Twenty racing days later, Kuss was being congratulated by his teammates on Saturday for having virtually locked up the first Grand Tour title for an American man in a decade.

Kuss crossed the finish line of the 20th and penultimate stage flanked by Jonas Vingegaard, the two-time defending Tour de France winner, and Primoz Roglic, who was aiming to match a record with a fourth Vuelta title. His illustrious Jumbo-Visma teammates locked arms with Kuss and gently pedaled over the final meters.

“It was very special to finish the stage with my teammates after all the team had put in so much work. I am very, very happy,” Kuss said in Spanish. “(We are) almost there … we still have tomorrow.”

Kuss will wear the red leader’s jersey heading into Sunday’s final stage, when cycling custom dictates that title rivals respect the leader’s advantage in the largely ceremonial arrival to Madrid.

He kept his 17-second lead over Vingegaard over the 20th and penultimate stage, which is the final day of competitive riding for the overall contenders.

The last American man to win one of cycling’s three-week races, which in addition to the Vuelta and Tour includes the Giro d’Italia, was 2013 Vuelta winner Chris Horner.

When asked how he felt about the support he had from the local fans, Kuss said with a laugh: “With each stage I felt more Spanish, but I am from the U.S.”

Wout Poels beat Remco Evenepoel to claim Saturday’s 208-kilometer (129-mile) ride from Manzanares El Real to Guadarrama in hilly country which included 10 category-three climbs outside the capital. It was the race’s longest stage and took riders past the El Escorial monastery.

Jumbo-Visma lived up to the billing as being the team to beat at the race that started last month in Barcelona.

Not only is the Dutch team set to monopolize the podium in Madrid with Kuss, Vingegaard and Roglic on target to finish 1-2-3, Jumbo-Visma is also on the cusp of sweeping all three Grand Tours this year after Roglic won the Giro d’Italia in May and Vingegaard repeated as the Tour champion in July.

The nearest challenger to the trio was Spaniard Juan Ayuso, the UAE Team Emirates leader, who was more than two minutes behind Roglic in third overall.

Kuss, a 29-year-old from Durango, Colorado, started cycling as a way to train all year for his passion of cross-country skiing. But he eventually changed the skis for wheels and has for several seasons featured as one of the top support riders for Jumbo-Visma. He now lives in Andorra with his wife in the Pyrenees Mountains nestled between Spain and France.

Kuss took the lead on the eighth stage and did not relinquish it, holding his own on massive climbs up the Col du Tourmalet in France and the Alto de l’Angliru in northern Spain. And he clung to his dwindling advantage when Vingegaard and Roglic took their shot at overtaking him with stage wins this week.

The two stars did, however, finally change strategy and rode for Kuss over the 18th stage which was the last demanding mountain ride of the race. Vingegaard said after that stage that it was “sure nice to be able to pay Sepp back. He has done so much for me and Primoz.”

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Krista hadn’t been able to ride with them in recent years, though, as she battled breast cancer and endured strength-sapping post-operative treatments. Then, Jay bought her an e-mountain bike last fall, and for the first time in years, the four of them could hit the trails together.

“We went to South Table, and it was so awesome,” Krista said. “I hadn’t been on my mountain bike in forever. I just didn’t have the confidence that I could handle it. It’s not like [the e-bike] gives me this super extra [boost], but I can go up hills and hang with them. We can all enjoy it.”

E-mountain bikes, which have become a major segment of the cycling market, have electrical assist motors just like e-bikes designed for roads, but they also have the fat tires and shock-absorbing suspension systems that are common in human-powered mountain bikes.

At Wheat Ridge Cyclery, about four out of 10 customers shopping for e-bikes are looking for rides they can take on trails, said store marketing director Jason Sommerville. “Year over year, we’ve sold double the amount of e-bikes versus 2022. Supply is catching up, technology is catching up. We’re getting lighter, quieter e-bikes. “

But that popularity has led to grousing from traditional mountain bikers when it comes to e-mountain bikes, and public land managers across the Front Range are still working through which e-bikes to allow where.

Rules of the road

E-bikes, whether designed for roads or trails, come in three classifications as defined by the Colorado legislature in 2017, and those distinctions determine where their use is allowed.

Class 1 e-bikes have motors that provide propulsion assistance only when the rider is pedaling, and they cease to assist when the bike reaches 20 mph. Class 2 e-bikes also stop assisting at 20 mph, but they assist whether the rider is pedaling or not, and they have throttles. Class 3 e-bikes assist when the rider is pedaling but stop helping when the bike reaches 28 mph.

Jefferson County Open Space moved early to welcome e-mountain bikes in 2018, but not before surveying hundreds of park users for their opinions and concerns. Based on those surveys, the county decided to allow only Class 1 bikes on its trails.

“There was no tolerance in our visitors for something with a throttle on a natural-surface trail,” said Mary Ann Bonnell, Jeffco Open Space visitor services and natural resources director.

“We heard that loud and clear,” she added. “We do not allow the Class 2, where you can have the power without pedaling. People said, ‘Nope, don’t want to see it. Don’t want to see someone flying up a hill and not pedaling.’”

But after five years, the county hasn’t found that e-bikes increased conflicts or created safety concerns, Bonnell said. “People continue to fall and have crashes on their mountain bikes, we continue to field complaints about conflicts, but they are not tied specifically to e-bikes.”

In national forests, e-bikes are considered motor vehicles, so they are allowed only on roads and trails designated for motorized use. In Rocky Mountain National Park, e-mountain bikes can only go on roads where motor vehicles are allowed, paved or dirt. (It should be noted that human-powered mountain bikes are not allowed on the park’s hiking trails, either, with one small exception on the west side of the park.) In Colorado state parks, Class 1 and 2 e-bikes are allowed on roadways, designated bike lanes, and multi-use trails open to non-motorized cycling.

