We thought long and hard about this question –

The right answer is – Hard. And, for us that is the point. We want you to challenge and test yourself, get out of your comfort zone and overcome it. This is why we have 5 distances. Giving you several levels of “hard” to choose what is right for you.

Just getting started? Our 30 miler is perfect.

Want the full, kick your ass, ride an EPIC experience? Take on our 125 miler with more than 7,000′ of climbing!

Want something in between? Choose our 30, 50, 75, 100, or 125 miler for whatever level of excitement and suffering you dare to take on.

What makes it “hard?”

One of the unique aspects of riding here is elevation gain for all courses comes in short, abrupt climbs, generally steep and rarely over 1/2 mile long. When you think about 3,000, 4,000 or, 7,000 feet of total gain that means there are a lot of short little punches out here. You can see an example in this video of our steepest climb.

Depending on the recent weather we can also have none – some sand. More likely on the 100, and 125 courses. The challenge isn’t that the sand is for long sections. Actually, it is just the opposite – It comes without notice and in areas, you might not expect. It can be deep and quickly take charge of your front wheel. You can see an example in this video.

Every distance is legit gravel. Tough, dirty, up, down, and all around. We’ll promise you this. The beauty and effort will take your breath away!

Such a great question – The national definition of the term is anything from not quite asphalt to just short of single-track.

Desert Gravel is this. We ride on 4 types of road – in order of most prevalent to least.

1- 70%  ‘dirt’ to ‘actual’ gravel. Desert, hardpack dirt with gravel and very fine crush rock mixed in and, occasional segments of sand. Width ranging from single-lane to wide double lane. These roads range from regularly maintained to seasonally maintained. The texture is from very smooth to moderate washboard.

2- 15-20% Hardpack – less packed dirt road. (primarily on the 3 longer courses). Narrower, ‘jeep’ style road (no double track, all are actual road) comes into play higher in the hills with more climbing, and descending, rolling terrain. Some sections of these roads can also be sandy when the weather has been dry for long periods of time. The opposite can be true with extensive rain creating challenging, sticky mud.

3 – 5% Primary county maintained true “gravel” road. Well-maintained, wide, smooth, fine gravel roads. We’ll also put old deteriorated state hwy 50 road into this category. Low or no maintained old asphalt road, plenty of gravel and potholes in sections. In the 175 and 125 mile courses these few sections will be much appreciated for a reprieve from the ever-changing terrain most of the course enjoys.

4- Paved, current, modern asphalt road and hwy. Minimal. ALL courses use this primary road type for the 1st and last 5 miles of each course leaving and coming to Fruita. All but the shortest courses use 1 mile (each direction) of a state highway at about outbound mile 24.

What you won’t find here. There is NO single-track. There are no “rock gardens” (yes, rocks can be anywhere on a rural road) – but there are no segments, or sections covered/littered with medium to large rocks.

We know that crappy feeling… You get it, you pull the magic lottery ticket and then you scramble for a place to stay. Nothing but No-Vacancy everywhere you look.

Not here. With more than 2,000 local hotel rooms, hundreds of short-term rentals and plenty of camping have confidence you won’t be sleeping in your car. (Unless you want to of course!) Additionally, we have a great partnership with www.visitfruita.com use discount code CO2UT2022 for 10% discount!

We hear you and our continually monitoring what is happening with COVID-19. Please read our full policy here.  For a video message from Desert Gravel founder Morgan Murri, please click here.

Key aid stations for all courses (except the 30 mile course) do allow access for crew, friends, and family for outside support. These defined locations can be found above in the courses info. Within these open-access aid stations, riders are allowed and encouraged to meet with their crews and families for mechanical, nutritional, and moral support!

Beyond these defined ‘open access’ aid stations All courses are closed to outside support and riders are not allowed to accept support, crew or aid outside of ANY designated aid station.

We do have course “sweepers’ on the routes should you have a mechanical issue and need a lift to the nearest aid station. If you have an emergency – call 911

Access is another GREAT reason to join us @ Desert Gravel. We are located right off Interstate 70.

A beautiful, scenic and easy 4-hour drive from Denver.

4.5 Hours from Boulder.

The same from Salt Lake City.

Coming from farther away? We have a fantastic, regional airport with flights from Denver, Dallas, Phoenix, L.A., Vegas and Chicago.

