Spoketober: Celebrate Durango’s Cycling Community in October

Durango’s come a long way since the 1970s and early ’80s when riding a bike downtown was prohibited, and the only bike racks around were located in school yards. Fast forward to 2022. Durango now is a top cycling destination in the nation, and Visit Durango and the City of Durango want to celebrate the bicycling community that made that happen with the inaugural Spoketober celebration in October. You’re watching the “Local NEWS Network”, brought to you by Ute Mountain Casino Hotel, and the Law Firm of Downs, McDonough, Cowan and Foley. I’m Wendy Graham-Settle.

This October is the First Annual Spoketober in Durango. It’s a month-long celebration of cycling with an assortment of inclusive events for all ages and skill levels. It’s a way to showcase that cycling in the fall in Durango is really fun, and that there’s still lots of opportunities to ride your bike even though it’s October and even early November.

The month’s events begin with a cycling legends Meet & Greet at 5 PM on Monday, October 3rd, at the legendary Mountain Bike Specialists. The Meet & Greet pays homage to the first-generation of mountain bike legends who helped put Durango on the national cycling map.

Payson McElveen will be there, Ned Overend, Todd Wells, Howard Grotts, Ellen Campbell. And hopefully we’ll have Travis Brown and Sarah Sturm there as well.

The first tour on the schedule will be a Star Wars Jump Jam in Overend Mountain Park starting at 1 PM on Tuesday, October 4th. The tour starts at Rotary Park. Organizer Byrne Dobrient promises spectacular jumps and tricks for spectators and photographers.

It is a group trail ride which will be taking place in the Test Tracks Trail System. It’ll be going down the Star Wars Trail and then we will be climbing back up to the Browns Ridge Trail System and we’ll be doing a jump jam on the rebuilt jumps. We’ll have the whole group that is there and we’ll just be lapping the jumps over and over again. Everyone will be filming and watching each other, and it’ll be a good time to meet new people and ride with your friends and watch everyone shred.

Visit Durango hopes to attract hundreds of participants to the Fun Ride from Fort Lewis College to Buckley Park on Sunday, October 9th. The Center of Southwest Studies will open at 11 AM for participants to view the “Looking Back, Racing Ahead: 50 years of the Iron Horse Bicycle Classic and Durango Cycling Culture” exhibit, with the tour starting at 1 PM. The tour ends at Buckley Park, where the Share the Love charity event will conclude for the weekend.

We’re having a Share the Love Cycle event where locals are able to donate their old bikes or bike parts, and then local pro mechanics are going to be building the bikes, and then we’re donating them to the local Navajo Reservation. So, whether it’s kids or adults that need bikes for fun or for commuting, they’re going to have an opportunity to get upcycled bikes for free. So, it’s a great way to get some stuff out of the garage and get your feel-goods by knowing that you’re paying it forward and helping out.

Anchoring the middle of Spoketober will be the National Collegiate Mountain Bike Championships from Thursday through Sunday, October 13th through the 16th, at Purgatory Resort, a fitting tribute to Durango’s reputation as a mountain-biking mecca.

There’s no better place to live for cycling.

Join us for Spoketober. It’s a month-long celebration of cycling where you can ride with the pros. You can ride with the collegiate athletes. You can win prizes. It’s going to be super fun. We hope to see you all at all the events.

To see a complete list of activities, visit durango.org/Spoketober. Thanks for watching this edition of the “Local NEWS Network”. I’m Wendy Graham-Settle.

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