High school mountain bike racing is coming to CMC Spring Valley

Over 2,400 people came to town for last year’s races

Sept. 1, 2023 – Colorado Mountain College is mountain bike racing central for the Colorado High School Cycling League. Out of nine total races in the league’s series, CMC is hosting four of those races, with two at the college’s Leadville campus and two more at CMC Spring Valley, which concludes with the league’s mammoth state championships on Oct. 21-22.

Coming up the weekend of Sept. 9-10, the league is racing on CMC Spring Valley’s trails and establishing operations on campus. Called the Spring Valley Scramble, the races will include five waves of racers from two different regions each day as they tackle an 11-mile course.

The Colorado High School Cycling League organizes the races. Founded in 2009, the league has grown increasingly popular every year, and includes students from Colorado as well as southern Wyoming, northern New Mexico and South Dakota.

Hundreds of racers, thousands of participants

Because of the hundreds of participants, the league divides teams into four regions. For the upcoming September weekend race, two regions composed of nearly 60 teams total will race. Saturday’s competition will feature local racers, with teams from Glenwood, Colorado Rocky Mountain School, Roaring Fork, Aspen/Basalt and other teams from around the region.

League high school races are spectacles. Racers, coaches, family members, volunteers and spectators create temporary bike towns, where teams set up pop-up tents so each high school has a place to store and work on bikes, barbecue lunch and hang out in camp chairs before and after races.

The races also impact the communities where they’re held. Spring Valley hosted the league’s state championships last year and even though competition was condensed from a weekend to just one day when a brutal storm disrupted competition, over 2,400 people came to town to participate in the event. Over 70% of those bike enthusiasts stayed locally through the weekend.

The interscholastic high school league and Colorado Mountain College go back to 2013 when the college began hosting races at the Leadville campus. CMC became a sponsor of the league in 2015. The league favors intermediate-level course designs that can accommodate a range of abilities from a first-time freshman racer to a seasoned senior who may also be a sponsored elite racer.

The details

Colorado High School League Mountain Bike Races

Colorado Mountain College Spring Valley

3000 County Road 114

Glenwood Springs

Spring Valley Scramble: Sept. 9-10, 2023

State championships: Oct. 21-22, 2023

Go to https://coloradomtb.org for more information.

The league always appreciates volunteers and spectators are welcome and encouraged to come out to watch the action.