As the snow melts and the resorts retire for the season your bike is calling to you from the garage, your dilemma — where to ride?
Luckily the Fruita Fat Tire Festival celebrates its 19th year April 24-27, and the US Bank 18 Hours of Fruita @ Highline the next weekend offer the perfect early season getaway for a week or weekend of stellar riding freeing the repressed rider.
Located on the Western Slope and boasting over 100 miles of trail in high desert terrain Fruita is the picture-perfect warm weather destination to ride.
The Festival has grown each year and this year is expecting over 2000 riders with one goal, stir up some dirt and laugh. Each night live music and New Belgium beer garden offer decompression under the stars before you head to your tent or hotel for the night. With April’s average highs of 70 degrees and rainfall less than .7 inches where else to shake off Jack Frost’s icy embrace and get the wheels spinning. Tales of bike demos to numerous to name are legendary with the brightest in the industry bringing their finest fat tires. The list reads like a who’s who of bikes with Felt, Fuji, Ibis, Niner, Kona, Santa Cruz, Specialized, Trek and Yeti all arriving with their best.
The US Bank 18 Hours @ Highline is celebrating its tenth year with its endurance race cum all night party. The racers leave the starting gates at midnight Friday May 2nd and finish in the spring twilight at 6pm Saturday May 3rd. Tales of tequila shots at 2 am on course and costumes galore all add to the urban legend surrounding this race. Must be the release of tension from a season not riding but the taco feast and beer garden at races end has been known to go till late in the night.
Photo: Amy Gibbs
Jim Morrison could have been singing about riding Fruita in The Doors song The End during the summer of love: “ The west is the best, get here and we’ll do the rest.” Time to pack up and head west.