Boulder County Open Space allows Class 1 and Class 2 e-bikes on its flatland trails, and has since 2019, but neither are allowed on its mountain trails. But the city only started allowing Class 1 and Class 2 e-bikes on 39 miles of its 155-mile open-space trail system this month.

“As e-bikes were not allowed on city open space trails before July 1, we do not have statistically valid data for e-bike use on open space trails,” said Phillip Yates, a spokesman for Boulder Open Space and Mountain Parks, via email. “E-biking will be added as a new category in future visitor surveys, alongside all other allowed activities, to track change over time as part of system monitoring. That will allow staff to report out changes, if any, that may be attributed to e-biking activity on the open space visitor experience.”

A wider issue

The difference in how park and open space managers regulate e-mountain bikes reflects what is happening in Front Range municipalities. Denver allows all three types of e-bikes on bike paths, but with speed limits of 15 mph. Arvada passed an ordinance in January of 2021, allowing Class 1 and Class 2 e-bikes on its bike paths. Lakewood allows Class 1 and Class 2 bikes on bike paths. Class 1 e-bikes are allowed on Lakewood’s soft surface trails, including at Bear Creek Lake Park and at William Fredrick Hayden Park on Green Mountain.

Before making its decision, Jeffco Open Space interviewed more than 400 visitors in five parks in 2017 to glean their thoughts about the issue. The agency also sent out volunteers on e-mountain bikes, then asked visitors if they had noticed any e-bikes on the trail, and many said no. Satisfied that the presence of e-mountain bikes would have minimal impact on other users, Jeffco moved forward with e-bikes as a pilot program in 2018 and updated its park regulations the following year to make it permanent.

“Every time it comes up, I have this sigh of relief that we took care of this in 2017, because I feel really good about how we made the decision,” Bonnell said. “We did a ton of data collection, getting in people’s heads, public meetings, meeting with stakeholders. I really feel like we did a thorough job. I feel good about the decision, and I also feel like it has played out well.”

Some visitors raised concerns that people on e-mountain bikes would get lost, or injured, or would call rangers for assistance with dead batteries miles from the trailhead. “That hasn’t happened,” Bonnell said. “Conflict continues between riders and runners and hikers, but it’s not e-bike-related conflict.”

Gary Moore, executive director of the Colorado Mountain Bike Association, said while some mountain bikers have expressed displeasure on social media statewide, the impact of e-mountain bikers on trails has been negligible.

“Any conflicts between trail visitors continue to be more of a matter of the people themselves,” he said, “rather than their preferred mode of travel. You see them pretty much anytime you go out now.”

Meanwhile, Jay Bollinger loves having his wife with him and their boys, who are 10 and 15, on the trails.

“It’s been really good,” he said. “She’s still regaining her skills, but it allows her to keep up, rather than being the one who’s slowing everybody down.”

He sees the way e-mountain bikes have made it possible for older cyclists to ride the trails he loves. He’s even thinking he may be a candidate for an e-mountain bike someday.

“They can do multiple laps on a trail that just wouldn’t be possible for them on a regular mountain bike,” he said. “Down the road, when I no longer have the strength to ride up stuff like I used to, it will extend my ability to enjoy mountain biking.”

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Many utilize their chairlifts for “bike hauls,” requiring the purchase of trail passes for access. Copper Mountain allows free mountain biking but charges for bike hauls. Trail access is free at Arapahoe Basin, where there is no lift-assisted biking. Most of the resorts with mountain biking operations also offer rentals, lessons and clinics.

Purgatory will host a major competitive and spectator event this weekend when the Big Mountain Enduro national race series visits July 8-9. Purgatory is the only Colorado resort hosting that tour this year.

Here’s a rundown of Colorado ski resort mountain-biking operations this summer:

Arapahoe Basin: Officials say they hope to open The Legend for mountain biking next weekend. A-Basin will offer riding from the base area at 10,780 feet to the summit at 12,456 feet, utilizing five trails. There are no beginner trails and no rentals. Some folks ride up the front side of the mountain and descend 2,000 feet down the backside on the Lenawee Trail to Peru Creek Road. Riders should be aware that the Lenawee Trail is not part of A-Basin’s summer operations, so it is not patrolled by ski area personnel. Another ride to consider: pedaling from the ski area to Loveland Pass, which is 8 miles round-trip with an altitude gain of 1,200 feet.

Beaver Creek: The Centennial Express chairlift/gondola will be running, serving more than 50 miles of mostly cross country riding. That will get you to mid-mountain at Spruce Saddle. If you’re up to it, you can pedal another 1,000 feet in elevation to the summit. A day pass costs $60.

Breckenridge: A dozen trails across Peaks 7, 8 and 9 are available. Bike hauls are available via the Breck Connect Gondola and the Colorado SuperChair. It’s possible to ride from Alpine Camp at the top of the Colorado SuperChair (elevation 11,272 feet) all the way down to Main Street Breckenridge (elev. 9,600 feet). A day pass costs $50.

Copper Mountain: Mountain biking is free for riders willing to climb the mountain by pedal power. Lift access is via the Woodward Express out of West Village, priced at $49 for the day. Copper has 20 miles of trails varying from downhill, cross country and multi-use roads. Another 22 miles of mountain-biking trails have been approved by the White River National Forest for addition to the trail network over the coming years.

Crested Butte: The roots of American mountain biking were planted in Crested Butte and Marin County, Calif., in the 1970s. The Crested Butte Mountain Bike Association, founded in 1983, is the oldest mountain-bike club in the world, and it maintains more than 450 miles of trails in a 20-mile radius from town. The ski area — Crested Butte Mountain Resort — boasts more than 30 miles of single-track trails. A single-day haul pass costs $60.

Granby Ranch: More than 40 miles of cross-country trails, single- and double-track, are available. The mountain is open for mountain biking seven days a week, with a lift operating Thursday through Sunday. The cost is $25 per day without lift access, $59 with lift access.