Think it’s a hassle to fly with your bike? Contact us about our partnership with Bike Flight and our local bike-building team.

If you’ve never visited the ‘Grand-Valley’ prepare to be amazed! World class scenery, 1,500 miles of mtb single-track,  incredible hiking, and a great bike path.

Three distinct and unique downtowns – Fruita, Grand Junction, and Palisade provide shopping, dining, exploring, and excitement across our Valley.

Beer and wine? With more than 20 local vineyards and distinct breweries in each town, your options are all but endless.

Want to extend your trip? World-renowned destinations like Moab, Telluride, Ouray, Vail, and Aspen, each less than 2.5 hours away!

All Courses have aid stations. All aid stations have water, hydration drink, and an array of snacks and energy nutrition supplied by Skratch Labs. Aid stations are approximately 15-20 miles apart.

We want you to have your family or friends cheer you on and provide additional support. Most (see your course map for details) aid stations are crew accessible. These “crew accessible” aid stations are the ONLY place riders are allowed to receive outside support. Crew on other parts of the course is not allowed and taking outside support (except from a fellow rider) is grounds for disqualification.

We want you to ride with us! We want you to have an exceptional experience too.

We have to make money to do what we do but don’t want the cost to keep you away.

We work hard to keep it affordable – we believe you’ll find our rates a great value!

Swag and Awards.

Great swag – we love it. Bad swag, turns into rags to clean your bike with. We are all about GREAT swag.

Every rider receives – A cool t-shirt you’ll actually be proud to wear and, 50,75,100 and 125 milers get socks that are better than the shirt and a course-specific finishers’ award that you’ll want to show off.

Awesome awards – Age group awards (each 10 year bracket). 1st, 2nd, 3rd places receive an award that will become coveted and iconic in the gravel world.

Queen and King and Princess and Prince of the desert for the overall male and female winner of the 100 and 125 mile courses. Trust us – these awards will befitting of the royal desert family.

Beer. A lot of excellent beer for all of those riders 21+ and plenty for purchase for family and crew.

Food. Finish line recovery, snacks, and calories to get you back up and active.

Plenty of extra tees, socks, hats, and jerseys for sale for you and/or your family and crew. So you can all go home and show the world that you came to the desert and conquered C02uT!

This is a gravel event. Our top choice is a gravel bike. Especially in the longer distances, getting low, and grinding out the miles happens faster and more comfortably on a gravel-specific bike.

That said – If you want to ride your mountain bike, no problem. No big rocks, drops or ledges (that’s mostly on the other side of the highway) so lockout suspension or a hardtail would be ideal.

Tire size is a big debate in today’s gravel. These courses, on most days, are smooth enough for anything in the 30’s. We personally like 38’s -42’s for the extra absorption and float if the sand comes out. We’ll keep course conditions updated as the race date approaches.

All Co2uT courses take place on open, active roads. You are required to obey all traffic laws and ‘rules of the road’ – such as staying on your side of the road and paying close attention on tight turns, curvy segments and always being on the lookout for oncoming traffic. Don’ t let the remote nature of this event or your location lull you into a sense of forgetting that others may be just around the corner and coming your way!

Courses will be marked. This means major turns, key intersections and locations where one course departs from another. Maps and cue sheets (turn by turn directions) will be available electronically for download and will be emailed to racers. You should print these and carry them with you.

GPS is allowed and strongly encouraged. Like most long gravel races today using your device to keep you on the course is the easiest and safest way to get along out here. There are a LOT of roads in the region and having your device charged, on and active will give you more time to keep your eyes on the road and the scenery. Downloadable GPS files will be provided to all racers and should be shared with your crew.

True that! 2 items of note.

1 – For safety’s sake. A closer review of the maps will show that the distances between where inbound riders come back onto a two-way section is long, in the two longest courses extreme even. We built each course this way intentionally so that only a very few of the fastest riders may ride ‘against’ the tail end of the field still headed outbound. Additionally for the few riders that this will be a concern for the course in these sections is wider open road with plenty of room for all – as long as you stay on your side of the road.

2 – For aesthetic’s sake. Equally important we’ve gone to great lengths to select the very best, most interesting, most challenging and most beautiful route options. We’ve ridden these roads over and over and over and everyone we’ve taken out there says two things… “Holy-#&%* amazing” and “There is no way we covered the same road twice.” The terrain flows and turns and ducks and darts so often that coming and going are two completely different feels.