2017 Colorado 600 | Day 3 Report

Day 3, dawns with clear blue skies and the rain from yesterday's brief storms promises to make today's riding simply awesome. But before heading out for the day, the riders gathered at the morning's learning session to explore, in-depth some of the many formal land use "processes" that the TPA regularly engages in to ensure motorized trail riding will have places to ride and recreate both today and into the future. Dirt riders that have been riding even for a short while have seen a loss of riding opportunities and pressure to close even more. However, the TPA through its use of specialized consultants and attorneys continues to work diligently to keep places to ride open and available. This morning riders learned some of the basics of land use advocacy and the details of the effort it takes to fight for your right to ride. Currently the TPA is focusing their efforts and resources on threats to 4 major riding areas, across Colorado.

With riding conditions near perfect, the guides and groups of riders moved out for another day of epic Colorado scenery and terrific trail conditions. A former SX/MX star was heard saying, "great group ride today, the riding was super technical, tough and challenging". A finisher from the 2016 Dakar Rally and 4-time ISDE finisher summarized today's riding as "I put together the toughest 120 mile loop I could imagine and the group just crushed it. The choice of riding on the 600 offers a terrific variety of terrain and the scenery is simply the best around". There were plenty of tales to tell and stories to share and around the campfire tonight.

So just what kinds of bikes do the participants of the CO 600 ride? A count of bikes in the parking lot today revealed 3 Hondas, 4 Yamahas, 5 Betas and 91 KTM’s.