Keystone: The Keystone Bike Park has more than 30 trails of lift-served single-track. A single-day pass costs $70. An Enduro race for abilities ranging from first-timers to pros will be held Aug. 12-13.

Monarch: There is no mountain biking at the ski area, but last year the ski area’s owners acquired the Monarch Crest tourist area at the top of Monarch Pass, where there is a scenic tramway. There also is a trailhead for the Monarch Crest Trail, which follows a segment of the Continental Divide trail.

Snowmass: The Snowmass Bike Park has 16 trails totaling more than 25 miles with nearly 3,000 feet of elevation from the base village to the top of the Elk Camp chairlift. Lift access is via the Elk Camp Gondola and the Elk Camp chairlift. Single-day tickets cost $57.

Powderhorn: The resort operates a lift Thursdays through Sundays that serves 13 miles of downhill trails, charging $54 per day. But there’s more to the story here. Last year, Powderhorn opened a connector linking the Powderhorn Bike Park to the extensive Grand Mesa trail system and the Palisade Plunge. Recommended only for expert and advanced riders, the Palisade Plunge goes from the top of the mesa to the town of Palisade, a distance of 32 miles with a descent of 6,000 feet.

Purgatory: The Purgatory Bike Park utilizes Lift 1 to provide 1,500 feet of ascent, serving nine trails totaling 9 miles of riding. Full-day tickets are $49;  half-day are $39.

Vail: Two gondolas provide uphill access to 28 mountain biking trails including the Grand Traverse, which takes riders into the Back Bowls. A day pass costs $79.

Winter Park: The Trestle Bike Park has more than 40 miles of trails with uphill transport via the gondola and two chairlifts. Single-day tickets are $74 if purchased 48 hours in advance, $89 if purchased fewer than 48 hours in advance.

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Still suffering from cognitive deficits caused by a traumatic brain injury that she sustained on Father’s Day last year when she was struck by a hit-and-run driver while cycling with friends, she took slow, halting steps — with a walker, with two poles, with one hand on the railing of the deck, and then hand-in-hand with Dave.

Suddenly Ludwig decided to try something that wasn’t on her PT program last Tuesday. And for the first time in 359 days since she was rushed from a roadside trauma scene near El Rancho to St. Anthony Hospital where she lay in a coma for 19 days, Ludwig walked about 20 feet without the assistance of her walker, poles or Dave’s hand.

It was a memorable milestone and moment of freedom in a recovery that has included seven months of inpatient hospital care and five months of outpatient care.

“It makes me feel like, ‘Oh my God, maybe I am an athlete still, maybe I can go back to being like I used to be,'” said Ludwig, 62. “The progress and the improvement makes me feel hope that I can keep going.”

She still has a long struggle ahead, and may never be like she was before she was hit. Still, it was a precious moment.

“That was great,” said Dave. “I was super surprised. I didn’t think we were quite there yet.”

Father’s Day weekend this year marked a sad anniversary for the Ludwigs and for a second avid cyclist who was struck by another hit-and-run driver the day before Lisa. Greg Johnson was hit on West 32nd Avenue that Saturday morning, not far from his home in Wheat Ridge.

When Ludwig arrived at the emergency room the next day, Johnson was in ICU at the same hospital, following the first of three surgeries for his injuries. He was coming out of anesthesia, imagining spiders crawling on the ceiling because of the drugs he was on, but he distinctly remembers hearing nurses discussing Ludwig’s arrival.

Johnson was spared the cognitive injuries that continue to impair Ludwig 12 months later, but he had 21 broken bones, including both femurs and a broken pelvis. His right femur was shattered into more than 40 pieces. He still lives with pain from his injuries, can’t ride a bike and can’t bend his lower back because of steel rods that are holding his pelvis together. He longs to ride a bike, or simply to go fly fishing, but he’s still too unsteady on his feet to be confident walking beside a creek.

Ludwig suffered multiple fractures, including three ribs, a shoulder blade and two vertebrae. Because of the brain injury, she still needs physical therapy, occupational therapy and speech therapy. She and Dave moved to Colorado four years ago to take advantage of the outdoors, but now they are planning a move back to Massachusetts because she can no longer enjoy the things that brought them here.

“It was like my dream of retirement, but I wasn’t retired yet,” Lisa said of her time here before she was injured, when she routinely went on bike rides of 50 to 100 miles and did lots of hiking with her dog, a beloved Samoyed named Niko, that she since had to give up for adoption. “My friends would describe me as a crazy athlete. I loved to be active.”

The Ludwigs feel the justice system is letting them down. Six of the eight charges against the person who hit her have been dismissed by the district attorney for Jefferson and Gilpin counties in a plea deal that comes with a prison sentence of 10 to 20 years. Dave says that’s too lenient, and he hopes the judge rejects the deal at sentencing on June 26.

“The DA led us and Dave to believe that they cared about Dave’s wishes on behalf of his wife Lisa,” read a statement from Megan Hottman and Andrew Phillips, attorneys representing the Ludwigs in a firm known as TheCyclist-lawyer.com, which specializes in cycling cases. “Dave repeatedly asked the DA to take this matter to trial so that the community would hear more about it in the news, be able to attend and watch the trial, and to hopefully send the message that if you hit a cyclist, you’re going to stand trial for your actions. He wanted the driver to face a jury. Instead, over Dave’s wishes, the DA declined to set the case for trial and advanced the plea offer range of 10-20, from which the judge will decide the sentence.”

Johnson hasn’t seen justice done, either. The Colorado State Patrol investigated but no charges have been filed.

“They identified the vehicle through an anonymous tip, but there were multiple occupants and they all said they were too intoxicated to know who was driving,” said Johnson, who was hit around 7 a.m. “The owner of the vehicle was an uninsured, unlicensed 18-year-old, due to prior DUIs. There was no way of knowing if that was the individual who was driving the car.”

That’s upsetting to Phillips, an avid cyclist.

