Pikes Peak Region Trail Finder

By Nathan Van Dyne, OutThereColorado.com

More than 100 professional cyclists are in town preparing for Monday's prologue of the USA Pro Cycling Challenge.

While race chairman Shawn Hunter refers to his cycling field as "the best athletes in the world," some of his riders are in awe of the runners taking on Pikes Peak.

"Is it 26K or 26 miles?" asked Stef Clement, a four-time national time trial champion from The Netherlands. "It's a marathon, right? Aah, it's amazing."

Photos from the 2010 Pikes Peak Marathon

Clement has ridden more than 2,000 miles in three weeks through the Alps and the Pyrenees, but those Tour de France routes come at much lower elevations than 14,115-foot Pikes Peak.

"Running, it's the same as cycling," he said. "The athletic abilities of these people are like ours or even better if you can run 26 miles."

Wisconsin native Bjorn Selander, a member of Team RadioShack, is sold on cycling but can see the attraction of racing up and down America's Mountain.

"It'd be fun to do that, but you choose what you want to do," he said.