The town has lowered the number of allowed participants to 1800 and will not allow a pro field moving forward. I’m curious to see if the event will continue there, or move to a new location.
I hope it continues. It’s an awesome ride, spectacular course, and Steamboat is my favorite mountain town. I spent labor day weekend in SB and talked with a few locals about the ride (none of whom rode it) They all loved the event, several volunteered, and had nothing but nice things to say about the riders.
I think SB is trying to manage the even without it turning into a DK level shitshow (I grew up in Kansas and I’ve known Jim C. since I was a punk rock mtn bike racing high school kid - it will always be DK to me and eff those corporate jerks).