I think the type of rider that looses out with this solution is the high-level Cat 3/2 type racer or elite youth who would never be able to compete in an exclusive pro race, but is still a racer and wants a race experience. The interests/goals of this rider falls in-between the Saturday “ride” and the Sunday pro “race”.
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Most of these big races/rides have moved away from mass start where the pros and amateurs start together. So, the fast amateurs are mostly racing their own race regardless of whether the pros are on the course at the same time. If SBT doesn’t provide an option for amateurs to officially “race” on the race day, the amateurs who want to participate will just treat the ride as a race. If they don’t do timing/podiums for the “ride”, I agree that they will lose some of the more serious participants, but many folks will still come to race the ride.
Drawing a line and having different days for the race vs. ride is great if they can logistically pull it off, but does anyone really think the ride isn’t going to be a race for many riders? You have angry locals with cameras taking pics of people violating traffic laws. That’s not going to stop by eliminating prize $. I don’t care what you call it, an event with over 1k riders is going to have people racing (certainly more than 2 abreast and selectively following traffic laws). If that’s really a show-stopper, you might as well shut down every event that uses open public roads.
Good on the organizers for working with the community to address their concerns and hopefully get approval for next year, but I hope they are also working on ways to benefit the community long term (the only way to survive in my opinion). The complainers will be out with their cameras again next year, some people just aren’t happy unless they are unhappy.
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Based on this change in format, from the event being on Sunday only, to a non-competitive event on Saturday and a race on Sunday, I assume this means they will be able to keep race number participants at 3,000? That’s good because I was curious what would happen to those of us who deferred to 2025 if they had to all of a sudden reduce the number of participants to 1,800? I assume we’d still be in for 2025 but it would sure make the lottery a lot more competitive.
I don’t think I would make that assumption…my read was that the number of participants was limited due to concerns form the local community and the number of state troopers required to man the event.
Routt County Sheriff Doug Scherar and Colorado State Patrol Captain Ryan Parker applauded event organizers for steps taken to improve rider behavior this year but told commissioners Monday that 3,000 riders would not be workable for their officers in the future.
“I think if we can slow this down a little bit and work with you guys about maybe bringing this back to 1,000 or 1,500 riders or something that is a little more manageable,” said Parker.
The prize purse / race issue was something else entirely.
The state police captain for Troop 4B in Craig also explained that his office would not be able to permit the event if prize money is involved because Colorado State Patrol requires competitive races to be run on closed courses.
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The latest on what they’ll propose in their permit application is as follows (aims to keep overall number of participants similar to past years):
A Saturday Ride with 3 course options and an 1,800 rider limit. A Sunday Race, with a start/finish in Hayden, held on a remote gravel circuit, and overseen by law enforcement with a rolling enclosure.
- June 26-27 - 2-day Expo on Yampa Street in downtown Steamboat Springs
- June 28 - SBT GRVL Ride on the Green, Red and Blue courses
- June 29 - SBT GRVL Race ~40-mile circuit, 3 laps for Pros/2 laps for amateurs, starting and finishing in Hayden (Men’s/Women’s Elite starts, and amateur mass start)
This new proposal keeps our rider registration numbers and fees similar to past events while allowing us to provide the same rider experience and level of outside operational, logistical, and medical support as in previous years. This proposal addresses Colorado State Patrol’s directive that there cannot be racing on open, public roads, yet allows us to keep the same media, sponsor and racing components of the event.
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Maybe I misunderstood…I thought the Sunday event was just going to be Pros-only. So there are going to be amateur groups as well on the closed circuit?
Yeah, that is what I gathered from the Velo article. They mentioned race format for those wanting to race with pro and amateur races.
The Sunday race will be a completely new concept. All pros and anyone wanting a competitive race will compete on a closed-circuit course. As announced a few weeks ago, pro men and women will start separately from amateur racers. Juniors will have their own opportunities to race, as well.
