Mountain Bike Event Launched in Colorado Springs

Organizers have announced a new mountain bike event, the Pikes Peak APEX Presented by RockShox, to be staged along the famed mountain in Colorado Springs, Colorado, in September 2020.

The inaugural Pikes Peak APEX, September 24–27, will feature four days of riding on the slopes of Pikes Peak with a Gran Fondo‐style start and a $50,000 prize purse to be split between the top men and women finishers. Day one will feature a short prologue stage and the final three days will be between 35‐ and 50‐mile days featuring routes through dirt roads, jeep trails and alpine singletrack. All stages will start near downtown Colorado Springs.

“I want to thank the city of Colorado Springs and RockShox for helping make this incredible event a reality,” said Micah Rice, executive director of The Pikes Peak APEX. “With the trail system here in the Pikes Peak region, Colorado Springs deserves to be an internationally recognized endurance sports destination.”

Rice is vice president of event strategy and operations for Sports Strategies, a division of Tourism Strategies LLC that provides consulting, marketing and event production services to help clients identify, leverage and promote their best assets to recruit sports tourism. Prior to joining Sports Strategies, he spent eight years overseeing national events for USA Cycling and with OC Sport as the head of operations for North America, where he launched European Haute Route events in North America.

“We are extremely excited to have the opportunity to host such an exciting event right here in Colorado Springs on our world-class trails,” saids Mallory Burda, brand manager for RockShox. “We consider ourselves pretty lucky having the mountains right outside our office doors, so this will be a ton of fun to invite the greater cycling community together for a weekend of racing, cheering, as well as giving back to our local trail organizations.”