Summer of cycling looms for Steamboat Springs
By JOEL REICHENBERGER, STEAMBOAT PILOT & TODAY
Now is not the time, not in a town where the wet, sloppy snow just won’t stop or in a valley turned into a gigantic irrigation ditch. Soon, though. Soon the biking summer will be upon Steamboat Springs, and local leaders predict that for cyclists enthusiastic and apathetic, for residents involved and unplugged, this will be a biking summer the likes of which they’ve never seen.
Steamboat will spend the next four months looking forward to one weekend: The USA Pro Cycling Challenge rides into Steamboat on Aug. 26 and out the next day.
Just what that weekend will look like remains unclear. Riders will come to Steamboat Springs after a stop in Avon and return a day later to Breckenridge. A spokesperson for the race, which was renamed from the Quiznos Pro Challenge, said the actual routes won’t be announced until the middle of next month.
Still, in that murkiness is the hinge on which Steamboat’s summer will swing.
“The organizers of that event spent a lot of time in Steamboat and understand how passionate Steamboat is as a community about cycling,” said Grant Fenton, of the Bike Town USA task force. “It’s a tribute to the people who have been working hard to schedule those events. They’re really working hard to put on a great experience for everyone involved.”
As important as that high-profile race might be, it’s only one of a wide variety of bike-related events headed to town in summer, and together, local organizers are hoping they all will help bring about a new biking reality in Steamboat.
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