Next year’s event will happen the last weekend in June with an 1,800 person ride out of Steamboat Springs and a 750 person race out of Hayden.
SBT GRVL will return to the Yampa Valley next summer for a revamped version of the event stretched out over two days, including an 1,800-rider, non-competitive ride out of Steamboat Springs and a 750-rider race out of Hayden.
The Routt County Commissioners unanimously approved a permit for the latest iteration of the nationally known gravel bike event on Tuesday in yet another packed meeting on the topic. Event organizers say the two-day version of the event allows them to keep the event financially viable while reducing the number of riders it puts on Routt County roads.
“We do think this addresses everything we heard [in a Sept. 9 meeting with Commissioners] and all of the guidelines we were given from agencies and from the commissioners in terms of reducing the impact,” said Amy Charity, SBT GRVL’s founder.
The bike race has become a flashpoint for the urban rural divide in Routt County, where roughly half of residents live within Steamboat Springs and the other half live elsewhere in the county. Rural residents have lodged many of the complaints about the event and public comments made over the last year show many rural residents see the race as an encroachment of Steamboat Springs’ tourism on their way of life.
“Steamboat has changed drastically while we’ve been here, and we’ve noticed it, and we don’t like it,” Krista Monger, a member of one of the oldest ranching families in the valley, said on Tuesday. “Now we see it bleeding into our county. … it’s bleeding into where we live and our environment and I think that is what is creating the animosity.”
“When is enough?” Monger continued. “This is the rural community saying stop.”
In his comments before the vote, outgoing Commissioner Tim Corrigan said he was distressed that SBT GRVL has become such a divisive issue. He said he did not feel it was the commissioners’ job to prevent change, but to manage it.
“This has been disappointing to me at times to see this community divide the way that it has — it was very tribal,” said Commissioner Tim Redmond. “I have been disappointed with both sides at times, but this is an opportunity for us to come together, work together and create a situation that can work for everybody.”
Commissioner Sonja Macys denied the idea that the commissioners were trying to push the event away via a “death by a thousand cuts.” Macys said they needed to work toward a compromise, even if that might leave “everybody angry.”
“We can’t put the genie back in the bottle,” Macys said. “The notion that if we were to not permit [SBT GRVL] and were to say to [SBT GRVL] ‘go away,’ we’re going to somehow get the time that is past back and it is all going to be like the time is was when we first moved here, it’s just not going to happen.”
As approved, SBT GRVL will happen during the last weekend in June and utilize three of the four race courses used this year for the Saturday ride. That ride will start and end on Yampa Street in Steamboat and won’t have any prizes or podiums. This ride will include all of the same safety precautions taken during this year’s race.
The Sunday race would start and end in Hayden and include 750 racers split into three groups. Course Director Micah Rice said the race would include a “rolling bubble” around the main groups of riders. This would be led by a law enforcement officer stopping oncoming traffic while they pass and include other motorized personnel to keep bikers safe.
“It goes back to the question for me do I believe that what the operators are offering in terms of course safety is adequate,” Corrigan said. “I don’t know the answer to that question, and I don’t think we are going to get to know the answer to that question until and if we actually test it.”
Commissioners added two conditions of approval for the event. The first requires the event’s safety plan and spectator viewing areas be approved by Routt County Sheriff Doug Scherar.
The second requires organizers to work with the County Attorney’s Office to address concerns of liability expressed by landowners along the course. Event organizers said during the meeting that they have added some landowners to their insurance policy in the past and commissioners questioned whether all landowners along the race course could be added to the policy.
Redmond did suggest commissioners lower the number of participants for the race to 500, but failed to garner support from either of his colleagues, with both Macys and Corrigan feeling it would be an arbitrary change. He ultimately supported the permit and conditions. SBT GRVL will still need to get required approvals from the city of Steamboat Springs and town of Hayden.
“If I was remaining as a commissioner and in future years, I would be hard pressed to approve any additional events of this nature in Routt County,” said Corrigan, who is not seeking reelection. “But I won’t be, that will be someone else’s problem.”
Top Photo Caption: SBT GRVL will be split across two days in 2025, with a ride in Steamboat and a Race in Hayden. (Routt County/Courtesy)