28 Aug 2014, 4:14pm
Aspen Colorado Crested Butte Cycling The Rockies Travel: Aspen bike races Colorado Colorado Crested Butte Cycling The Rockies Travel USA Pro Cycling Challenge
by maribeth
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The Thrill of a Bike Race

The Start of the USA Pro Challenge in Aspen

Sexy Cyclists

More Good-Looking Guys

I’m here at my desk amid piles and piles of papers, cards, brochures and miscellaneous other remnants from an action-packed trip to the USA Pro Challenge, which took place here in Colorado last week. I also just spent a couple of hours going through a slew of images from time spent at this exciting bike race. I met cyclists and bystanders, travel suppliers and promoters, journalists and commentators, fans of all ages, shapes and sizes, avid cycling enthusiasts, amateur bike riders and tons of folks just out for a good time.

There’s nothing like a big sporting event to bring people together, especially when it’s on wheels and it travels to different locations along the way. Many people followed the seven days of racing–an extraordinary route that began in Aspen and finished in Denver as it traversed some of the world’s highest mountain passes, most scenic valleys and most beloved Colorado destinations. I hit the USA Pro Challenge in Aspen, Crested Butte and Gunnison and boy, did I soak up every minute of fun I could find within that four-day period.

Riders Signing in for the Race

Aspen Start

Here Come the Spare Wheels

Aspen Finish

Pedaling By After a Long Day of Riding

Coming and Going

Retired Cycling Great: George Hincapie

The colors, sounds, coolness and frenetic energy of pro cycling fire me up. I’ve attended the Tour de France, a three-week bike race and one of the world’s greatest sporting events, so I can say that the USA Pro Challenge offers a good measure of the same excitement.

Whether it’s a bluebird day or a stormy Rocky Mountain moment, I love the vibrant display of hues from the cyclists’ jerseys, the parade of bikes, the barreling caravan of team cars and support vehicles and the bright, summer garb donned by the spectators.

The sounds go from the soft pedaling–click, click, click–of the cyclists’ finely tuned machines as they warm up before the start to the swooosh that seizes you as the main field blows by on one of their laps around town. From the clanging of the spectators’ bells and the thrumming of their arms and legs against the barriers to the vrooom, vrooom, vrooom of the high-powered music that blasts at takeoff, you can’t help being caught up in one wild ride.

Nice Colors

These sleek, streamlined pros go from smooth albeit almost shy guys to fast-moving thoroughbreds once the race is on. You have to strain to hear the blare of the announcer’s voice above the din of the music, bikes, cars, motorcycles and cheers from the crowd, but it doesn’t matter much anyway. A lot of people at the USA Pro Challenge don’t know a thing about the event, who’s racing, who’s winning or even how a bike race is powered by team efforts as well as individual achievements. Most don’t care–it’s just fun to be there. I encourage you to plan to take it in next year because it’s a helluva lot of hoopla and it’s free of charge, to boot!