Routt County Commissioners approve SBT GRVL permit for adjusted 2025 event
The SBT GRVL race will continue in 2025 after Routt County Commissioners voted unanimously to approve an event permit application for the planned two-day event.
Scheduled for the weekend of June 28-29, organizers said 1,800 riders would bike across three courses on the first day of the event. On Sunday, a closed-circuit race for 750 professional and amateur riders will be held using a 39-mile loop starting and finishing in Hayden.
The permit approval decision Tuesday capped what has been a heightened and at times contentious public discourse over the SBT GRVL event.
“I can’t walk five feet, I can’t go to the gym, I can’t go to the grocery store without someone asking about this topic,” said Commissioner Sonja Macys.
“How is this going to go?” she added. “My answer has been here is how it is going to go, we are going to have a whole lot of people in the room, we are going to have a fair discussion about the application, we are going to find some form of compromise, and everybody is going to be angry.”
Amy Charity, founding partner and CEO of SBT GRVL, spoke at the permit hearing Tuesday to discuss the elements of the organizers’ application for the planned 2025 event.
Charity said having rider numbers remain around the 2,500 level, instead of the 1,800 suggested by county commissioners last month, was important for the viability of the event.
She noted that rider entry fees represent 85% of the revenue collected by the SBT GRVL event, which organizers say brings more than $5 million in spending to the Routt County economy each year.
As for keeping the racing element involved in the event, Charity said it was important because the contest is “a critical part of our business.”
“It is how you attract not only those world tour professional cyclists but it’s also every single age group from the junior level to older groups like the racing element,” said Charity.
Prior to the approval for the permit on Tuesday, commissioners had voted to advise SBT GRVL organizers to limit rider numbers to 1,800 and drop the racing component for the event.
Commissioner Tim Corrigan said while they made those requests during their September working session, they did not alter the county’s overall permitting process, meaning the 2025 SBT GRVL application would be reviewed as any other would.
Increased scrutiny over the SBT GRVL event from the county began in 2023 in response to “outcry from residents” along the event’s cycling routes, Corrigan explained.
The added attention prompted commissioners to adjust the county’s special event permit rules earlier this year to move decisions out of an administrative process and into a public-hearing format where commissioners ultimately made the final approval decision, explained Corrigan.
Corrigan said he thought commissioners should not consider the economic impact of the SBT GRVL event and instead limit their permit decision-making to the elements of the race.
“Let’s be clear, virtually all use of our county road system is in pursuit of some kind of economic benefit,” he said. “Instead, we should make our focus be on the safety issues, the impacts on our infrastructure and our residents, our power at the county to maintain our service levels and to what extent we can mitigate those impacts.”
Among the changes in the permit application for the 2025 event, SBT GRVL organizers will introduce a “rolling enclosure” format for the closed-circuit race in Hayden on Sunday.
Race Director Micah Rice said the strategy would not fully close any roads during the event, which will wrap up by 1:30 p.m., but would instead establish “a safety bubble” around groups of riders as they proceed around the course located south of Hayden.
Led and followed by police officers, the concept would see oncoming drivers “ushered” to the side of the road before being directed back after the bikers pass.
“These rolling enclosures are a way to keep that safety bubble around the participants but not close any roads,” said Rice.
Commissioners agreed the safety plan put forward by SBT GRVL organizers for next year’s event was adequate to protect riders and others who may share the road during the event.
“I believe that this ride with 1,800 people, with mitigations that have been put in place, could be done safely,” said Commissioner Tim Redmond.
The approval came with attached conditions.
First, granting the permit would require Routt County Sheriff Doug Scherar to approve the proposed SBT GRVL safety plan to include plans for any spectator viewing areas to be setup along the Sunday race route.
Scherar said his agency would not be able to provide the resources to support the event as proposed under the permit application without the assistance of outside agencies.
Through recent conversations with SBT GRVL organizers and local Colorado State Patrol officers, the sheriff noted that certified flaggers and the addition of state patrol officers and law enforcement personnel from outside the county could help bridge the gap that his deputies will be stretched to fill.
“The deputies that are going to be responsible for providing services on both of these days are going to have to be deputies that are coming in off-duty to work overtime,” explained Scherar.
“Three or four years ago, deputies were chomping at the bit to work off-duty overtime, but with the services we have been helping the city of Steamboat Springs and Hayden with for their staffing issues, it is tough to get people to sign up for these off-duty overtime shifts,” he added.
Commissioners also asked that event organizers work with the county’s attorney “to address specific liability and insurance concerns” brought by members of the local ranching community who are concerned about the potential for accidents involving livestock that could be spooked by riders in the race.
The permit approval is also contingent on permitting decisions that would be made by officials in Hayden and Steamboat Springs who must also give their blessing for the event to proceed.
Public comments delivered by members of a packed audience at the commissioners’ Tuesday meeting, a fraction of the feedback submitted through email, letters and text messages to county commissioners, divided evenly between those who support the race and those who say the impact of the race, particularly on the rural community, is too much of an inconvenience.
Members of the local ranching community who spoke at the meeting on Tuesday decried what they saw as a disproportional impact brought by the race.
“The name of it is Steamboat GRVL. It’s not Routt County GRVL, and instead of confinement, as you can see, they enlarged it and they are moving to Hayden,” said one local rancher. “Think about our community.”
Longtime local rancher Christa Monger echoed the concerns and sought “to clarify the sentiment of the rural community.”
“Steamboat has changed rather drastically while we have been here and we have noticed it and we don’t like it,” said Monger.
“Now we see it bleeding into our county. It had been separated. Steamboat was Steamboat and it’s changed and the people are in Steamboat, and we can accept that. Now it’s bleeding into where we live and our environment, and I think that is where it is creating animosity,” she added.
Some SBT GRVL event supporters like Steve Williams, who said he also owns a ranch in Routt County, spoke in favor of keeping a racing element involved.
“Why the race?” asked Williams. “We have a culture of competition in this community from our 100-plus Olympians to our reigning world champion bareback rider Keenan Hayes. Our young people deserve the opportunity to get this exposure, so I think the race is a critical thing.”
Brent Demmitt, a local recreational attorney and cyclist who ran a ranch in Kansas and competed on the professional rodeo series until the age of 37, offered his perspective.
“I moved to Steamboat, in part, because it has the mountains and it has the rural economy. This is probably the safest event you could possible have. There is no more reasonableness that could be done than what they have already done,” he said.
“I bet everyone here has been to the Steamboat Rodeo,” added Demmitt, who has worked as a rodeo ground crew member at the event for the past three years.
“If you go there, what do you see? You see kids playing, racing barrels, you see locals roping and it’s a competition. We are all out for the buckle and the fun and racing is what makes it fun,” he said.
After the commissioners granted approval for the permit, Charity took time to reflect on the challenges presented to her and her team in recent months.
“It was a growing year for me personally and our team, we were faced with a lot of challenges. Over the past 14 months really is when this all began and when we started to get the feedback from the rural community,” said Charity.
“It has absolutely been challenging; I am really proud of what our team did,” she added. “It has been incredible to see the team come together with this.”
Trevor Ballantyne is the city government and housing reporter. To reach him, call 970-871-4254 or email him at tballantyne@SteamboatPilot.com.
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