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Mountain News: Road bikes return to Colorado

VAIL, Colo. - After an absence of 23 years, major bicycling will return to Colorado next August. The Quiznos Pro Challenge will draw 120 professional bicycle racers, including many from the Tour de France, for a 600-mile multi-stage race.

VAIL, Colo. - After an absence of 23 years, major bicycling will return to Colorado next August. The Quiznos Pro Challenge will draw 120 professional bicycle racers, including many from the Tour de France, for a 600-mile multi-stage race.

And this excites the bicycling mayors of Aspen and Vail, towns that are stops along the race. Salida, Crested Butte, Avon, Steamboat Springs and Breckenridge are also on the race course.

Lance Armstrong, who now has a second home in Aspen, lent support to the race, which will be the fourth largest in the world.

"This is a great place to ride bicycles, and it's been absent from the high-end pro cycling agenda since the Coors Classic ended in the 1980s," said Steve Wood, a former member of the U.S. national cycling team who now lives in the Vail area.

The race will pose a special challenge to the bike racers, because of the thinner air. The lowest elevation will be at Denver, but otherwise, the lowest elevation will be at Steamboat Springs, elevation 6,728.

European races often have much steeper climbs, but from lower elevations, says Wood.

"Some of the Alps races top out at 7,000 to 8,000 feet - but they start near sea level," says Wood, who is now launching a business called High Road Velo Tours, which will cater to recreational bicycle racers.

The most grueling stage may well be between Gunnison and Aspen. In that one-day stage, competitors will twice cross the Continental Divide, using Cottonwood and Independence passes, both of them surpassing 12,000 feet.

Aspen Mayor Mick Ireland, an avid bicycle rider who has crossed both passes, says that stage could well determine the outcome of the Quiznos Pro Challenge.

After Aspen, racers will compete in Vail, which at one time hosted time trials in the Red Zinger Classic and then the Coors Classic, which ended in 1988.

"It was a huge event," remembers Vail Mayor Dick Cleveland. "It brought thousands of people to Vail. The streets were jammed with local and international guests," he said.

Dimensions of the race are suggested by the lodging needs. To participate, Aspen had to agree to donate 400 lodging rooms for free or discounted rates for use by racers, support staff, race officials and media.

How will the lodges sort this out? Warren King, general manager of the Aspen Square Condominium Hotel, said some sort of revenue-sharing plan is needed, to see that hotels providing free rooms are compensated.

Race organizers tell the Vail Daily that they expect the race will attract avocational riders, who want to test themselves on the roads where the pros have been riding.

"They want to do the climbs the pros are doing. They want to ride them because when you do, it gives you more respect for what the pros are doing," explained Sean Petty, chief operating officer of USA Cycling.

 

More bones found in peat

SNOWMASS VILLAGE, Colo. - The peat bog near Snowmass Village continues to yield more and more bones of now extinct species from the last ice age - or perhaps older.

The tally seems to shift almost as rapidly as the score in a basketball game. Bones of five species were uncovered in just three days last week, and over the weekend more yet were discovered - including the skull and horns of a gigantic ice age bison.

"I'm trying to think of a cooler fossil that I've ever seen in my life," said Dr. Kirk Johnson, the chief curator of the Denver Museum of Nature and Science, which is overseeing the excavation.

The ice-age bison were twice the size of modern bison. Also uncovered, as of Sunday, were the bones of at least one Columbian mammoth, evidence of five mastodons, three bison, plus a giant ground sloth that stood up to 12 feet in height. The latter may be the rarest of discoveries, experts say. Remnants of an ice-age deer have also been found.

Scientists had estimated that the bones were from 12,000 to 15,000 years ago, during the last ice age. By 10,000 years ago most of the ice was gone.

But in a press release, the museum officials pointed out that the new bison discovery suggested potential for a much older date. Other extremely large bison discovered in the Western United States have been found in sediments as old as 30,000 to 50,000 years.

The peat has also yielded large logs, up to three feet in diameter, that show the grain and growth rings. Crews have also recovered seeds, pollen and leaves that are mummified, meaning original organic material is preserved. Also found have been insects and fossilized snails, which may offer tell-tale clues about the water quality of the lake or bog.

So far, museum scientists have reported nothing to indicate humans were at the site - although humans were in North America by at least 14,000 years ago and some archaeologists think much longer than that.

This massive dig began after a bulldozer operator who was moving dirt in preparation for a reservoir on Oct. 14 came across what was initially thought to be the bones of a cow.

While the bones will be kept at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science, Snowmass Village itself might eventually get a museum. "There's certainly a lot of expectation in the community," said Russ Forrest, the town manager, when asked about the prospects by The Aspen Times.

 

High-end real estate selling

JACKSON, Wyo. - The high-end real estate market has returned to Jackson Hole. The Hole Report reported more closed sales of $3 million or more in nine months of this year than all of 2008 and 2009 combined.

"Sales numbers and prices have clearly rebounded, particularly at the high end," writes business analyst Jonathan Schechter. But across the pass in Teton County, Idaho, in and around the towns of Victor and Driggs, the real estate market remains torpid.

"It will be a long, long time before Teton County, Idaho, awakens from the nightmare it created for itself by thinking supply and demand would never catch up with its decade-long overbuilding fantasy," Schechter writes.

Examining the economy more broadly, Schechter reports that sales tax revenues in Jackson Hole remain flat - better than was the case a year ago. While construction remains thin, other sectors of the economy are doing better.

