Cycle
The Colorado Classic was this past weekend and SnowBrains was there to check it out. Here are a couple of quick stats about the race. According to Colorado Classic, the event was held on Thursday-Sunday August 16-19, 2018 and a four stage professional road bike race for men and women. The mens race is recognized by the Union Cycliste Internationale(UCI) and is designated as the highest category race at a 2.HC race degree.
The course stages are split between Vail and Denver with two in each. The first day was a circuit race around the town of Vail. Men and women both competed in the circuit race. The first course was 64.1 miles with 4,390ft (1,338m) of climbing for men and 35.2 miles, 2,567ft (782m) of climbing for women. The second stage was a time trial from the Town of Vail up to Vail pass for both men and women. The route is 9.9 miles with a 1,574ft (480m) ascent up to the summit of the pass. Stage three was a 100 mile ride starting from RiNo to Lookout Mountain, down to Red Rocks then up to Evergreen. Then head to Conifer and around back up toward Dinosaur Ridge then back down toward Denver. The final fourth stage was in RiNo and finished off with a 34.8 mile race for the women and a 71.2 mile ride for the men. (The Know)
The Colorado Classic is an ode to a historical Colorado bike race. The race was inspired by the Coors International Bicycle Classic which was held in the 1980s. It was a world famous bike race that had fabled stages. Some included riding around the Colorado National Monument area known as “a tour of the moon” and up and around Snowmass on climb known as “suicide hill”. (Wikipedia)
All in all the event was great to watch and hopefully it continues to bring back cycling races in the mountains.Â