As one who has competed at SBT GRVL three times, I do not believe your statement to be true. The vast majority of the Steamboat Community supports the race, it appears that there are just a few “bad apples” who are ruining things for everyone else. This event also brings a huge amount of money into the community, for local businesses and property owners… it is beyond my understand how the Routt Cty. Commissioners are so unsupportive of the event. I guess they are elected folks, so hopefully voters will let them know how disappointed they are if they end up making it too hard for SBT to exist. Personally, I beyond disappointed now, I am pissed. This event is one of the best in the country, perhaps the best bike race ever put on in this country, and the vast majority of the community supports it. That a few bad apples are able to create so many problems is completely unfathomable to me. The supposed “problems” are not even real! The vast majority of the race (especially this years new courses) are on roads which have almost no vehicle traffic at all! In my 3 times doing the 100 mile Blue course, I have seen perhaps 4-5 vehicles in total once out of town. The so called problems just are not real-I have no idea what the real issue is, but it is certainly not any of the things that have been stated: it just appears that there are a few disgruntled NIMBY rancher types who hate cycling and cyclists for whatever bizarre reason, and, apparently, these few folks have some kind of big power over the county.
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Not in August… SBT brings in a lot of money to the community.
Roads have to be closed! Really… I live in CO, and there are many, many bike races held on open roads, what are they talking about here…???
I’m guessing it’s a rule that’s only enforced when they don’t want an event to happen
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What I really do not understand is who are the “they” here??? After attending the race three times, I have only seen positive vibes from the local community. Apparently there are a few rural residents/ranchers who just hate cyclists and cycling for no apparent reason-I am sure one could find at least as many residents of Routt County who believe the ski area should be shut down… but no one would listen to that…
I’ve only been once and found the area (and people) really welcoming but I can imagine that there are a few ranchers who probably have quite a bit of sway with the local law enforcement
We went up from Denver this year and stayed with our friends who moved to Oak Creek which is rural Routt County south of Steamboat. They admitted there’s a significant amount of hate from the local community towards the event. He’s in construction and she’s a teacher which I only mention to give context that they’re apart of the working class community there. I didn’t experience anything negative on race day though our group did get buzzed by a pickup on the Friday official shakeout ride. Hopefully they find a way to keep it going as it was a great event though you can’t help but think this has gone way beyond a fight against a bike race.
I was on a Steamboat related FB site this AM where there was a weather related link indicating this may not be a good snow year for Steamboat. Some of the comments were basically “yeah but the freaking tourists will still come”.
I’ve done SBT three times, and have always enjoyed the event immensely, but some of the shakeout rides have really gotten out of hand (IMHO). My wife doesn’t ride gravel so she would bring her road bike and ride on Hwy (or Route) 14. Many of the shakeout rides seemed to go out this way as well, and there would be 100s of gravel cyclists all over the road and really spread out. And it’s not just one day this is being done. It seems to occur every day leading up to the event. I can understand how this can irritate the locals
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They should move the race to a town that’s supportive. The atmosphere there was so hostile. It’s not worth it. Maybe I’ll start training for Leadville instead 
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Agree and I would point to the Dust Bowl race as another example. The Dust Bowl does multiple good things for Emience, IN schools. For example, for a $5 donation I got my bike washed. The 10 year old who washed my bike was part of a team of kids that raised over $1600 for her school. The company that donated the cleaning products got to demonstrate to a future customer that a child could get his bike sparkling clean in a few minutes with their product. During the race community members were out cheering us on. I had a great time and will definitely sign up for 2025. Win - win for everyone.
The 2025 ride / race permit was approved today.
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June 28th, Ride (not race), 1800 riders, 3 course distances, longest is 100 miles, same as blue course from this year
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June 29th, Race, 750 riders, 37 mile loop, pros do 3 laps, amateurs do 2 laps
I’ve ridden only part of the 37 mile race loop, so don’t have a good sense of what the full loop is like. It’s about 2500 ft of climbing, so not a ton. But the route is in a pretty remote spot, so possible there are chunky sections of road to spice things up.
The 100 mile blue course from this year is great, and well worth experiencing, even if not part of a “race”.
It’s the weekend before July 4th, so I’d guess the town will be pretty busy. Book that accommodation well in advance if you’re planning to ride!
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That race date conflicts with the new BWR in Bozeman. I wonder which will will be the bigger draw.