“So frustrating that they can’t figure that out, and that they aren’t able to discover the truth in that matter,” Phillips said. “It feels so unfair and so unjust.”

Johnson, 65, has had to endure lots of pain and physical hardships. He was in the hospital for five weeks and returned home the last week of July. At first, he spent most of his time laying on cushions spread out on the living room floor because it was the least painful position for enduring the surgical hardware in his back.

“We referred to it as my apartment, and I was just there all day, staring at the window,” Johnson said. “There was this really neat spider, called a cat-faced spider, that developed this big huge web. We called him Spidey. Every day he would come up and down, and that was my daily game, watching the spider come down and trap whatever bug was in his web.”

He was able to get around with a walker when he left the hospital. He began walking with crutches in September, and then with a cane in December. About a month ago, he started walking without the cane. He estimates he does more than three hours of physical therapy every day. He can walk about 3 miles at a time and rides an indoor bike trainer. He and his wife, Deb, say they’ve both experienced PTSD.

“I don’t know that I’ve had a day since June 18 last year that I haven’t had pain at some level of significance,” said Johnson, who had surgeries on both legs. “I mean, this (right) leg, it’s always a problem. And it’s always swollen. When I first get up in the morning, it feels like I’m walking on rocks. It’s always numb. It’s always burning from nerve pain, and from being swollen.”

Sometimes he has dreams in which he’s riding his bike.

“And I’m riding the way I used to ride,” Johnson said. “Just the other day I had a dream that I was coming down Robinson Hill Road, the backside of the Golden Gate area. I’ve had multiple dreams about riding my bike and it has really felt nice. Then I wake up.”

The Johnsons live near Lutheran Hospital, where he was taken before he was transferred to St. Anthony. Deb says it took a long time before she could drive by Lutheran without hyperventilating.

“I’m doing a lot better than I was,” Deb said. “I’ve just kind of allowed myself to feel all the things. It’s been hard. Greg is pretty brave, and I try to match that. But for a long time I had a broken heart. To see him so limited and suffering is very hard.”

Johnson, who used to ride to work at DIA three times a week — more than 30 miles each way — has approached his recovery with an athlete’s mentality. So has Ludwig.

“I want to get back to myself, I want to get back to doing what I was doing,” Lisa said. “I never sat there and thought, ‘Oh my God, I’m never going to get better.’ I just thought, ‘I’ve got to keep working at this. I’m going to get better. I’m going to be running and riding my bike.’ As crazy as I am, that’s how I think. I know I’m not realistic sometimes.”

She likes to say she’s a feisty Irish girl with a temper, but conversations with her are filled with laughter. She enjoys teasing Dave:

Dave: “Every morning, Lisa has to go on the treadmill, which is very hard for her.”

Lisa: “Why is it hard for me? I like it.”

Dave: “I know you do, but it’s still hard work. She just was able to do 14 minutes of walking at 1 mph, to maybe 1.2. She just started to do little inclines.”

Lisa: “Little inclines? I was doing 6% grade, that’s not little. See, I remember.”

Lisa punctuates those exchanges with laughs, and it’s evident how much she appreciates Dave caring for her 24/7.

“I am probably the luckiest woman in the world,” Lisa said. “I have probably the nicest, kindest, loving husband there is. He has done nothing but take great care of me. He’s always by me. He never gave up on me. He knows that I am persistent, and I will do everything I can to get better. But even if I didn’t, he would still care for me.”

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The physical plant is the size of two and a half football fields, so immense that employees use scooters to get from one end of the factory floor to the other. Massive five-tier steel racks stack bikes in boxes waiting for purchase because, depending on the time of year, TPC refurbishes 50 to 150 high-end bikes per day, assembly-line style.

“We think there’s nowhere else on the planet where you can shop hundreds of brands and thousands of unique SKUs, serving a rider from extra small to double XL, at a myriad of price points,” said general manager Paul Calandrella. “About 80% of our total revenue comes through bikes that we purchase, mostly from individual consumers who submit two photos and a little bit of detail, who receive a cash or trade offer from us, and ship their bike in.”

TPC’s inventory includes road bikes, mountain bikes, gravel bikes, triathlon bikes and e-bikes. In the refurbishment process, TPC conducts a 140-point inspection and performs repairs if necessary in an effort to make the bike as good as new.

“You could have the same buy-and-sell experience from an end-user who has listed their bike on Craig’s List,” Calandrella said. “But can you guarantee it’s not carbon-damaged? Can you return it in 30 days and make sure any defect is addressed? Can you sell it back to them? No. All of those are a yes at TPC.”

The Pro’s Closet was founded in 2006 by Nick Martin, a pro mountain biker who began selling used cycling gear which he posted on eBay using a borrowed computer while living in a Volkswagen van.

“We were given all this free sponsored gear every year, and at the end of the year, in order to pay our bills or pursue our dream of racing fulltime, you would have to sell that,” Martin said. “I wasn’t getting a salary, but I was getting all this equipment. I started selling my own things, and that snowballed into selling things for my teammates. Before we knew it, we had pretty much every professional team on the circuit — I was selling their excess gear at the end of the year, too.

“That’s why the name was The Pro’s Closet. It was literally all the things from the pro’s garages and closets,” he said.

TPC soon became the largest cycling store on eBay. In 2017, TPC received its first round of venture capital investment to build its own e-commerce platform, and other outside investments followed to further expand the business.  Martin stepped down as CEO in 2020, but he remains active in the company.

TPC previously operated from a 24,000-square-foot warehouse in Boulder and a 30,000-square-foot warehouse in Longmont. In 2021, the operation was consolidated at the current 137,000-square-foot location, which previously was the North American headquarters for a Swedish outdoor wear brand. The retail shop there is new this year.

“It’s outpaced my expectations for the past 15 years,” Martin said. “It’s grown way beyond anything I could have imagined, and I still feel like we’re just getting started.”

