Brief by Central Staff
Cycling – June 2006 – Colorado Central Magazine
The Denver Post’s annual Ride the Rockies bicycle tour almost always comes through Central Colorado, and this year is no exception. With 2,000 peddlers, and an accompanying throng of support staff and companion vehicles, it can double a town’s population for a night.
And in case you have to drive, it’s good to know where the cyclists are so you can take an alternate route to avoid the traffic. One year we had to go from Salida to Gunnison on the same morning that the bikers were bound from Gunnison to Salida. We saved aggravation, and probably time, by taking Marshall Pass.
This year’s Ride schedule: Sunday, June 18, Cortez to Durango; Monday, Durango to Pagosa Springs; Tuesday, Pagosa Springs to Chama, N.M.; Wednesday, Chama to Alamosa; Thursday, Alamosa to Salida; Friday, Salida to Cañon City.
A much smaller but much longer bicycle trek will also pass through Central Colorado in June. It’s the cross-country “Big Fix,” a fund-raiser for histiocytosis, a rare cancer-like blood disease that is 80% fatal if diagnosed in a child under two years old.
The peddlers will leave Davis, Calif., on June 17, and plan to arrive in Boston on July 14, making about 120 miles a day. Their Colorado stops are Rico, June 25; Montrose, June 26; Salida, June 27; Pueblo, June 28; and Eads, June 29.
Most riders will be aboard fixed-gear bikes. Not only do these lack the gearing that eases hill-climbing, but there isn’t any coasting on the downgrades — anytime the wheels are turning, so are the pedals.
“It’s a hard way to travel,” according to the bicycle expert we consulted, but trip organizers say this “mirrors the uncertainty, pain, and struggles that families experience.” For more information, there is a website at www.fixhistio.org.
