What? I can assure you the non-pros were drilling it last year at Steamboat. There are pros and then you have very fast amateurs who show up to these events. Especially in CO. Our group of non pros did the blue course in five hours.
Would you say majority (not all) treat it as a Gran Fondo though?
No idea? Half?
That was me. The clearance was too tight for my liking…
got in for RED! psyched, steamboat is absolutely lovely in the summertime.
2020 race is canceled (Here is the email I got):
We hope this email finds you and your family well and hopefully are all safe and healthy.
As we absorbed the magnitude of the global pandemic over the past few months, we discussed, analyzed and planned out every possible scenario that would enable us to have SBT GRVL in 2020. We must think of every rider, spectator, volunteer, sponsor, vendor and the members of our local community and ensure they will be confident and safe during their visit to Steamboat Springs. Based on guidelines from the CDC, the Federal government, state, county and the local authorities of Steamboat, we examined what a realistic version of SBT GRVL might look like during Covid-19.
Some of the considerations that we have entertained and vetted:
- Cancel the expo completely
- Cancel post race after party, meal and awards celebrations
- Eliminate podium celebrations
- Check the temperature of all athletes, vendors, sponsors, volunteers and even spectators
- Modify aid stations to prepackaged food only and go to hands free water stations
- Require mandatory hydration packs to eliminate certain aid stations
- Shorten races or reduce total number of race options
- Evolve mass start to wave starts and 6 ft spacing protocol
- Require masks all weekend and potentially while racing
These precautions and changes would only represent a handful of tradeoffs that would be necessary to be considered for hosting a safe mass gathering in 2020. With these potential adjustments and being unsure of what the future holds, we still don’t believe that we could responsibly and respectfully guarantee everyone’s safety.
It’s become clear that these required changes would result in a significantly compromised version of the SBT GRVL experience that we were looking forward to this year. The SBT GRVL experience is rooted in our core values that we highlighted to all of you when we launched the event in October of 2018. In particular, our first two, Fun and Safety, will always be a significant part of how we make major decisions for SBT GRVL. In addition, we are strongly committed to investing in and protecting our community, our racers, and causes we believe in, such as our absolute focus on issues around gender parity, as an example.
As we remain committed to these values and this approach, we have made the decision to cancel SBT GRVL for 2020.
So what can we do now? We have an idea.
One thing we continue to be amazed with is how tight knit this gravel community is. We wanted to come up with a way for all of us to stay connected with one another. As fellow racers we also know that it helps to have that goal on the calendar that keeps us training, riding and motivated. In addition, we also know all of us want to help those in need and support causes we all believe in.
On or before June 1, we want to give you the opportunity to put August 16th on your calendar. Your route, our route, solo or at a group meet-up (if allowed in your area), we will introduce a localized plan to get people all over the world riding one of the four distances of SBT GRVL with each other, aligned with our core values of fun and safety until we reconnect in Steamboat next year. Stay tuned and look out for #SBTVRTL. It will be free, open to everyone, easy to find routes, people to ride with and easy to stay connected to share a version of SBT GRVL in 2020. We’ll make sure that it’s an event filled with prize giveaways from our sponsors and if you want, you can help some of our advocacy partners along the way. Anyone who donates $50 or more will guarantee their opportunity to register for SBT GRVL in 2021.
Until then, ride safe and reach out with any questions you may have.
Sincerely,
Mark, Ken and Amy
info@sbtgrvl.com
Notable option since this event sold out so fast this year. I wonder if they will “sell out” all the spots via this program before any even get the regular option when reg opens next year?