After bikes are removed from their shipping boxes, they go to an area with six bike-wash bays while the boxes and packaging material they came in are recycled. Technicians spend about 20 minutes washing each bike.

“They get a wonderful warm-water bath,” Calandrella said. “We clean the drive train, so we can put eyes on the quality of the drive train. Cleaning makes for good inspection. An inspector will make sure (whether there is) anything missing to make it perfectly functional, or if it needs repairing. That will help us queue it for the refurbishment work.”

One of the inspection points for carbon-fiber bikes involves testing to make sure there isn’t any unseen structural damage.

“We don’t turn away bikes because they are carbon-damaged,” Calandrella said. “We work with a company in Boulder called Broken Carbon to repair bikes back to fully functioning. They remove the external paint and finish, get down to the structural damage, re-wrap the carbon and bring it back up to fully rideable standards.

“The alternative is, that frame gets parted out and goes in a landfill. We’d rather put it back into use under someone who may be fine with the fact that it’s been repaired. They’re going to get good value for the bike for that reason.”

Furthering the sustainability ethic, TPC kept nearly 110 tons of waste out of landfills in 2022 by recycling used shipping boxes and packaging material.

After a bike is refurbished and ready for sale, it moves to a photography bay where it is put on a turntable for photographing at multiple angles. Photos are uploaded into a computer nearby, along with the bike’s specs, and the bike gets listed on TPC’s website for sale.

The average selling price of TPC bikes is $3,500 to $4,000, Calandrella said, versus the $6,000 to $8,000 those bikes cost when they were sold new.

“When bikes are, in some cases, becoming prohibitively expensive at $8,000, $9,000 and $12,000, wait 18 months and you can probably come here and get that $12,000 bike for $9,000, or that $8,000 bike for $5,000,” Calandrella said.

Now TPC is expanding its services to support walk-in retail sales and offer bike maintenance service.

“You don’t have to have purchased a bike from us,” Calandrella said. “If you are a rider who needs help with your bike, bring it to our door, we’re here to help. We should be able to use our refurbishment operation to guarantee 24-hour turnaround on mechanic service. It’s simply a matter of us merging customer bikes with those we’ve purchased and moving them right along.”

This weekend’s event, which will run from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, will include factory tours, retail sales, a vendor expo, product demos, free bike washes, food trucks. Visitors will be able to view Martin’s collection of 200 vintage bikes. TPC is located at 1900 Taylor Ave. in Louisville.

“This is my first job,” Martin said. “It’s been a road of learning the ropes by doing and adjusting course and surrounding yourself with great people.”

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Saturday. Join more than 300 other foodies and wine lovers at the 2nd annual Big Stir Festival, where thirty-plus tasting tables will offer samples from culinary industry folks who are members of the Colorado chapter of Les Dames d’Escoffier (as well as the award winners). In addition to sampling there will be educational seminars on subjects like cheesemaking 101, women winemakers and organic spirits, as well as readings and signings with authors.

The Big Stir honors “women making an impact in Colorado’s food, beverage and hospitality industries by championing philanthropy, diversity, sustainability and education,” according to festival organizers. Proceeds go toward supporting more women in the industry. The April 29 event runs from 2 to 5 p.m. at the Tivoli Center Turnhalle Room on the Auraria Campus in Denver. Tickets, $65, are available at eventbrite.com. More information at thebigstirfestival.com. — Jonathan Shikes

People Power

Saturday. Motorless Mornings, a blissful program at Garden of the Gods Visitor & Nature Center, returns for the season today from 5 a.m. to noon. The once-a-month special event closes the park to motor vehicle traffic so that people can enjoy its beauty in other ways. “Without cars, the park’s winding roadways beckon to cyclists and joggers, skaters and dog walkers, offering the chance for a wide variety of user groups to join together, slow down and enjoy,” parks officials say.

Visitors can park their vehicles at the visitor center, 1805 30th St. in Colorado Springs, or the Garden of the Gods Trading Post, 324 Beckers Lane in Manitou Springs, or the overflow parking lot at Rock Ledge Ranch Historic Site, at 30th Street and Gateway Road. There will be designated slow zones and one-way traffic during Motorless Mornings. Park entrance is free. — Jonathan Shikes

Get a handle on it

Saturday-Sunday. A unique opportunity for Front Range cyclists will take place this weekend when The Pro’s Closet, a Boulder County bike refurbishment company, hosts a new event called the Great Spring Breakaway at its brand new headquarters and warehouse.

The Pro’s Closet is North America’s largest retailer of certified pre-owned bikes. TPC buys, refurbishes and resells high-end bikes online at a massive facility in Louisville. The plant also includes a retail outlet and a vintage bicycle museum.

The Great Spring Breakaway will include seasonal product sales, a vendor expo, product demos, free bike washes, food trucks and factory tours. TPC typically refurbishes 50 to 150 bikes a day. The festival runs Saturday and Sunday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the factory in an industrial park at 1900 Taylor Avenue in Louisville. More information at theproscloset.com. — John Meyer

Celebrating Dia del Niño

Sunday. The Dia del Niño celebrations at Front Range museums culminate on Sunday, April 30, to mark the return of the Mexican holiday. The Mexican Culture Center has again paired with the area’s biggest institutions to offer free admission and multilingual crafts, dancing, music, food and more for all kids.

Highlights on Sunday include the colorful performances at Denver Art Museum, with ballet, mariachi music and Indigenous dance (denverartmuseum.org), that are within walking distance of more activities at History Colorado Center, Clyfford Still Museum, Denver Public Library and The Center for Colorado Women’s History at the Byers-Evans House Museum. But there’s also bilingual fun at Denver Museum of Nature & Science and the Denver Zoo. And Denver Botanic Gardens. (It just keeps going). Check out times, locations and lineups at mccdenver.org/dia-del-nino. — John Wenzel

The tragedy, and absurdity, of cancer

Sunday. Journalist, critic and author Juliet Wittman‘s new novel, “Again and Again,” was inspired by her experience with breast cancer, during which she was “annoyed by the ubiquitous pink ribbons and the Hallmark Card sentimentality” in media depictions. Most people with cancer she encountered were “scared, eccentric, often angry and just as often doubled up with laughter.

