The Radavist

Trinidad, Colorado, is a gravel riding destination and outpost you ought to visit.

As a testament to the growing popularity of gravel cycling and its ability to spur rural economic development, Trinidad, Colorado, has, in a short few years, established itself as one of the state’s most exciting gravel bike destinations. Before 2020, not many cyclists considered the southern Colorado Front Range corridor as a place to ride a bike. Now, this former outpost on the Santa Fe Trail offers year-round opportunities to ride some of Colorado’s best gravel road conditions…

Our Radar Roundup is where we take some of the news items to come across our inboxes into an easy-to-digest dump of sorts, culling down the clutter from our homepage and making it easier to stay on top of what’s going on in our little corner of the cycling industry. This will come particularly in handy when it comes to spring/summer product drops from our favorite brands.

Check out our Radar Roundup below with products, videos, and a Radavision entry…

Two years ago Backshop Bikes introduced one of the first gravel cycling tourism efforts in Trinidad, Colorado. The perception was that gravel had already matured to the point where as a category it would evolve towards a destination model akin to mountain biking. If it worked, then suddenly rural drive-by towns had a chance to leverage gravel bikes towards social prosperity. This is why we created the Explore Las Animas campaign in 2019, which included a website with community and route information. Unfortunately, it came down and I’ve been brainstorming on ways to get one back up since…

Last week members of the Colorado cycling industry, including retailers, government agencies, and journalists, attended the first Trinidad-Las Animas County Off-Road Cycling Symposium hosted by the City of Trinidad and Trinidad State Jr. College. It was a chance to share and learn more about the emerging southern Front Range cycling scene. Attendees heard from speakers like Troy Rarick and Paul Aieta of Over the Edge Sports in Fruita and Tony Boone of Timberline TrailCraft, and myself discussing gravel+mountain bike destination development in the region. Fueling the two days of discussion was the new Fisher Peak State Park and TSJC Trail Maintenance and Construction program. Most agreed that Trinidad’s historic setting on the tail end of the old west provides a unique platform to discuss the future of sustainable bike destination town development. A number of innovative ideas were shared around transportation, hospitality, and what a gravel+mountain bike destination could look like in SE Colorado and NE New Mexico. Many are already looking forward to continuing the conversation at next year’s symposium.