Steamboat Pilot & Today

David Nagel hopes to make Steamboat Springs “the yellow dot on the state of Colorado for the Livestrong organization,” and he’s planning one heck of a party to make that a reality.

Nagel is helping to or­­ganize the Ride4yellow mountain bike event, which is scheduled to touch down on Steamboat’s famed singletrack mountain bike trails late next summer.

The idea is to fight cancer, and organizers hope nationwide interest in the event can put a dent in the disease that’s affected so many.

“It’s been awesome, just the magnitude of it,” Nagel said about the organizational efforts. “It’s really taking off on its own. The passion in this town and the people that have jumped behind this have been nothing short of tremendous.”

The event is slated for Aug. 8 and will include a trio of simultaneous mountain bike rides.

The main event will cast 200 riders 35 miles down the Continental Divide trail. Each will be asked to raise at least $500 to be donated to the Lance Armstrong Foundation, which provides support for people affected by cancer.

That ride will begin at Dumont Lake on Rabbit Ears Pass east of Steamboat Springs and finish at the top of the gondola at Steamboat Ski Area.

The other two rides will take place entirely at the ski area. One will follow a cross-country course and work its way up the mountain, and the second will be a downhill ride.

Nagel and his brother, Steve, began their furious fight against cancer after Steve Nagel’s wife, Lee, was diagnosed with a rare form of colon cancer four years ago at age 35.

“They told her, ‘You have six months to live.’ But she was a fighter. She was similar to Lance in that respect,” David Nagel said.

Now, four years later, she is cancer-free.

The Nagel brothers are far from abandoning the fight, however.

They both trained to compete in endurance events, hoping to raise money for the Lance Armstrong Foundation. By 2007, they had brought in nearly $40,000 between them.

Then, in August, they hosted the SwingForeYellow golf tournament in Dallas and brought in more than $300,000.

When they came together again to start planning for summer’s rides, David Nagel said, the plan was to raise $150,000.

“But my sense now is we will be blowing that out of the water,” he said. “Nationally, statewide and locally, the support has been very good so far.”

Although organizers just flipped the switch on the ride’s Web site — www.ride4yellow.com — the event already has several bikers signed up.

The event has even drawn one big name, though she won’t be getting on a bike. Linda Armstrong Kelly, Lance Armstrong’s mother, will speak at an awards reception after the rides. That event also will include a silent auction and a live auction to supplement the money raised.

And Nagel won’t rule out that the man himself might just show up to lead the 200 riders over the backcountry trails.

“If there’s a chance he’ll come and do it, then great,” Nagel said. “We’ll do everything we can to get him up here. The governor might come, too, and those would be nice bonuses, really the icing on the cake.”