“Wittman, a longtime Westword theater critic and Colorado Book Award-winner, will read from the novel at The Tattered Cover Colfax on Monday, May 1, and Boulder Bookstore on Tuesday, May 2, and sign copies afterward. Boulder Bookstore tickets are $5; the Tattered Cover Colfax is free. tatteredcover.com or boulderbookstore.net — John Wenzel

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During a Thursday afternoon news conference at the facility, members of the new ownership group, BBV Holdings, nonprofit Team Colorado Cycling, and an Erie town official shared their vision, and plans, to bring the neglected arena back to former glory, when lights lit up the nighttime sky and competitive racers circled the 250-meter wooden oval track.

“I’m thrilled,” said Todd Stevenson, founder and president of the cycling nonprofit. “It’s a monumental task, there’s a lot of work that needs to be done.”

The steep-pitched, wooden track, topped with 450 sheets of plywood, will need an extreme makeover. Suspect spots on the track are marked up with paint and workers on Thursday were continuing to cut sections as part of the remodel, which will take months. Concrete and electrical work will also be necessary at the velodrome, which has been dormant since the start of the pandemic.

BVV Holdings purchased the property recently for $1 million from previous co-owners Frank Banta and Doug Emerson. The unique track, the only wooden track at altitude in the United States, opened in 2015 with much fanfare and enthusiasm.

Cari Higgins, of BVV Holdings and a former track cycling champion and current board chair of USA Cycling, is among those who are determined to see the velodrome reincarnated.

“It will again be a destination for cyclists” of all ages and abilities, Higgins said.

The shared vision, however, is that cyclists will not be the only people to use the 15,000-square-foot facility. Plans call for concerts, movies, food truck gatherings and perhaps even pickleball tournaments to take place at the velodrome, which has a wide and long flat concrete pad surrounded by the track. In all, the property, which sits on the southern gateway of the Erie town center, is about four acres.

Erie Town Administrator Malcolm Fleming said widespread community involvement will help to fuel the velodrome’s comeback.

“There’s a lot going on in Erie,” Fleming said, noting that the town has grown to a population of 35,000 and that Erie officials are looking to develop a hotel north of the velodrome.

The Erie town board will discuss the velodrome at an upcoming meeting, Fleming said, and town officials are ready to contribute $50,000 to the cycling nonprofit to use in refurbishing the facility.

“We like their approach,” Fleming said of the nonprofit’s multi-use vision. “This will be a symbiotic relationship.”

BVV owns the property and Team Colorado Cycling will run the operations. Stevenson said the nonprofit recently received a $25,000 matching grant. Getting the velodrome back up and running will cost between $70,000 to $100,000, he said.

“It is going to take a lot of people and a lot of money,” Stevenson said.

A GoFundMe page, “Let’s Resurrect the Boulder Valley Velodrome!”, is posted and on Thursday afternoon it had raised $9,640 out of a goal of $75,000.

Plans and work are underway to “revitalize the velodrome to its former glory and move forward beyond your expectations,” the GoFundMe page states.

If all goes well, the velodrome should reopen in early summer.

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Since the 1980s, Gunnison Valley local Dave Wiens — Mountain Bike Hall of Fame inductee and executive director of the International Mountain Bicycling Association — has been pedaling trails across the valley year-round. But early on, riding on snow was tough, he said. Technology didn’t match the conditions, and winter-spring trail grooming didn’t exist. Now, fat bikes make riding mixed conditions easier for everyone.

The seeds of change for improving trail conditions started when Dave Ochs drove his Toyota pickup — with Samoyed spaniel Trapper in tow — through Crested Butte en route to Aspen in 2001 and never left. Instead, he joined roommates to dig Tony’s Trail with the Crested Butte Mountain Bike Association (said to be the world’s first mountain bike club), founded in 1983 to unite Gunnison Valley riders through trail development and events. Ochs was hooked. He volunteered as CBMBA’s secretary, worked as a remote drafter, rode his $500 Jamis, and developed a “credit card problem” collecting single speeds, clunkers and townies. In 2016, his philanthropy evolved into a still-held position as the first executive director of CBMBA. That same year, the passionate biker launched the Borealis Fat Bike World Championships, an annual four-day fat bike event for upwards of 1,400 riders that features costumes, whiskey, and backside branding.

“We needed more winter business and we were already a mountain bike destination. Fat bike technology was catching up — tires were becoming better with more options and abilities and the bikes were getting lighter,” said Ochs.

To groom trail, CBMBA purchased a Yellowstone Track Systems groomer (then realized, it didn’t work in the snowpack). Troubleshooting, they MacGyvered a groomer using a giant rubber horse stall mat from Tractor Supply with metal teeth and bolts welded on to it.

“It’s like a medieval torture device that works better than a multi-thousand-dollar machine,” said Ochs. The group’s grooming techniques get more dialed-in every year.

Today, the Fat Bike World Championships travels around the U.S. — the 2023 is in Wisconsin — and CBMBA grooms more than 16 miles of trails on the north end of the Gunnison Valley for use in winter and through spring. And that’s just the start. Additional fat biking routes are groomed by Gunnison County SNO Trackers (a nonprofit that advocates for snowmobiling and provides multi-use trail grooming), Crested Butte Nordic, and Crested Butte Mountain Resort. Many fat bike routes are remote doublewide roads or sidewalk-width tracks but 33 miles south of Crested Butte, Gunnison Trails grooms nearly 20 miles of singletrack at Hartman Rocks Recreation Area.

To pack down the narrow trail network, the Gunnison Trails drives a track sled — “basically a lawn mower engine on top of a snowmobile track,” explained executive director Tim Kugler.

