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wandering_bob
11-19-2009, 18:40
According to last year's coordinator, the annual Colorado Trail Race for mountain bikes will probably begin on Monday Aug 02 at 6am from the Denver trailhead. The racers historically take anywhere from 4 to 9 days and the race now covers most of the CT.

The coordinator also stressed that "yes, we are "racing" to see who can get to Durango the fastest, but the fast riders you'll see on the CT will most likely not be CTR riders! We are all carrying our own bivy gear, food for several days, emergency stuff, blah, blah blah. All the same stuff you'll be carrying! Factor that in on riding 20+ hours per day for 4-7 days, and... Well, to put it bluntly, CTR riders won't be moving very fast.
A steady enduro pace is the only effort level that can be maintained for
that length of time."


For details on past races - routes, timing, etc. - please see http://www.climbingdreams.net/ctr/

2010 CT/CDT hikers might want to take this event into consideration during their planning. By looking at our own hiking schedules, we should be able to estimate about where in our hike we are apt to encounter the racers, if at all.

Mags
11-19-2009, 19:54
The amount of people who do this very low key race is so small that the impact will be negligible (esp as the racers spread out once past the Denver area). You will see MTBers on the CT/CDT...but it will mainly be (again) near the lower portion near Denver and probably on the Monarch Crest Trail portion on the CT/CDT. But, as the website states, they will probably not be the racers.

They were a grand total of about fifteen finishers out of 20 riders in 2009 for example...over a 500 mile long trail. :) There are probably more thru-hikers on the CT than there are people on this race.

Maybe it is the multi-use culture out west, but whenever I've seen a MTBiker on a long trail (where legally permitted) the have been friendly, polite and smiling. Throw in the sections of the CT that some mtbike clubs have adopted (I did trail work with them on a section one group had adopted) and MTBikers get a thumbs up from me on the CT.

FWIW, I've done trail work in conjunction with hikers, MTBers, horse packers, trail running groups and climbing groups. It's all good. We enjoy the free food and beer after while being outside in the beautiful CO mountains.

K.B.
11-20-2009, 00:54
Hi Bob,

The Leadville 100 (mile) ultra marathon also follows part of the CT/CDT. The race starts in Leadville, joins up with the CT, goes past Twin Lakes, then follows the CDT over Hope Pass to the the ghost town of Winfield (and then back again).

Last summer I enjoyed meeting the runners who were staying at the Leadville Hostel. But as a backpacker I was glad to be one day "ahead" of the event. In 2009 the race started August 22nd.

I believe there is also a Mountain Bike version of the Leadville 100 which follows the same general course but starts a few weeks earlier.

Barrett (CDT WY-Mex 09)

K.B.
11-20-2009, 00:58
Endurance races seem to be popular in Colorado.

K.B.

jenpharr
11-20-2009, 21:29
My husband and I got stuck in the Breckenridge 100 Bike Race and it was HORRIBLE. Seriously, it was one of my worst days on the trail, ever! I was in tears. I am all about sharing the trail and multi-use and I am happy to let the bikers have the trail, but we didn't even see a sign warning us about the race until we were in the middle of it. The race had somewhere between 150-200 bikers and most of them came at us while we were walking uphill and around blind-turns where there was no where to step off the trail. They were all going crazy fast, because it was a downhill, and I was blinded by all the dust they kicked up. I literally thought I was going to get run over, I stepped aside for every single bike, minus one who kindly stopped for us. And on top of it, while most of the bikers were very nice, some were VERY not nice and yelled at us for being on the trail. Like I wanted to be there?!!? I would have been happy to hold up in Breckenridge and let the bikers have their event and their day, but I had no way to know what was going on. Bad, bad, bad, bad, bad. I have had very few bad days on the trails and this was definitely one of them. My husband wrote a letter to the Colorado Trial Foundation so hopefully there will be better communication and warnings posted in the future.

Pedaling Fool
11-20-2009, 21:41
My husband and I got stuck in the Breckenridge 100 Bike Race and it was HORRIBLE. Seriously, it was one of my worst days on the trail, ever! I was in tears. I am all about sharing the trail and multi-use and I am happy to let the bikers have the trail, but we didn't even see a sign warning us about the race until we were in the middle of it. The race had somewhere between 150-200 bikers and most of them came at us while we were walking uphill and around blind-turns where there was no where to step off the trail. They were all going crazy fast, because it was a downhill, and I was blinded by all the dust they kicked up. I literally thought I was going to get run over, I stepped aside for every single bike, minus one who kindly stopped for us. And on top of it, while most of the bikers were very nice, some were VERY not nice and yelled at us for being on the trail. Like I wanted to be there?!!? I would have been happy to hold up in Breckenridge and let the bikers have their event and their day, but I had no way to know what was going on. Bad, bad, bad, bad, bad. I have had very few bad days on the trails and this was definitely one of them. My husband wrote a letter to the Colorado Trial Foundation so hopefully there will be better communication and warnings posted in the future.
Seems like they should have shut down the trail, it is irrelevant that this is a hiking/multi-use trail, even if it was strickly a single-track trail the organizers must close it off. Sounds like they screwed up.

wandering_bob
11-23-2009, 22:01
The Breckenridge 100 is an ultra-marathon race run annually in July. This year, it was july 18. :-?

Details at http://www.warriorscycling.com/events/breck.php

Looks like you'll encounter riders near TenMile Creek and the Copper Mtn Resort during that period.:eek:

flow
12-27-2009, 20:16
Mags- That is good to hear. I just firmed up plans today to meet my buddy who lives in Red Cliff and hike a section near rt 24, 29(?). I think I could deal with that amount of riders. At least we could plan to hike against the race traffic.