Steamboat Bike Town, USA®

It’s Tour Season!

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Happy 4th of July. July is my favourite month because it’s tour season. Tour de France, Ride the Rockies, Triple Bypass …. the list goes on but my personal favourite is the Tour de Steamboat. Why? Well because it is a local non-profit event that donates all it’s proceeds directly to Routt County beneficiaries. And because it focuses on the amazing place in which we all live. Steamboat Springs, the Yampa Valley and Routt County are showcased throughout the ride.   The Tour de Steamboat is an annual bicycle event that brings together 1,000 road cyclists from all over the USA. We recruit over 100 state-wide volunteers to help and support riders as they explore the beautiful Yampa Valley. I think last year our youngest volunteer was 9, and our oldest about 89!   The ... [Continue Reading]

It’s A Girl Thing

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Wow I am not sure anyone can begin to fathom the amazing pool of women we have in Steamboat Springs. Tonight we had over 50 women from various socio-economic backgrounds; work areas and skill levels attend our Steamboat Ski and Bike Kare Women’s Group Ride for Steamboat Bike Week. It was a phenomenal turn out. But we have been getting between 20-40 women each week for the past few years because the women in this town have needed more than just a weekend ride with their husbands and boyfriends. They need other girls. Tonight I met a woman on her second mountain bike ride who crushed the technical rock section because she didn’t know she was supposed to be afraid. I met another who was on a bike two sizes too small covered in bruises with a huge smile on her face because she was beginning ... [Continue Reading]

Ride Like a Girl …. Because We Are Awesome

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It is the beginning of June and with that brings more Steamboat mountain bike trails opening and my favourite time, the start of the Steamboat Ski and Bike Kare Women’s Bike Group. So what better time to talk about being a girl in the bike world than now? Is there anything better than riding with a group of girls? A few years ago I would have said I prefer the company of men, but after multiple women’s clinics and ladies only rides I have come to enjoy going out on two wheels and playing with the girls. It has nothing to do with it being any easier or slower, because I have friends who happily crush the boys climbing up Rabbit Ears Pass and others who can school most men on the technical downhills at the Steamboat Bike Park. It is the companionship, the support and the stupid fun we ... [Continue Reading]

Tour de Steamboat: A Great Reason To Get On Your Bike

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In the Midwest, where I grew up, all trail-oriented athletes agree there are two seasons: Birkie training and Chequemegon Fat Tire 40 training. When one ends, the other begins. The Sunday after the Birkie is day one of cycling season. Same goes the day after the Chequemegon. Off comes the storage wax, boots are inspected for wear, and wax kits are restocked. XC season is here! Jump forward to my adult life, living in Steamboat, I still have two seasons: Birkie training and Chequemegon training. I still focus my entire year of fitness and performance on these two iconic events—conveniently six months apart—a perfect fit for an athlete who likes to use periodization and training blocks. Some call this cross-training. I call it a lot more fun than dryland drills and roller skis for ... [Continue Reading]

Stop and Smell the Roses

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Have you ever gone out on a bike ride in Steamboat or around Routt County and smelt the roses? I mean really taken a big whiff of what the countryside has to offer our olfactory senses. Well have you? As you know I am usually writing these blogs, in my head, while on a bike ride and during one of my many wet (see last week’s blog) road rides I started looking around at the beautiful scenery the Yampa valley has to offer, and then inhaling some of the delightful, pungent and teasing fragrances to be found.   One of my favourite memories as a kid was the smell of a recent downpour on the sizzling, hot black top. Thinking about it now excites me in preparation for the up coming summer where all of the Emerald Mountain’s single-track trails are open, the downtown farmer’s market ... [Continue Reading]

Bike Girl’s Rainy Day Inspiration

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I have to admit most of these blogs are written while I am moving, literally moving. I think the movement energizes my creative juices!!! I can’t sit down and write in front of the computer but as soon I walk, run, ski, ride, the words start to flow. The first one was typed on my phone while I was walking to work in Steamboat. The second one was written while balancing on my trainer and the last few while I have been riding my road bike. I tried to dictate to Siri while I was riding along but between my accent and the wind blowing in my microphone she seems to get about one tenth of what I actually say. Needless to say this blog was inspired on the Yampa Valley Core Trail and on a backcountry road in Routt County. What inspires you to ride? Are you inspired to get out because it is a ... [Continue Reading]

Gravity Guy’s Spontaneous Spring

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This time of year in Steamboat is a rollercoaster for me… One day it can be unleashing the most epic snow storm you’ve ever seen and the next it could be 70* and you’re fishing or burning up the tarmac on two wheels. It's because of this exact variability that I avidly follow my moto of “play to the conditions”. Though some like to fully commit to one sport between summer and winter, I prefer to make the most of each weekend by highlighting what the conditions and weather are providing. This past month I had a three-day weekend that I was proud of and I think highlights the diversity of recreational opportunities this time of the year in Colorado. The mountains are still packed with snow but you have warm days and venturing to lower elevations you'll easily find dry dirt. Knowing this, ... [Continue Reading]

Spring in Steamboat Brings Out Your Inner Bike Girl

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It’s time .. Spring in Steamboat The mountain closed this week, my beloved board has her coat of storage wax, my skis are strapped together in my shed and I am officially allowed to jump up and down in pure excitement and scream ... IT'S BIKE SEASON. Now don't get me wrong I enjoy ski season it's what I do but I love bike season. I mean luuuvvvv.  Love love love it down to my core. My body thaws after a long winter and the cold fog lifts from my brain. There is this picture circulating of a little girl riding her bike with the biggest grin on her face and the caption says "this is what bike riding feels like everyday". I am that little girl. It doesn't matter if I am on my commuter bike riding to the grocery store on the Yampa Valley Core Trail, on my brand new mountain bike ... [Continue Reading]

Cycling Family Celebrates Spring

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We are a cycling family and the arrival of spring marks the end of snow biking season and the first of what I trust will be many wonderful road and trail rides in the warm months ahead. Just two weeks ago I took my teenage son for a late season fat bike ride, promising a fun descent as reward for climbing Blackmere to the quarry. A quick stop at Orange Peel had him fitted on an improbably light rental machine and before long we were cruising up Blackmere's meandering switchbacks scouting fun lines for the descent. A recent storm thwarted most of our options for single track, as the lines hadn't set up enough to ride. Leaving those for another day (and it was hard to bypass NPR) we ventured down Little Moab for a taste of adrenaline, and then gave the Nordic trails a try, finding them ... [Continue Reading]

Biking In, On and Around the Snow

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What is the draw to biking in or on the snow – you ask? It is cold, below freezing, and potentially dangerous. You are riding on snow after all, and did I mention the cold? Oh and don’t forget the moose that seem to be frequenting the walking trails recently. It adds up to one crazy idea – right? Well picture this; the sound of the snow crunching beneath your tires, the smell of the crisp, mountain air and the quiet peace that being outside in the snow brings to one’s soul. And there is no better place to experience this sensation than Steamboat Springs. Now, you don’t have to ride uphill on Emerald Mountain or own a designated fat bike to enjoy biking in the snow. There are many different ways to participate in this peculiar phenomenon. We have: commuting to work on the groomed ... [Continue Reading]