The time has come! After months of training and gear testing, the time to tackle this nearly 500 mile 60,000 ft of climbing route from Denver to Durango has come....again! This past week leading up to the event has me pacing a worn out line in the living room carpet. Personally, I feel I am 100% ready to handle this beast. I have confidence in my equipment and my race plan. This is a race where it is almost better to be the tortoise rather than the hare. Seriously. You won't win the race on the first day....but you can loose it.Unsure what this Colorado Trail Race is all about? It very well might be the hardest mountain bike event you have never heard of. Some details for ya: Well, each rider is self-supported. Each rider must carry all needed equipment to get from Denver to Durango. Riders can only resupply (food, etc) at pass-thru towns....ie: pick up more food at grocery stores or gas stations in towns like Leadville or Buena Vista. There is NO outside pre-arranged support! Riders are also self-navigating. Sorry, there are no course markings here...no arrows....no course tape. Most riders get from start to finish either on memory or GPS. Me, I am going on a little of both.
While us racers are out suffering, you folks at home can follow along in great detail! Almost all riders will wear a SPOT tracking device, so you can follow in real-time. Also, there will be non-required call-ins to MTBCast. Riders will call a specific phone line and provide audio updates....which are then uploaded to the web. Finally, there is the web forum. Bikepacking.net will have a forum thread rolling during the event for anything and everything to be discussed. Below are the links!
CTR LIVE Tracker Leaderboard
Jeff Kerkove LIVE Tracker page
MTBCAST Call-ins and Coverage
Bikepacking.net Forum with real-time discussion of the race
CTR event webpage
Race starts on Monday, August 1 at 6:30 AM! Tune in!