book your ride events for 2023
By Evan Lee
Calling all riders! With the holidays in full swing and winter knocking at the door, it doesn’t feel like the time to be thinking of 2023 cycling events.
Nevertheless, in many cases, you need to get booked now to ensure participation, reservations, and locking down all the things that go along with enjoying races and ride events.
While we are certainly blessed to live in a place where a world-class cycling event can be as easy as assembling your riding friends and picking a route, many riders also enjoy organized events. Such events provide varying ranges of distance and challenges, often ending with a festival chock full of great food and beverages, usually while supporting great causes.
There are literally dozens and dozens of Colorado-based cycling events to ride. These are some of our favorites:
road
May 27, Durango: Iron Horse Classic
June 11, route TBD: Ride the Rockies For nearly 40 years, this annual tour traces a different route each year while always providing grand scenery and many mountainous challenges.
July 15-16, Copper Mtn: Courage Classic WRC has partnered with Children's Hospital for over 10 years to support this ride. The CC is the single largest fundraiser supporting Children's Hospital, one of the finest pediatric care facilities in the world.
July 22, Bergen Park to Vail: Triple Bypass What was once club ride has now become one of the grand rites of and personal tests for Colorado cyclists. Squaw Pass, Loveland Pass, and Vail Pass in a day. You can do it!
August 5, Copper Mtn: Copper Triangle
August 27, Golden: Golden Gran Fondo
September 9, Grand Junction: Tour of the Moon One of the most classic routes in the state, made famous in the Coors Classic races and the Kevin Costner film American Flyers. It's 41 miles of jawdropping vistas!
September 16, Palisade: Tour de Vineyards But I was just in GJ last week for the Moon ride! Now I'm supposed to come back for a wine ride? Duh.
gravel
February 5, Lyons: Old Man Winter Rally
May 13, Western Slope TBD: Wild Horse Gravel
July 22, Winter Park: Crooked Gravel This one is near and dear to us as we created the event and ran the inaugural year on a shoestring of funding and staff. It was longer and tougher then, and saw the unexpected last-minute participation of 1984 Olympic gold medalist Alexi Grewal, who smashed the clock on a clapped out hardtail mountain bike wearing hiking boots and a hard hat.
August 20, Steamboat Spgs: SBT GRVL
October 7, Trinidad: Rad Dirt Festival
mountain
May 5, Fruita: 18 Hours of Fruita
May 28, Durango: Iron Horse Subaru MTB
June 17, Bailey: Bailey Hundo This one is also dear to us as we created the event and again ran the inaugural race on a shoestring budget and staff. Under the management of Team Evergreen, it has become a destination MTB race. It is held on the Buffalo Creek trail system, the very first trail system to receive Epic designation status by IMBA.
July 9, Leadville: Silver Rush 50
July 22, Winter Park: WP Sunrise to Sunset
August 11, Leadville: Leadville 100
September 16, Eagle: Freebird