Round two brought athletes to Steamboat Springs; home to Revolution Enduro and a plethora of world class mountain biking. Originally the weekend was planned with a day in the bike park and a day on Buffalo Pass. With Steamboat Bike Park closed this season due to COVID it was decided that the weekend would include two big days in the backcountry. Nearly 10,000 feet of descending, over 50 miles of courses, and a brand new, never before raced stage on Soda Mountain.
Revolution worked with the City of Steamboat Springs, Routt County, and the US Forest Service to make it possible under the current Colorado COVID guidelines. Social distancing, masks, a 175 participant cap, self shuttle, groups of 10 racers with 10 minute journey start gaps, staggered awards, and boxed meals were all part of COVID risk mitigation. A HUGE thank you to all the athletes, volunteers, and supporters of the athletes for coordinating their shuttles. It was the solution to meet COVID guidelines and one of the main details for event permitting.
Putting on and selling out two of the four scheduled races during our current times was truly a blessing. Carrying the successful momentum of Eagle Enduro three weeks prior into Steamboat Springs was great for the athletes, race crew, and organizers. Backcountry enduro racing is the perfect event format in these times and the mountain bike community needs it.
Day one was held in a lesser known zone 45 minutes north of Steamboat Springs utilizing the Nipple Peak Loop. The course consisted of 5 stages, 24 miles, and 4,900’ of descending. The day wasn’t easy on the athletes; a true enduro it was. Blue skies, fun stages, and plenty of stoke for riding bikes made any suffering more than worth it.
Day two was held on the newest trail trail system to Steamboat Springs, Buffalo Pass. The day started with a shuttle bump to Dry Lake and a beautiful transfer on Flash of Gold. It was a perfect morning for the climb to stage six on upper Grouse. Dropping in racers were immediately met with rocky-technical trail, chutes and awesome lines. With everyone awake it was time for the two hour transfer to stage seven, Soda Mountain. Soda is a newly completed trail that RE had its eyes set on bringing it to the race for several years. Finally the time had come to race this beautiful piece of trail. Huge mountain vistas, meadows with seas of wildflowers, and fern filled forests were all on tap. Soda left racers stoked and spent with stage times into the 20 minute mark. Athletes made their way on the easiest transfer of the weekend to lower Grouse, Stage 8. Stage 8 provided more rocky-technical and rough trail with rowdy steeps near the finish.
See the full results,
here.
With the Steamboat Springs Enduro completed and the season done we’d like to thank the entire mountain bike race community for it’s overwhelming support during the uncertain times at hand. Our sponsors Intense, Cushcore, and Skratch Labs deserve a huge round of applause for staying committed this season. For the Steamboat Enduro, thank you to our local sponsors to make this event happen; Storm Peak Brewing, Moving Mountains, Steamboat Ski & Bike Kare, and the City of Steamboat Springs. We couldn’t do this without support from all our great sponsors.
Revolution Enduro is jumping right into 2021 planning. Follow us on
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If you did not completely destroy everyone in every stage and crush the climbs, then you should probably just shut your privileged self absorbed mouth
But what do I know, I’m just a below average dude with a limited edition TLD kit and a bike frame that I special ordered worth more than my Subaru Sti.
Although I do live on the Front Range and agree with you that the culture here sucks, I'm no longer one of them and if you see me commenting around here in the future, I'm sure you'll see that my outlook on life has improved greatly. Cheers, mate.
P.S. I did race Steamboat again this year, and it's actually one of my favorite races ever. Amazing what spending a year working on your outlook will do.