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Ride the Rockies on June 15

Steamboat Springs — The competition — no, the enemy — sat a mere 25 feet away, its sign with bright colors rippling in the wind, its employees skipping around the booth quickly to serve a long line of eager spandex-clad customers.

“Smoothie guys,” David Sandberg said with a roll of the eyes and more than a hint of disdain.

The thousands of bikers in Steamboat Springs with the Ride the Rockies road bike stage ride swarmed the city on Wednesday, a day that amounted to a break for many, and a 52-mile loop in the area for others.

Downtown restaurants played to large crowds from the early morning into the evening. A free concert and beer garden set up on the Routt County courthouse lawn downtown was packed in the afternoon with riders soaking up a sunny day. The tent city that represented the heart of it all, a flapping but orderly collection of vendors and bicycles built up around Steamboat Springs High School, was half-filled Wednesday afternoon with tired cyclists catching their breath and planning their evenings.

There, some tuned their bikes. Some caught up on the news, reading aloud Rockies box scores. Some gave their bodies up to deep massages, and some tried their darnedest to sell lemonade, even as bigger, slicker smoothie operations churned through customers a stone’s throw away.

David, Kiernan Davis and Garrett Sampson are here for the ride. Even though they’re only 10 years old, they’re each veterans of at least three Ride the Rockies tours, and this year the classmates at Red Sandstone Elementary School in Vail take pride in having ridden at least part of the course every day but one.

“The riding has been really fun,” Garrett said. “I just like biking.”

On Wednesday, they rode nearly 19 miles of the Twentymile Road loop, but when they hit the first aid station they caught a ride back and got to work, popping open a card table, pulling out a well-worn cardboard sign and setting out a big barrel of Country Time Lemonade, so everyone could see.

“We started out selling bracelets, but then we decided to sell lemonade because we thought everyone would be really thirsty,” Garrett said.

The idea first cropped up four years ago, and things have been refined since, Kiernan explained.

They laid off some of the help to keep from having to split the profits so much (i.e. an older sister opted out of this year’s ride).

They started selling Bonk Breaker energy bars, which proved a big attraction. How could they not be, on special Wednesday at three for the price of two?

They began splitting their profits with the charities this year, too, donating some of their proceeds to the Denver Post Community Foundation, which donates money in each of the six towns the tour stops in. This year’s recipient in Steamboat is the Steamboat Adaptive Recreational Sports program.

Some of the money, too, goes to the children, who wasted little time divvying up every dollar that came in, eyeing paintball guns or just a nice cash cushion for the summer.

Business was brisk Wednesday — a lot better than Tuesday, they said — as the riders rolled in, though the group’s most reliable customers remained their parents and other family friends, who were eager for a cold glass after a hot ride.

“We get a lot of the same people,” David said. “Our parents come every day.”

The group had planned to pack it in later Wednesday afternoon, then prepare for today, a day that will bring more riding — the tour will break its Steamboat trance with a 78-mile ride over Rabbit Ears Pass to Granby — and yet another day of battle with the smoothie guys for every cotton-mouthed customer.

— To reach Joel Reichenberger, call 970-871-4253 or email jreichenberger@SteamboatToday.com