Race around the Roaring Fork Valley
Austin Colbert/The Aspen Times
Editor’s note: A version of this story appears in the 2024 Cycling Guide.
Interested in some of the top mountain biking/cycling events and series around the Roaring Fork Valley? Check out some of these options:
Aspen Cycling Club: May-September
Popular valley group Aspen Cycling Club has races all summer. Races are competitive but also low-key and friendly, which cater to any rider from intermediate to experienced. The club has been around since 1988 and is volunteer-based, which keeps fees low.
And don’t let the name fool you — the club’s schedule is a mix of both road cycling and mountain biking. Race them all or only race a few. Either way, the series remains one of the easiest and entertaining ways to get into a race bib.
Try competing in the Aspen Gran Fondo competition, which traverses the Roaring Fork Valley’s best climbs. Compete in the 36-, 62- or 103-mile events. The race is slated for July 6.
The Roaring Fork nonprofit also offers free skills clinics, trail work days, community cycling events and youth cycling scholarships, according to aspencyclingclub.org.
The club hosts races up and down the valley.
High School Cycling League: August-October
The Colorado High School Cycling League returns this season with a jam-packed schedule of races.
The League, a nonprofit unaffiliated with the Colorado High School Activities Association, caters to all high schoolers in the Centennial State. In the Roaring Fork Valley, there is a combined Aspen/Basalt team, as well as teams for Roaring Fork High School, Colorado Rocky Mountain School and Glenwood Springs High School.
At the local level, Colorado Mountain College partnered with the League in 2013, and for the past two consecutive years, CMC Spring Valley has hosted the state championships.
The first Cycling League races start in Leadville and Frisco on Aug. 24-25 and end with the state championship slated for Oct. 19-20 in Glenwood Springs.
Grand Traverse: Sept. 1
The Grand Traverse is intense. First, it’s a point-to-point race that begins in Aspen and ends in Crested Butte. Second, bikers must pedal a 3,000-foot ascent up Aspen Mountain before biking 40 miles across the Elk Mountains, according to thegrandtraverse.org. There’s over 7,800 feet of elevation gain.
“This mountain bike race is not for the faint of heart,” it states online.
Logan Greydanus of Crested Butte won the 2023 competition, at four hours, 18 minutes and 45 seconds.
This traverse, operated as a fundraising event for Crested Butte Nordic, is part of a three-race series that also includes a foot race and a winter ski mountaineering race.
Snowmass 50: Aug. 3
The Snowmass 50, formerly called the “Power of Four,” returns to the Roaring Fork Valley this year. The Aspen Skiing Company-produced race will cover 50 miles across a diverse range of Snowmass Village’s best singletrack trails, according to the aspensnowmass.com. The topography of the race includes “high desert sage meadows to dark and loamy forest.”
Divisions are split up into a two-loop 50-mile solo racer, a one-loop 25-mile solo racer, as well as 50-mile teams of two.
The 2023 winners of the two-loop 50-mile solo racer include Crested Butte’s Erin Kelly in the female division at six hours, 14 minutes and 22 seconds; and Aspen’s John Gaston in the male division at 4:27:07.2.
Crown Mountain Park: All summer
If you want an incredible pump track, dirt and mulch jumps, a BMX course, free ride zone, enhanced forest and a massive back bowl, Crown Mountain Park is the place to be.
Located in midvalley, the venue is used by many outside organizations for camps, clinics and races. Roaring Fork Cycling, the Aspen Valley Ski and Snowboard Club as well as Yewflow are the primary entities that facilitate these events.
The park was opened in 2018 and received the Colorado Parks & Recreation Award for Facility Design.
Snowmass Bike Park: June-October
Want a nice cruiser if you’re a beginner? Want an adrenaline-pumping ride from top to bottom? The Snowmass Bike Park has you covered.
Considered the heart of downhilling in the Roaring Fork Valley, the Snowmass Bike Park is a 3,000-foot descent from the top Elk Camp Chairlift to Snowmass Base Village. The terrain includes casual cruising, root and rock dropping, berm turning, jumping and jibbing, according to aspensnowmass.com.
Buy a ticket, take a lift to the top and enjoy the ride down.
Races are held at Snowmass Bike Park every Tuesday from late June through early August.
Snowmass Bike Park is open daily June 21-Sept. 4; then weekends Sept. 8-10, 15-17, 22-24 and 29-Oct. 1. It closes Oct. 2. Hours of operation are 10 a.m.-5 p.m.
Major construction project on Hwy 82 will impact summer travel through Snowmass Canyon
Over the project’s schedule, CDOT-contracted Elam Construction will work somewhere along the 7-mile site from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., Monday-Friday. CDOT has scheduled the construction in waves in an attempt to focus the heaviest traffic impacts ahead of the July 4 holiday.
