{"id":2447832,"date":"2019-08-21T19:04:00","date_gmt":"2019-08-22T01:04:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/news\/colorado-classic-the-only-race-of-its-kind-in-western-hemisphere\/"},"modified":"2019-08-21T19:04:00","modified_gmt":"2019-08-22T01:04:00","slug":"colorado-classic-the-only-cycling-race-of-its-kind-in-western-hemisphere","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/local-news\/colorado-classic-the-only-cycling-race-of-its-kind-in-western-hemisphere\/","title":{"rendered":"Colorado Classic the only cycling race of its kind in western hemisphere"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"swift-gallery p402_hide\" readability=\"6.3333333333333\">\n<ul id=\"imageGallery-311610-184\" class=\"gallery list-unstyled\">\n<li data-thumb=\"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2019\/08\/wireCYCLEstb-atd-082219-1-150x150.jpg\" data-src=\"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2019\/08\/wireCYCLEstb-atd-082219-1.jpg\" data-sub-html=\"Gruber Images\/courtesy | The 2019 Colorado Classic, a women's-only event, starts Thursday in Steamboat Springs.\" class=\"h-100\" readability=\"-0.5\">\n<div class=\"caption\" readability=\"10\">\n<p><strong>The 2019 Colorado Classic, a women&#8217;s-only event, starts Thursday in Steamboat Springs.<\/strong><br \/>Gruber Images\/courtesy<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"row no-gutters h-100\">\n<div class=\"col my-auto\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2019\/08\/wireCYCLEstb-atd-082219-1.jpg\" alt=\"The 2019 Colorado Classic, a women's-only event, starts Thursday in Steamboat Springs.\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li data-thumb=\"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2019\/08\/wireCYCLEstb-atd-082219-1-1-150x150.jpg\" data-src=\"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2019\/08\/wireCYCLEstb-atd-082219-1-1.jpg\" data-sub-html=\"Courtesy | The course for stage 1 of the Colorado Classic, which will start and finish at the Meadows Parking lot of the Steamboat Resort.\" class=\"h-100\" readability=\"-1\">\n<div class=\"caption\" readability=\"9\">\n<p><strong>The course for stage 1 of the Colorado Classic, which will start and finish at the Meadows Parking lot of the Steamboat Resort.<\/strong><br \/>Courtesy<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"row no-gutters h-100\">\n<div class=\"col my-auto\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2019\/08\/wireCYCLEstb-atd-082219-1-1.jpg\" alt=\"The course for stage 1 of the Colorado Classic, which will start and finish at the Meadows Parking lot of the Steamboat Resort.\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p class=\"caption-toggle\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/news\/colorado-classic-the-only-race-of-its-kind-in-western-hemisphere\/#\" class=\"show-captions\">Show Captions<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/news\/colorado-classic-the-only-race-of-its-kind-in-western-hemisphere\/#\" class=\"hide-captions\">Hide Captions<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText DropCap\">STEAMBOAT SPRINGS \u2014 Pro women cyclists have less than half the opportunities to compete in stage races than men pro cyclists.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Pro women don\u2019t make nearly as much money as pro men cyclists, and when a woman wins a race, she doesn\u2019t earn anywhere near the same amount as a man who won a similar race.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">The Colorado Classic wants to change that.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">The 2019 version of the four-stage race will only feature female riders and begins in Steamboat Springs on Thursday. When the race was created in 2017, there were four men\u2019s stages and two women\u2019s stages and in 2018, both men and women had four stages.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">\u201cAs we looked at 2019 and thought what the Colorado Classic was going to look like in the upcoming year, we really kept coming back to this: What if we just did a women\u2019s race? What if we dropped men and only focused on women?\u201d said Lucy Diaz, COO of RPM Events Group, which puts on the race. \u201cIn previous years, while we did have women\u2019s racing, it was really a plus-one to the men\u2019s sport.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">What\u2019s more, the entire race will be broadcasted. While there have been large gains in the number of pro women\u2019s races that are aired, there are still more men\u2019s races making it to a screen. Since the sport is very much sponsor-driven, exposure and broadcasts greatly help the riders, teams and events succeed.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">What\u2019s more, the Colorado Classic has a massive prize purse of $75,000, more than the $70,000 awarded to the men last summer and far more than the $30,000 handed out to the women in previous races. The Classic also puts riders up in conveniently located hotels and supports their travel between stages.