.NET will not receive the request. This is important to understand for applications that use ASP.NET authentication. For example, because .htm files are typically not mapped to ASP.NET, ASP.NET will not perform authentication or authorization checks on requests for .htm files. Therefore, even if a file contains only static content, if you want ASP.NET to check authentication, create the file using a file name extension mapped to ASP.NET, such as .aspx.
which I understand given the obvious .htm <> ASP.net ISAPI mapping in the webserver but what about routes in a route table? I'm not mapping those in the web server so how does the web server know to forward those URLs to ASP.Net??