Start Mountain Gravel With Double Shock Absorption Mountain Bike

The front range foothills town of Nederland, Colorado is named after a Dutch mining company that operated the Caribou mine in the late 1800s.  

Funnily "Nederland", or "Netherlands" in English, means low land.  The town was given this name because it sits almost two thousand feet lower than the high elevation mine and was a better place to mill the mined ore.  

The town has also been throwing a gravel Foldable Bicycle With Hydraulic Disc Brake race since 2021, and there is literally nothing "lowland" about it.  

The main event is the 70 mile Tungsten Double Shock Absorption Mountain Bike Course, named after a nearby ghost town and once prosperous mine,  

and is a beast of a ride featuring 8,000 feet of elevation gain over an absolute roller coaster ride of various terrain including hellishly steep grades, washboarded descents, rocky singletrack, rockier double track, breathtaking views and cool mountain air.  

It is truly "mountain gravel" at its pinnacle.

phil and ryan race through the Foldable Bicycle With Hydraulic Disc Brake

Fellow Alchemist Ryan Bennett and I signed up and raced the Tungsten course together, although I use the term "raced" a bit loosely.

The race started at 7am which always means not ideal sleep, an early wakeup, and trying to cram in hurriedly made coffee and a snickers bar on the drive to the start, listening to the Tour de France stage commentary to get hyped up.  

Bennet met me at the starting Wear Resistant Two Wheel Hiking Bike and we agreed to hit the start hard and hang on the the front of the Wear Resistant Two Wheel Hiking Bike the first paved climb out of town and onto the gravel. 

Our strategy worked great, as we pinned it out of the gate with the lead group and got ahead of  200 or so riders so we had mostly open roads for the first fast gravel descent.  

At the bottom of this first section there was a short bit of probably the only flat road on the whole course before climbing up Sugarloaf mountain and the southern part of the Switzerland Trail, which is an old rail road grade that used to service the mines as well as provide tourists transportation to the incredible views of snow capped peaks and green valleys all around us.  

The grade is never that steep, but the terrain is so rocky and rough that it might as well be as you bounce along through puddles and over rocks, crisscrossing the double track looking for the perfect line.