Early Friday morning on May 30, 60 bike riders gathered on Main Street in Nucla. Outfitted with food, water and supplies for multiple days, everyone was eager to begin their adventure. They were about to begin the Grand Loop, a 350-mile bikepacking route.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This year\u2019s organizer, rider and Nucla local Tim Tait explained the route, which has been around since the 1990s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWell it\u2019s the combination of three long distance epic trails that COPMOBA built in the late \u201990s. You have the Kokopelli Trail, the Tabeguache Trail and the Paradox Trail. Each of those trails have their own history to them from the creation of them. But the Grand Loop pieces all those trails together to create the full loop,\u201d Tait said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Riders gathered an hour before departure to drink coffee, share information about the course and stock up on fresh breakfast burritos\u2014some taking up to four for extra food along the way. They discussed the upcoming heat, with temperatures expected to reach the 100s, and the chance of rain and mud on Monday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a lot of calculations of calories and how many hours you think you\u2019re going to be out there and just know you can go without food, but the water, that\u2019s the big one,\u201d said Kevin Emery from Victor, Idaho. \u201cSo lots of capacity for water and always carry a little bit more and do a lot of research so you know how to supply, where to supply based on where you\u2019re going, and then cross fingers.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It was Emery\u2019s second Grand Loop. Todd Murray from Colorado Springs made it halfway last year. This year, he said, he\u2019s determined to finish.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI mean it\u2019s so unknown. It\u2019s one of these events for me that I don\u2019t know if I can finish and that\u2019s the draw,\u201d Murray said. \u201cSo it\u2019s really cool to approach it to see if I can possibly test myself to that limit, but I\u2019ve never done anything this hard before.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThis year I\u2019m approaching this event differently. Last year I raced it, this year I\u2019m riding it,\u201d he added. \u201cI\u2019m gonna sleep each night, I have some sleeping gear with me. And I simply want to finish.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Riders posed for a photo at Paul Koski\u2019s woodshop. Koski, a longtime Nucla resident, is the founder of West End Trails Alliance and one of the visionaries behind the Paradox Trail.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe offer a unique experience out here\u2014that being, it\u2019s adventure riding, it\u2019s wilderness riding,\u201d Koski said. \u201cAnd we\u2019re trying to put in some groomed singletrack systems just outside of Naturita and Nucla. But for the most part the West End will remain pretty wild. We have a small population and a big area, can\u2019t really maintain trails to make them nice and easy, flowy.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This year, riders went counterclockwise, encountering the notoriously difficult Paradox Trail just before finishing back in Nucla.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
After a quick photo, a pep talk from Tait and some final gear checks, they left just before 8 a.m.\u2014somewhat unceremoniously.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For the next couple days, the only way to check in was to \u201cdot watch,\u201d as it\u2019s called. Each rider carried a GPS unit, which tracked their progress on an online map.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Multiple-time finisher Kurt Refsnider was the first to complete the course, setting a new fastest time of 49 hours and 15 minutes. Nicolette Jones, an Aspen resident, set a new women\u2019s course record, finishing at 4:45 a.m. Monday with a time of 2 days, 20 hours and 43 minutes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Jones said she encountered mechanical problems, stopped in Fruita for repairs, and battled through heat and sleep deprivation. She said the final 30 miles on the Paradox Trail were so difficult she thought it was a prank.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cSo I was definitely struggling to get through the sleep deprivation at that point and mentally with the terrain,\u201d Jones said. \u201cI was, like, not stoked to be there at one point. Again I was pretty tired, but I fully convinced myself that this was some sort of prank. Like, there\u2019s no way it\u2019s actually this bad. This must be something they do for first-time Grand Loop riders and there\u2019s actually a different trail that everybody else knows to go on, \u2019cause there\u2019s nobody else out here.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Jones, who won the Colorado Trail Bike Race last year, said this was her first Grand Loop, and much of the course was new to her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThere\u2019s always so much camaraderie in racing\u2014just knowing that other people are out there,\u201d she said. \u201cBut something about this course, I don\u2019t know if it was just shorter or if I just happened to be in a little bubble that was all paced pretty similarly. But I felt like I spent so much more time either riding with or near other riders in this race compared to other races that I\u2019ve done, and it was super cool to be able to share the experience with everyone.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
All told, 21 riders completed the Grand Loop this year, with two riders still out on the course as of June 4. For most, it\u2019s all about the experience\u2014and whether 350 miles or 150 miles, the Grand Loop always seems to deliver.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Riders from across the country gathered in Nucla for the Grand Loop, a 350-mile bikepacking challenge through rugged terrain, heat, and high country solitude. This year\u2019s ride saw record times, community spirit, and a deep test of endurance.<\/p>","protected":false},"featured_media":4983,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":true},"news-category":[514,542],"news-tag":[888,889,893,894,891,887,407,890,892],"class_list":["post-4982","news","type-news","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-category-featured-stories","news-category-rural-news","news-tag-adventure-racing","news-tag-bikepacking","news-tag-colorado-trails","news-tag-cycling","news-tag-endurance-sports","news-tag-grand-loop","news-tag-nucla","news-tag-paradox-trail","news-tag-ultra-distance-racing"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n