SBT GRVL lives! The story of just how close the gravel community came to losing one of its biggest events

SBT GRVL officially confirmed that its 2025 event is a go despite opposition from local law enforcement. Organizers announced today that they have secured the necessary permits following a Routt County Commission meeting on Tuesday, October 8, which approved a series of new plans designed to address community concerns.

The key changes include:

- moving the event weekend from August to June,

- relocating the competitive race away from Steamboat Springs,

- and cutting the participant cap from 3,000 to 1,800 riders.

The 2025 edition will now be split into two distinct events: a non-competitive ride around Steamboat Springs on Saturday and a UCI-style circuit race on Sunday. The latter will take place in Hayden and feature controlled roads, course marshals from USAC, and a rolling police enclosure to ensure a safe and competitive environment for participants.

While the crucial period of permit approval is now over, the event is not out of the woods yet, however. The long-term status of SBT is still an open question. What’s more, it is hard to understate just how close North American cycling came to losing one of its biggest events.

In 2023, a small but vocal group of Routt County ranchers spoke out against the event, claiming the race harmed their livelihood as it clogged the county's roads at a vital time of the year for hay farming, spooked their livestock, or damaged their property through racers' actions.

“[The race is] ill-timed, ill-prepared and full of people racing who don’t care about trash or needing to go to the restroom. The liabilities are incredible,” one rancher illustrated.

SBT instituted a number of changes, including a major course re-design and new rider conduct rules, which allowed the event to go ahead in 2024.

But more challenges came, and this time from a new stakeholder.

“We had a very positive recap session with the county right after the race,” Ryan Steers, SBT GRVL’s Marketing Director, told Cycling Weekly. “The general consensus was all the changes were for the better and things were moving in a positive direction.

“The meeting was picked back up on September 9th and that was the shocker. Essentially, the Colorado State Patrol got up and said that road racing in the state of Colorado is illegal on open roads, and they couldn't support a race as it stands.”

That was all the county commission needed to determine that the event wouldn’t receive a permit for 2025 if it had a racing component and furthermore restricted the race to the arbitrary number of 1,800 riders as the new cap.

For an event that draws the nation's top talent with its competitive racing and relies on revenue from 3,000 participants, these demands felt like a fatal blow to its future.

What made it all the more dramatic was how the whole wrinkle seemed to come out of nowhere. While the race had dealt with opposition before, those had come from Routt County residents. This new challenge came instead from Captain Ryan Parker of the Colorado State Police, who had previously been involved in the race to provide safety support at key points on the course. Since the event's debut in 2019, there had never before been an issue with the racing element.

Yet a law prohibiting road racing on “open roads” in Colorado does exist, even if few localities in Colorado actually enforce the rule. There's also no apparent distinction made of the road's surface.

To be able to continue, SBT GRVL either needed to accept the limitations of a non-competitive 1,800-person event or close the roads for the race.

A hybrid solution moving forward

After a couple of weeks of tinkering with what the event could look like within those parameters, the SBT GRVL organisers came up with the proposal that was ultimately approved unanimously by the Routt County Commission on Tuesday.

That proposal puts forth two days of events, starting with a non-competitive ride on Saturday, offering participants three courses of varying lengths similar to the routes of past editions of SBT GRVL. This ride would be complete with number plates, aid stations and the same start and finish area in the heart of Steamboat Springs. Crucially, it will not feature results, podiums or prizes for any of the distances or categories. Those who cross the finish line first will have bragging rights alone.

The competitive portion of the race will start Sunday morning in nearby Hayden, Colorado. The race will have three categories – pro men, pro women and amateur races – each with their own start times and their own rolling enclosures.

The race will take place on a 37-mile loop with many of the roads featured on the 2024 SBT GRVL course’s southwest portion. The pro men and pro women will complete the loop three times, and the amateur racers twice.

In terms of terrain, the loop features a few gradual climbs, totaling 2,700 feet of elevation gain per lap between 6,400 and 7,600 feet, bringing the overall stats of the pro races to 114 miles and 8,100 feet of gain. The course will also return to SBT GRVL’s roots with much smoother, grated gravel and less of the chunky, technical features that were added for the 2024 edition.

SBT has identified a car racing track as the staging area and will set up a race village, which will include parking, the start-finish area, a neutral aid station, and a viewing area. The organization has also suggested that a large portion of the race will have live coverage, including live pictures from the final laps of the men and women’s races. While nothing is confirmed,. The change has allowed SBT GRVL to lean into the professional aspects of the race, as well as the possibility of it being broadcast live, since the race will take on a much more controlled environment with more cellular coverage and less technical terrain.

“We’re really optimistic, actually; we've had a lot of positive feedback from riders and pros,” Steers said. ”It is something that pros have been asking for for years, as far as separate start times. We started out with the idea of a mass start format, but gravel is evolving, and this has focused us on making these changes. Ultimately, necessity is a mother, and we are working with what we are given to put on the same event with a different flare.”

Lastly, in a move that was scheduled before this year’s event, the race will move from late August to late June. The expo in Steamboat Springs will take place Thursday-Friday June 26 and 27, before the non-competitive ride on Saturday June 28, and finally the race in Hayden on Sunday June 29.