Salida 720

SALIDA 720
MAY 16, 2020

A Technical 12-hour Mountain Bike Race in the heart of the Rockies!

OMG! We have final approval for the all new 12 hour mountain bike race in central Colorado. Race day is set for May 16, 2020. Event load in begins May 15, 2020 at noon. There will be a MANDATORY racers meeting on evening of Friday, May 15, 2020 at 8:00PM at the Boathouse Cantina, 228 North F Street, Salida, Colorado! Did we say MANDATORY? yes we did!

Okay, here’s the skinny. This is a very technical 12 hour course that uses the trails just east of downtown Salida. The course will also use “F” and Sackett Streets. This is also where the team pits and vendor expo will be set up. Load in for solo and team pits starts at noon on May 16th. Solo racers will have pit space closest to the timing center. The race will begin at 7:00am and last racer to leave the timing center will be 6:00pm, as the laps will take the fastest folks a little over an hour!

The Course(s)

There is really only one course, however a third of the way into the lap the pro, expert & 17/18 year old juniors, will do a lollipop loop. The pro and expert racers (i.e. Pro & Cat. 1 & junior 17/18 referred to as the RED COURSE. Beginners, sport (cat. 2 & 3) & juniors14/16 refer to the BLUE COURSE. The course begins, ends and laps through downtown Salida. The course uses county road (CR) 177 turns left onto (CR) 176 (water tank) then left to (C R) 176 down to (CR) 175, right onto (CR) 175 up to the North Backbone. Where North Backbone hits (CR) 173, the pros cat.1 and jr.17/18 racers turn left and climb up (CR) 173 to the Upper Sand Dunes trail and descend down to Backbone trail where they then lake a left turn onto Backbone. The Beginners, sport and juniors will turn right on (CR) 173 down to Backbone Trail head where they’ll turn left on to Backbone. All riders will continue east on Backbone to Sweet Dreams trail and follow Sweet Dreams trail to Chicken Dinner trail. Where Chicken Dinner hits (CR) 177 racers will turn right and follow the two track all the way back to the turn around at the end of “F” street. Racers will lap through down town Salida via “F” street to Riverside Park to the foot / bike path to Riverside park round about and back out onto ”F” street and repeat the lap for 12 hours!