Compared to the steep views around Crested Butte, the fat bike trails in Hartman Rocks meander through high-elevation sagebrush country speckled with mixed pine, junipers and gigantic granite boulders.

“Hartman Rocks offers ridiculously cool views south to the San Juans, west to the West Elk Wilderness, and to the north end of the valley. In winter, the landscape is dramatic and brings a contrast of being in the high desert surrounded by mountains,” Kugler said.

Altogether, fat bikers can enjoy more than 38 miles of groomed track throughout Gunnison Valley — not to mention Kebler Pass and Ohio Creek Roads, which Gunnison County SNO Trackers regularly grooms from Kebler Trailhead to Erickson Springs and Ohio Pass Trailheads, as well as up to Lost Lake Campground and Lake Irwin, which offers about 40 miles of corduroy.

The best part of fat biking, beyond the fun and exercise, is the sustainability.

“You can put a track for fat biking in snow, and it won’t have any impact to the ecosystem or landscape. In the summertime, those tracks melt and you’re back to pristine meadows,”
said Kugler. Plus, no pass or trail fees are required. Fat bikes are also a great option when the conditions are unpredictable during the shoulder seasons — a mix of snow, dirt, gravel and mud.

Here are six of the best winter trails with jaw-dropping views throughout the Gunnison Valley, according to local riders.

Town Ranch

Distance: 1.7-mile loop
Location: Crested Butte town
You might be steering your bike at 9,000 feet, but this loop is wide, compacted, flat, simple, and ideal for beginner fat bikers and to acclimate to the altitude, says Ochs. Plus, the circuit sits at the base of 12,162-foot Mount Crested Butte and is an easy-to-access trail on the southeast corner of town. “You don’t need to stay centered in a skinny track and can zigzag all over the course. You can also work on tire pressure,” said Ochs, recommending a range of 4 to 6 pounds of pressure to “float on top of the snow and increase surface area.” Note: A regular bike pump doesn’t register tire pressure that low, so borrow or rent an appropriate tire gauge for your trip.

Golf Course Loops (Club at CB)

Distance: 3.5 miles
Location: Crested Butte town
“Not a lot of people ride the golf course loops, but it’s a really fun fat bike singletrack, because it’s not a huge, wide path. There are lots of ups and downs. The route takes you to an area you’d never be [on a bike] in the summer — and you won’t see anyone else out there,” said Beth Shaner, a winter fat bike commuter and athlete. Based in Gunnison Valley, she completed the 2022 and 2020 Iditarod Trail Invitational, a 350-mile race in Alaska. To reach this trail at The Club at Crested Butte golf course, pedal .5-mile on the Town Ranch loop in southeast Crested Butte to the 1.1-mile Riverbend Trail, then hop on the Skyland bike path. At the golf course, you can ride the 2-mile Front 9 loop or the 1.1-mile Back 9 lollipop, which are linked via a 1,000-foot-long connector trail.

Crested Butte to Mount Crested Butte

Distance: 2.2 miles one-way
Location: Along the CB Rec Path
From town, enjoy a moderate climb to Mount Crested Butte, then turn around and coast downhill. “The rec path is a more beginner-friendly and close-to-town ride. You get some elevation gain, the route gets groomed regularly and is in good condition for fat biking,” said Shaner, who commutes to work via the rec path with stunning 360-degree views.

Gothic Road

Distance: 3 miles one-way
Location: Snodgrass Trailhead
Many of the routes in Gunnison Valley are open to all users including human-powered, motorized and hybrid recreationists — which is all great for packing down the snow for fat bikers. Gothic Road stretches from Snodgrass Trailhead to Gothic, a historic ghost town at the base of the rugged 12,400-foot Gothic Mountain, and the route is solely dedicated to non-motorized travel but still gets groomed. “One of my favorite rides is to go to Gothic and back. You can also ride from Crested Butte town if you want more mileage but most people park at Snodgrass Trailhead,” Shaner said. Be sure to understand if your selected route is in avalanche terrain — snow-filled slopes that are 30 degrees or more have a potential risk to slide — and check the avalanche forecast published each day by the Crested Butte Avalanche Center. “The caveat is that any time you ride up these drainages — such as Gothic, Cement Creek and Kebler Pass — there’s always avalanche potential,” added Shaner. Stick to trails near town if avalanche danger is reported.

Josie’s, The Luge, Buddy Bear Loop

Distance: About 5 miles
Location: Hartman Rocks Recreation Area
Park at the southwest entrance of Hartman Rocks Rec Area and start pedaling eastbound at a mellow grade on BLM 3500 road, then veer north on Josie’s, a 2-mile segment. “At the prominent top, Josie’s has good views and a contoured descent that’s flowy. The route is south-facing and often it’s good to go at 2 p.m. in January. Even when it’s cold, the sun is so bright, you don’t need many layers, work up a good heat, and you’re never going that fast on a fat bike,” Kugler said. Next, head south on The Luge and continue onto Buddy Bear to finish the long loop. “The loop is a ‘holy cow, that was amazing’ ride. In the summer, that’d take you 40 minutes. In the winter, plan for twice the amount of time,” he added.

Top of the World

Distance: 2 miles one-way
Location: Hartman Rocks Recreation Area
On the northeast corner of Hartman Rocks Rec Area, start at the parking lot off Gold Basin Road then pedal less than 1 mile up Lower Jack and Jacks: It’s a climb out the gate. Head west to connect with Top of the World, a 2-mile route that lives up to its name. “Put Top of the World on your must-ride list. It’s a long trail that contours along an east-facing hill, there’s a nice prominent high spot, and it’s a proper 15-minute climb whereas a lot of other trails are rolling,” Kugler said.

