This past week was a heavy hitter with Leadville 100, Breck Epic and the 1^st Annual Women’s Cycling Summit in conjunction with Breck Epic. Cool tidbit about the Women's Cycling Summit - last year, only 10% of the participants identified as female and Mike, the founder of the Race wanted to do something about it. He asked Katerina Nash and Sonya Looney, two of the women participating, and they pitched the idea of the Women's Cycling Summit full of clinics, talks and rides to help get more women on bikes. This year, there was already an increase to 25% of the participants being those who identify as female, a major jump up! Kudos to trying to get more women on bikes!

From left to right; Robby getting to ride in the Leadville group ride, Breck Epic and Carina getting ready to speak at the Women's Cycling Summit.

We got to go on a group ride hosted by the Leadville 100 Podcast (they love Bivo too so asked us to join!) Hottie, the host of the podcast, announced before the ride began that his Bivo Trio "is his new best friend." We also met some amazing folks at Mosaic and Orange Seal and learned about some delicious new bars from Phun Bar (they like to #fuelmorefun too!). 

Back when I was a kid ski racing, one of my favorite things was going to ski races every weekend and seeing my ski friends from other locations in MA, VT, NH and ME. The ski community is such a special one and we are having fun integrating with the cycling community now too. We have been to several events across the country this year and we are now looking forward to seeing event friends just like I looked forward to seeing my ski friends growing up. We got to hang out with two of our ambassadors; Marty Merritt and Joshua Strong. We finally met Joshua in person at The Last Best Ride and while we have had several phone calls with Marty, Leadville was the first time got to meet him in person! Friends on the road are key to keeping trips like these fresh, fun and meaningful.

From left to right; Marty Merritt and Robby, meeting for the first time!, some Mosaic love showing off their beautiful bikes and a Bivo bottle and Phun Bars, getting ready to #fuelmorefun

One thing the really stood out to me at Leadville 100 was how supportive the entire community was. Leadville 100 is no easy feat – it’s a 100 mile mountain bike race starting at 10,152 feet and during the ride climbs up to 12,424 feet. In total, there is about 12,000 vertical feel of climbing. Before the start of the group ride we went on, the two hosts, nicknamed Hottie & Fatty, talked about tips for the ride, finished by pointing out the people in the crowd who have done Leadville many times before to show who others could ask for advice prior to the race. This was consistent messaging throughout the whole expo, and it was so fun to hear people lifting others up.

This upcoming weekend kicks off SBT Gravel, our final major event in Colorado before heading to Texas for Hotter N' Hell.  We just arrived in Steamboat to get settled before the big event starts, and more importantly, to celebrate Nolan’s 2^nd birthday! Happy birthday to our beautiful baby. ❤️

Cheers,

Carina