Examining the classified ads, still a useful barometer in Jackson Hole, he finds that help-wanted ads continue their rebound of the last six months, while the number of rental housing ads has declined slightly. All this, he says, adds further evidence to the argument for a stabilization of the real estate market.

 

Three areas boost lodging taxes

BRECKENRIDGE, Colo. - With the real estate market still anemic, voters in three resort communities in the Rocky Mountains voted by wide margins to increase lodging taxes in order to boost tourism marketing.

In Breckenridge, 71 per cent of voters approved a lodging tax increase, while in Aspen it was 63 per cent. In Wyoming, Jackson and Teton County voters favored a tax with a 60 per cent plurality.

The tax generated most discussion in Jackson Hole. Voters there had abolished a marketing tax in 1994. At the time, the boom in real-estate construction had already gotten underway and many people blamed tourism for causing worsening traffic congestion and an overheated economy.

This time, there were similar warnings about deteriorated quality of life. But the valley has lost 2,000 jobs since the end of 2007, the Jackson Hole News & Guide notes.

"The economy has changed since the '90s," said Tim O'Donoghue, executive director of the Jackson Hole Chamber of Commerce.

The 2 per cent tax is expected to raise $2.1 million for promotions. But local projects, including pathways and mass transit, will get another $1.4 million per year.

Kari Cooper, of the Jackson Hole Air Improvement Resources, said the Wyoming resort has failed to have a coordinated marketing campaign like other resort town such as Aspen and Park City. "We've been behind for a very long time," she said.

The Jackson Hole News & Guide, in an editorial, cautioned that the vote did not give the tourism industry carte blanche. "Those who campaigned for the tax need to stick to their promise and promote winter and early summer, and they need to hire local professionals to craft any new marketing effort," the newspaper said.

Breckenridge boosters also described their tax proposal as necessary to catch up with other resorts. A town study concluded that Steamboat Springs spends $3 million, and Aspen, Park City and South Lake Tahoe all spend $4 million or more.

Breckenridge hopes to boost its destination business. While doing handsomely with its day-skier business, owing to its proximity to Denver, about 80 miles away, and the great success of discounted season passes, the resort more generally hopes for people who stick around a few days.

Finally, in Aspen, the 1 per cent lodging tax will boost the anticipated revenues from $450,000 to $1.4 million. (Less than what Breckenridge estimates Aspen has been spending).

With this added tax, Aspen's total sales tax on a lodging room will hit 11 per cent. Similar to the other towns, Aspen has had a weighty discussion for the last two years about what it takes to succeed as a mountain resort community.

 

$50 million expansion approved

ASPEN, Colo. - Voters approved $50 million in bonds for expansion of the Aspen Valley Hospital. Unlike the town's lodging tax vote, this one was close: 52 per cent in favor, and 48 per cent opposed.

The Aspen Times reports that hospital officials ultimately hope to expand the hospital in three phases over the next seven years, yielding a total size of 215,000 square feet. That total cost is estimated at $120 million - using cash on hand and with up to $60 million in philanthropy.

 

No easy answers for I-70

I-70 CORRIDOR, Colo. -Even in the off-season, when Interstate 70 between Denver and the mountain resort communities has comparatively little traffic, the debate continues about what to do.

Traffic on the 75 miles between Frisco and Denver becomes a crawl during winter and summer weekends, particularly in the 25-mile segment between the Eisenhower Memorial Tunnel and Idaho Springs, all of it just two lanes. The drive to Denver by skiers, an hour in good times, can drag out to six hours.

And that's with just 2.9 million people in metropolitan Denver now, a figure expected to swell by 1.6 million people within another 25 years.

Ski areas know they're losing business, but what can be done? Identified highway improvements in the 100-mile segment would cost $8 billion. That's eight to nine times the current highway budget needed to repair Colorado's thousands and thousands of miles of roads.

And widening the highway cannot easily be done without severe environmental consequences in the canyon of Clear Creek, where the congestion is most severe.

The state's current plan - the subject of a draft environmental impact statement - calls for eventual adoption of some type of high-speed mass transit. The technology - mag-lev, steel-on-steel and so forth - has not yet been chosen. Cost has been estimated at up to $20 billion.

But all along, there has been some doubt in Summit County and Vail, too, whether fast and efficient transportation really will benefit them. "To have people that could easily live here and work in Denver, it would really change the complexion of our community," said Breckenridge Councilman Eric Mamula at a recent meeting covered by the Summit Daily News.

 

Voters OK pot shops

MINTURN, Colo.  - While the towns of Vail and Avon have shut their doors to marijuana dispensaries, 60 per cent of voters in nearby Minturn last week voted that the town council could not enact a ban. This opens the door for the town to begin drawing up regulations governing where and how such dispensaries could be operated.

One of those residents who voted to open the door to marijuana dispensaries, Courtney Gregory, 33, dismissed the idea that marijuana shops will hurt Minturn's character. "You get a contact buzz just driving through the town anyway," he said.

But apparently, not all town council members think the issue is over with. Jerry Bumgarner, a councilman, said that the town's business licence requires the business to comply with federal laws. Marijuana remains illegal under U.S. law, he pointed out, although the Obama administration announced it would not enforce it - setting off the rapid spread of marijuana medical dispensaries in Colorado, California and Montana, among other states.

Elsewhere in Eagle County, voters said existing medical marijuana dispensaries should be allowed to stay. There are five, reports the Vail Daily.