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Diaz said she hopes the Classic can serve as inspiration for other races that want to better support women cyclists.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">\u201cWe want to continue to develop and grow our event, hopefully in a way in which others can look at and say, \u2018Those are the elements of success. Those are the elements of the event that will ultimately drive success and women\u2019s racing,\u2019\u201d Diaz said. \u201cParticularly with women\u2019s races, they\u2019re not being televised, whereas the men\u2019s are. If there\u2019s a two-week men\u2019s tour, there\u2019s four days for women. There\u2019s not really this sense of an even playing field as it relates to opportunity, not even on the financial side.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Another addition to the race this year is the fact it earned a 2.1 class designation on the Union Cycliste Internationale \u2014 UCI \u2014 calendar, making it the only 2.1 race in the Western Hemisphere and just one of 13 in the world.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">The class rating doesn\u2019t actually change anything, but it\u2019s a big deal for the riders. The more points a cyclist earns by the end of the year, the more athletes her country can send to the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">The designation also helps draw top talent, including defending champion Katie Hall and Australian Brodie Chapman, who won the women\u2019s 140-mile race at SBT GRVL this past weekend in Steamboat.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">At 11:30 a.m. Thursday, the pack of nearly 100 riders will take off, heading south to Stagecoach Lake. The field is comprised of 16 teams, seven being UCI elite teams.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">The Steamboat Stage features 53.2 miles of pavement and gravel roads. The route includes one sprint and two climbs, which spectators may want to stake out and watch as cyclists battle for the coveted Queen of the Mountain and Sprint Leader jerseys.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">\u201cThe course that our team put together for stage one, it\u2019s aggressive,\u201d Diaz said. \u201cThere\u2019s sprints and climbs and gravel. There\u2019s technical elements to it.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">\u201cThat\u2019s one of the things we were paying attention to,\u201d Diaz explained. \u201cThis isn\u2019t, for lack of a better term, a patronizing little loop that the athletes will do. This is hardcore. This is real. This is for serious, professional riders, and Steamboat really played into that well.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">There are no permanent road closures, but expect delays as the race passes.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">From 10 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. there will be a Bike and Lifestyle Expo at the Meadows Parking Lot. Spectators can pop by the Smartwool tent to pick up a free cowbell to cheer riders on to the finish line, which is also at the Meadows lot.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Upon finishing, six jerseys will be awarded, including Overall Leader, Best Young Rider (younger than 25), Most Inspirational Rider and Most Badass Rider. The tour will continue into Avon and Golden before concluding in Denver on Sunday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">\u201cI think there\u2019s some great momentum behind the sport right now,\u201d Diaz said. \u201cWith women\u2019s cycling, there\u2019s still quite a ways to go, but I think there\u2019s opportunities for the sport to continue to ride that momentum and bring that momentum.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText Tagline\"><a href=\"mailto:sreardon@steamboatpilot.com\">sreardon@steamboatpilot.com<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/news\/colorado-classic-the-only-race-of-its-kind-in-western-hemisphere\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">via:: The Aspen Times<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The 2019 Colorado Classic, a women&#8217;s-only event, starts Thursday in Steamboat Springs.Gruber Images\/courtesy The course for stage 1 of the Colorado Classic, which will start and finish at the Meadows Parking lot of the Steamboat Resort.Courtesy Show CaptionsHide Captions STEAMBOAT SPRINGS \u2014 Pro women cyclists have less than half the opportunities to compete in stage [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2447832","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-local-news"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-08-20 15:46:40","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSPN The Valley&#039;s Quality Rock","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2447832","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2447832"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2447832\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2447832"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2447832"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2447832"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}