Spin out at Crested Butte Bike Week

There have been some changes to the logistics of next week’s Crested Butte Bike Week from what was reported in the print edition of the story in this week’s paper:

• The Thursday clinics will meet at the Four-way Stop in Crested Butte instead of the field by the Center for the Arts. All groups will meet in the Chamber of Commerce parking lot at 6th and Elk at 10 am on Thursday, June 22.
• The Fat Tire 40 will start from the Center for the Arts instead of the Visitor’s Center. The race starts officially with a neutral ride from the south side of the Center for the Arts.

Keep the rubber side down, volunteers needed

By Stan Cola

The Crested Butte/Mt. Crested Butte Chamber of Commerce is at it again with their annual Crested Butte Bike Week Thursday through Sunday June 22-25.

Along with Marin and Cupertino in California, Crested Butte is one of the first places in the world where people started taking their bikes off roads and into the mountains for fun. And being Crested Butte, we came up with one of the most fun ways to get into the mountains: Crested Butte Bike Week.

Filled with races, shenanigans, and more, the history of bike week is one of a mountain community bringing the best mountain bikers in the world to the home of mountain biking.

Bike week is now a four-day celebration of all things mountain bike in the Gunnison Valley. We still have the big thigh burner of a single track race, the Fat Tire 40, but now Crested Butte Bike Week is more of a celebration of how mountain biking defines our community in the summer.

This year’s event kicks off on Thursday, June 22 with clinics to make sure everyone has the tools and right technique to ride. Crested Butte Bike Week has partnered up with the Griggs Orthopedics gO Ride Team to offer clinics for riders of all abilities on Thursday. Practice bike handling and get a preview of the Fat Tire 40 course with some of the best riders in the Gunnison Valley. Pick up some line tips and familiarize yourself with the trails before getting into the weekend.

All groups will meet at the Vendor Village, which will be set up in the field next to the Center for the Arts at 10 a.m. on Thursday, June 22.

In addition to clinics, Crested Butte Bike Week will host a movie Friday night as well as a “masked rave” Saturday night. Amidst all the ancillary events associated with Crested Butte Bike Week, the festival would not be complete without racing and this year there’s plenty of it.

The racing kicks off Friday, June 23 with the Chainless World Championships as well as the Crested Butte Devo slow race championships testing riders’ ability to go … slow.

Following a night of revelry, riders will then line up in town Saturday, June 25 for the mother of all cross-country mountain bike races, the Fat Tire 40. The race starts with a neutral ride from the Chamber of Commerce/Visitors Center through town before heading up Gothic Road. From there it’s nothing but pain as riders will connect Upper and Upper Upper Loop trails, Strand Hill, Deer Creek, a couple of trails in the Evolution Bike Park before dropping down 2,000 vertical feet of trail from West Side to Happy Hour to Tony’s and finishing at Yelenik Pavilion behind the Center for the Arts.

Meanwhile, the Adaptive Sports Center will be setting up for the start of their annual Bridges of the Butte 24-hour townie race starting at high noon Saturday and continuing until high noon on Sunday. In addition, Crested Butte Devo will host clinics for kids and their parents at Tommy V Field and the school parking lot as well as some rides that afternoon to get a glimpse of the Junior Wildflower Classic race course slated for Sunday.

The festival wraps up Sunday, June 25 with the second annual Junior Wildflower Classic presented by Crested Butte Devo. There will be races for kids of all ages and abilities with a variety of courses that include Lupine I, Lupine II some of the Lower Loop trail system all starting at Tommy V Field behind the school.

Whether you’re looking to cruise down Kebler on a townie, mash single track miles on your XC bike, or experience the joy of lift-served downhill at Evolution Bike Park, we’ve got you covered with Bike Week. All information and registration can be found at cbbikeweek.com.

And, as always, to pull something of this magnitude off the chamber needs volunteers. Contact Scott at [email protected] to get involved.