The Rocky Mountains have always appealed to me. The massive mountain range runs from the furthest reaches of northern Canada to Mexico and has been called home by so many different adventurers and extreme sports people. Biking in Colorado, where the majority of the biggest mountains are, has been on my bucket list for years. Packing up my gear and heading West, I’m getting ready for a road trip around the state to experience it for myself.
I believe you can judge how good a town's trails are by how good the bike shops are on the main street. Grand Junction near the Utah border is stacked with independent shops selling boutique brands from across the world. Loading my bike onto my jeep and heading for the hills to ride Ribbon Trail, I know I'm in for a treat.
The red sandstone rock slabs are super grippy. I'm used to riding in the damp and wet in Ireland where rock slabs are a no-brake zone, but out here the grip defies logic. Soon after dropping into the trail, the narrow track opens out into a vast, almost never ending slab pack with mini hits and opportunities to pop some air. Picking my way down the 5km trail with Dawn, a local rider who coaches kids in town, we reach one of the enormous slabs that demands some tricky feathering of the brakes to not slide out on the near vertical sections.
The trail is quite techy with descends interrupted with short and sharp climbs, as well as full on rock features that make me unclip to try and figure out what line to ride as the rain trickles down - Hospital Hill and Lemon Squeezer are a bit beyond me today.
Lining the highway between the trendy resort town of Telluride and the Mesa Verde National Park is Dolores, a tiny town of less than 1,000 people. The Dolores River runs alongside the town and dusty, red mountains surround it. For such a small town, it's got more XC trails here than I expected. The area of Boggy Draw has over 170km of trails and I head deep into the forest to ride the 18km long Little Bean Canyon Trail. Summer has just started and so have the forest fires. Pedalling further away from civilization, smoke billows through the trees until I reach a cliff overlooking the mountain meadow valley. The trails here are great for a high paced ride with fitness and flow taking priority over gnarly descents.
Back in town, I crack open a beer in the garden of the Dolores Bike Hostel. This place is a hub of outdoorsy people. I hop between conversations with touring cyclists who started their ride in New Orleans over 2,500km away and hikers who spent the weekend camping out in The Grand Canyon. Loading my gear back into my jeep the next morning, I'm amazed at the variety of trails and terrain in such a short distance.
The next leg of my biking road trip takes me along the southern edge of Colorado to the biking town of Durango. This place has a place in US cycling history with XC and road champs coming from this railroad town – Seb Kuss is the biggest star from Durango at the moment. Biking is part of the fabric of the town, I’ve just missed the Iron Horse Bicycle Classic where riders try to beat the train from Durango to Silverton, which is 77km and 1,750m of climbing away, and they're building on this heritage with the new Durango Mesa Bike Park.
Hopping on a Yeti for the morning, which we're once made here, I start the climb alongside Hogan, who's helping design the trails and make the bike park part of the community. Unlike other bike parks where it's all about sending it as big as you can, the aim here seems to be adding another way for riders to develop skills and to bring more people into the sport. Though not open to the public at the moment, we pedal up the climbing trail as the sun cranks up the heat and point our front wheels down three of the flow trails with man-made jumps, catching berms, and plenty of opportunities to let go of the brakes. When finished, this bike park will no doubt be another feather in Colorado's biking cap.
Reaching the last stop on my trip in the southeast corner of Colorado, I swap my mountain bike for a gravel bike and explore the back roads of Trinidad. Although a small town, Trinidad is becoming a bigger and bigger destination on the gravel cycling calendar every year. The Rad Dirt Fest is a 181km race that takes advantage of the wide, quiet, gravel roads and has just been announced as a qualifier for Unbound.
While these large races are brilliant for a biking town, I'm cycling through the hills with Joe from Tarantula Cycles who is busy doing grassroots work on a daily basis to promote gravel riding here. From organising weekly shop rides to getting people out into the top notch gravel roads, it's essential work like this that turns a quiet town into a biking destination.
It's a nice change of pace to be back on a gravel bike and take in my surroundings. Cattle farms line the side of the dusty roads and as we roll down a long descent, we spot a flock of vultures tearing into a dead bull snake.
My trip from the northwest of Colorado to the southwest has been packed full of biking destinations, all with their own unique pull and character. Spending time on the trails with the people who depend on them for their livelihood and lifestyle just furthers my beliefs that riding bikes and spending time in the outdoors is healthy for every community. During my trip, I used the Aspide Short Supercomfort Racing which made long days in The Rockies very comfortable.
