USA Pro Cycling Challenge Stage Race

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Routt County Riders is working as part of the Local Organizing Committee to host the USA Pro Cycling Challenge stage race which will run from August 22nd - 28th, 2011.

The USA Pro Cycling Challenge is an eight day stage race that will showcase Colorado's finest road riding and provide a challenging backdrop to a full blown professional stage race that has already attracted the World's top professional teams. Confirmed entries include: Team Radioshack, Leopard Trek, HTC, Garmin, and Liquigas. Steamboat Springs will be the only city in Steamboat to host two stages - a finish on Friday August 26th and a start on Saturday August 27th, 2011.

VISIT THE STEAMBOAT USAPCC WEBSITE

Steamboat Springs is no stranger to major cycling events having hosted the Mercury Tour from 1997 – 1999. Annual cycling events include the Tour de Steamboat, Ride 4 Yellow, Steamboat Springs Stage Race, as well as the Steamboat Springs Town Challenge Mountain Bike Race Series that regularly draws over 200 riders, and a road racing series run by the Steamboat Springs Winter Sports Club Cycling Team.

As a biking community Steamboat Springs sets a high standard being a Silver Bicycle Friendly Community as designated by the League of American Cyclists. A recently established Safe Routes to School program had over 500 youth participants. Bike to Work Week in June is a weeklong celebration of cycling tied in with a Bike to Work Month Commuter Challenge that this year calculated that bike commuting by participants saved over 700 gallons of gasoline being burned.

Additionally Steamboat Springs is considered a cradle of mountain biking development, with Mountain Bike Hall of Fame member Kent Eriksen, founding Moots Cycles in the 1980’s and now building bikes locally as Eriksen Cycles. In addition to Eriksen and Moots, the avid cycling community is served by four bike shops who retail major national brands that include Trek, Giant, Specialized, Gary Fisher, Rocky Mountain, Orbea, Ellsworth, BMC and Cervelo.

The cycling community is represented through two cycling clubs, Routt County Riders and Steamboat Velo. Routt County Riders, a 501 c3 non-profit organization with approximately 500 members. RCR is involved at all levels of community cycling including building and maintaining many miles of mountain biking trails, acting as an advisory group for cycling issues to the City of Steamboat Springs and Routt County, providing organizational assistance to local cycling events, initiating educational campaigns for road users; developing Safe Routes to School support, promoting Youth cycling development, and assisting in Bicycle Friendly Community Initiatives.

Steamboat Velo is a 48 member cycling club focused on providing an avenue for athletes interested in all aspects of bicycle racing and is the host organization for the Steamboat Springs Stage Race (SSSR). Its members race throughout the nation and the Rocky Mountain region under the Steamboat Velo banner. In just the second year of the SSSR, this years event brought 350 racers from around the world to Steamboat for a four stage race, on the roads surrounding Steamboat, including Peter Stetina from Boulder's Garmin-Transitions team and 13-time world champion Jeannie Longo from France. With a Time Trial, Circuit Race, Road Race and Criterium, the SSSR showcases some of the best riding Steamboat has to offer as well as showing the depth of the volunteer sprit of Steamboat, organizing a 65 member all volunteer staff to produce the only multi day amateur stage race in Colorado. The proceeds from the SSSR go to financing our racing efforts as Steamboat Velo, as well as supporting the local trail building and advocacy efforts (with RCR) as well as the SSWSC junior cycling programs.

Steamboat Springs is a community with a rich cycling heritage. The stunning, rolling landscape set against the back-drop of the Rocky Mountains provides the compelling reason Steamboat Springs has been host to major cycling tours such as Ride the Rockies (1998, 2004, 2007), The Bicycle Tour of Colorado (1998, 2007), and the Tour of Wyoming (2009).

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As a biking community, Steamboat Springs sets a high standard being a Silver Bicycle Friendly Community as designated by the League of American Cyclists. A recently-established Safe Routes to School program had over 500 youth participants. Bike to Work Week in June is a weeklong celebration of cycling tied in with a Bike to Work Month Commuter Challenge. It was calculated that during this year's event, bike-commuting participants prevented over 700 gallons of gasoline being burned.

Local citizen and Mountain Bike Hall of Fame member Kent Eriksen, founder of Moots Cycles in the 1980’s and now building bikes locally as Eriksen Cycles is a reason Steamboat Springs is considered a cradle of mountain biking development. In addition to Eriksen Cycles and Moots Cycles, the avid cycling community is served by four bike shops who retail major, national brands that include Trek, Giant, Specialized, Gary Fisher, Rocky Mountain, Orbea, Ellsworth, BMC and Cervelo.

The cycling community is represented through two cycling clubs, Routt County Riders and Steamboat Velo. Routt County Riders, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization with approximately 500 members. RCR is involved at all levels of community cycling including building and maintaining many miles of mountain biking trails, acting as an advisory group for cycling issues to the City of Steamboat Springs and Routt County, providing organizational assistance to local cycling events, initiating educational campaigns for road users, developing Safe Routes to School support, promoting Youth cycling development, and assisting in Bicycle Friendly Community Initiatives. Steamboat Velo is a 48-member cycling club focused on providing an avenue for athletes interested in all aspects of bicycle racing and is the host organization for the Steamboat Springs Stage Race (SSSR). Its members race throughout the nation and the Rocky Mountain region under the Steamboat Velo banner.

In just the second year of the SSSR, this year's event brought 350 racers from around the world to Steamboat for a four-stage race on the roads surrounding Steamboat. Among the 350 racers this year were Peter Stetina from Boulder's Garmin-Transitions team and 13-time world champion Jeannie Longo from France. With a Time Trial, Circuit Race, Road Race, and Criterium, the SSSR showcases some of the best riding Steamboat has to offer, and it showcases the depth of the volunteer sprit of Steamboat as a 65-member, all-volunteer staff produces the only multi-day, amateur stage race in Colorado. The proceeds from the SSSR go to financing our racing efforts as Steamboat Velo as well as supporting the local trail-building and advocacy efforts with RCR and the SSWSC junior cycling programs.

Please visit our Facebook page for the Steamboat Springs Stage. You can follow event updates, "like" this page, and suggest it to your friends.