If You Go

Lodging
For a premium therapeutic experience and optimal location — midway between the towns of Gunnison and Crested Butte — stay at the Taylor River Lodge, which boasts private cabins with luxurious steam showers, artisan meals at a communal table, and a bathhouse with a saltwater pool, sauna and hot tub. In Crested Butte, the Elk Mountain Lodge, built in 1919 as a miner’s hotel, is cozy and serves a robust breakfast buffet. If camping is more your style, drive up to Elk Creek Campground in Curecanti National Recreation Area, which sits southwest of Gunnison with your tent or RV. At 7,540 feet, the sites overlook Blue Mesa Reservoir, where the water freezes over for ice fishers and ice skaters in winter. The campground is open year-round. Reservations aren’t needed in winter, and the price drops in October to $8 a night.

Dining
To replenish after your ride, grab a meal and brews at High Alpine Brewing Co. in Gunnison or at the Secret Stash Pizza in Crested Butte.

Trail Grooming Season:
• Crested Butte: roughly December to March
• Gunnison: roughly December to February

Grooming/Trail Reports:
CBMBA, Crested Butte
Crested Butte Nordic, Crested Butte
Crested Butte Mountain Resort, Mount Crested Butte

Safety & Courtesy:

• Learn and follow basic fat biking etiquette.
• Crested Butte Mountain Resort uphill access policy
• Crested Butte Avalanche Center avalanche forecast

Fat Bike Rentals:
• The Alpineer, 970-349-5210
• Double Shot Cyclery, 970-642-5411
• Rock N’ Rock Sports, 970-641-9150

Fees:
Fat biking trails throughout Gunnison Valley are free to use, with many nonprofits pooling resources to maintain winter access. Consider becoming a member or donating to any of the organizations providing safety and access:
• Crested Butte Mountain Bike Association
• Gunnison County SNO Trackers
• Crested Butte Nordic
• Crested Butte Avalanche Center
• Gunnison Trails

Alert: #DPD Officers are in the area of the 1600 Block of S. Hazel Ct. investigating the death of an adult male, which is believed to be a homicide. The Medical Examiner will release the Victim's ID and the cause of death. #Denver pic.twitter.com/BzsoOg3Bbd

— Denver Police Dept. (@DenverPolice) January 15, 2023

The investigation, in the Mar Lee neighborhood, is in the 1600 block of South Hazel Court, the Denver Police Department said in a 5:20 p.m. tweet on Saturday.

The Denver Office of the Medical Examiner will release the identity and the cause and manner of the man’s death. Police did not release any information Saturday on a suspect in the case.

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How will Shadow Mountain Bike Park — formerly known as Full Send Bike Ranch — impact wildlife, traffic, water, wildfire danger and the tranquility of life in the foothills of Jefferson County?

“From a point of simple beauty, it’s one of the most scenic spots in Jeffco,” Neil Whitehead III, a resident who lives just two miles up Shadow Mountain Drive from the proposed bike park site, told The Denver Post. “It’s putting a major commercial development in a well-established residential area.”

Those concerns, and many others, were voiced Wednesday evening during a virtual community meeting about the project, which would be Colorado’s first dedicated chairlift-access mountain bike park — with 16 miles of trails and an 830-foot vertical drop.

The meeting drew around 300 people at its start, and the discussion went on for nearly four hours. Many long-time residents said a downhill mountain biking facility is not an appropriate use for a quiet community tucked away at 9,000 feet in a hilly, forested area just a few miles from Conifer.

“You are moving into my backyard, I’m not moving into your backyard,” an attendee who opposes the project told the team behind it.

Much of the focus was on traffic on Shadow Mountain Drive, a narrow two-lane road with blind curves that would be the sole access to the bike park. Project leaders said there would be no more than 500 vehicles a day trying to reach the park on a busy day.

Others worried about wildfire danger from visitors hitting Shadow Mountain’s trails — a flicked cigarette from a moving car, perhaps — that could start a conflagration in an area with plenty of fuel to burn.

Jason Evans, one of the principals behind the project, said he and his business partner, Phil Bouchard, are intent on being good neighbors and keeping impacts to a minimum. Not only would Shadow Mountain Bike Park not operate at night or during the winter, it won’t feature a restaurant or bar, he told attendees.

“This will be a seasonal, day-use park,” Evans said at Wednesday’s meeting, trying to allay concerns about excessive noise or light at the park. “We don’t want to be a big, bright scary neighbor.”

Bouchard and Evans say Shadow Mountain Bike Park will help provide concentrated relief for overused bike trails in Jefferson County, while providing jobs and revenues for the state. The bike park would operate on land leased from the State Land Board.

And it wouldn’t be just a gnarly course for experts looking for steep inclines and rocks to clear. The bike park would be geared to giving anyone of any skill level a place to ride, the project’s backers say.

But Ellen Keckler, one of the lead opponents of the project, said “our health, safety and the wildlife” are still top line concerns for her and her neighbors. She said more than 5,000 people have signed a petition opposing the bike park and they will be closely following its progress as it goes through the Jefferson County land use process over the next few months.

“There’s not one person I know of up here that has backed down in any way,” Keckler said. “It’s not that we oppose a bike park — this is not the right place.”

Shadow Mountain Bike Park has been in the planning stages for nearly two years, but Bouchard and Evans think they will finally get their application into the county next month. It may take until 2023 before they can get through both the county’s planning commission and be considered for approval from the county commissioners.

They now have an ally in their quest — the Colorado Mountain Bike Association, which is listed as a partner of Shadow Mountain Bike Park on the park’s website.

Gary Moore, the group’s executive director, said the two groups are not financially connected but do have similar goals.

“We are hoping to help them create something that will appeal to the local MTBers, and hopefully they will have the opportunity to support our mission of improving trail experiences on public lands,” Moore said. “We want to do what we can to connect this proposed bike park to the community of local riders and see that it will be the experiential piece of the puzzle that is needed to give riders the chance to enjoy this type of riding in the right environment, away from multi-use trails.”

Bouchard said working with the Colorado Mountain Bike Association going forward makes sense.

“We’re trying to expand access to the sport we love, they are too,” he said.