MONTE VISTA—The annual Bicycle Tour of Colorado spent Friday night at Ski-Hi, with rows of tents housing the 329 cyclists filling the baseball field. The tour, which is typically the last full week of June, began on June 17 in Pagosa Springs, riding to Antonito, Alamosa, Salida (where they took a resting day) and Gunnison before completing the longest leg of their trip, 106 miles to Monte Vista. The cyclists departed Monte Vista Saturday morning to return to Pagosa Springs, completing the tour.
The City of Monte Vista and the Chamber of Commerce co-sponsored the Friday events and accommodations. Cyclists at Ski-Hi listened to a performance by local band “Blue Sky,” ate Smokin’ Johnny’s BBQ and sampled beer from Square Peg Brewerks, who brought their Peach Saison and IPA. The San Luis Valley Rural Electric Co-op helped sponsor the band. Local vendors Colorado Valley Creations and Young Living Essential Oils were also present. The tour also brought in Sodexo to cater the event.
The Bicycle Tour of Colorado is a family-owned organization in its 23rd year. Alisha, Sue, Ken and Robert Powell put on the week-long annual ride, which follows a different route each year. The Powells stated that other than the rain they went through on June 18 in Antonito, “Everything went well and we had some pretty amazing weather. Everyone enjoyed the scenery and especially no snow.” About 60 volunteers help the Powells keep the event safe and enjoyable for the cyclists, maintaining rest stops every 20-30 miles and staffing a sign crew and cleaning crew as well. Sixty-two of the cyclists were from Colorado and at least one cyclist represented nearly every other state in the country, including five from Alaska and one from Hawaii. There were also six cyclists from Canada, three cyclists from Mexico and two from the United Kingdom. Over the 23-year history of the tour, cyclists have represented 25 countries from each continent except Africa and Antarctica. Only one percent of the cyclists were under the age of 20 with the average age being about 57. A rough estimate of the gender divide was 70 percent men and 30 percent women.
Pinnacle Bike Tech along with event volunteers provided all of the cyclists’ mechanical and repair needs, beginning as early as 3 a.m. each day. Rob Zabrecky, director sportif with Pinnacle explained, “There are five mechanics on the tour and out of the 329 bikes we’ve probably worked on 80 percent of them.” They set 25 pumps out each morning and then address all other needs throughout the day, including broken or frayed cables, problems with chains and much more. Zabrecky, who lives in Longmont, also stated his family owns property near Crestone and he greatly enjoyed the time in the Valley and echoed others’ sentiments, “other than the rainstorm that just soaked everything in Antonito it was great weather.” Mike Kenley, who hails from Eerie, is also a volunteer mechanic and has been with the tour for the past 10 years. He is a graduate of the United Bicycle Institute in Oregon and described himself as “the morning guy,” getting up early to help cyclists prepare for the day.
The Powells are also putting together the first annual Peak-to-Peak Challenge from July 26-29. The challenge is designed with cyclists who have families or work that prevent them from taking off a full week for the tour in mind, with options to ride for one, two or three days and different mileage options; between 10 and 100 miles per day are also available between the Gilpin County Fairgrounds and Estes Park. The organizers have also selected a tentative route for the 2018 Bicycle Tour of Colorado, from June 24-30, going from Leadville to Carbondale to Delta to Palisade to Glenwood Springs to Eagle and returning to Leadville. Please see their recently renovated website, www.bicycletourcolorado.com, for more information.