One of America’s oldest bike races might roll out (and up) for the last time this summer. The future of Colorado’s 62 year-old Mount Evans Hill Climb, recently renamed Blue Sky Hill Climb, is in doubt with upcoming road construction projects and complicated government bureaucracy.

The epic 27 mile race on the highest paved road in North America includes more than 6700’ of climbing and will take place 20 July, but is cancelled for 2025 due to construction and there are no guarantees it will return in future years.

Jen Barbour, executive director of organizer Team Evergreen Cycling, told The Denver Post that club members vow to do “everything in our power” to bring it back by seeking cooperation from the Colorado Department of Transportation, Denver Mountain Parks, and the Arapaho and Roosevelt National Forests.

Adding, “You can never tell if a permitting agency is going to say, ‘This is too much, we can’t do this.’ We close that road in the middle of July when everybody wants to go up there. So, with the closure of 2025, in the back of my head I worry that our permitting agencies might say, ‘We’ve got too many people who want to use this road, we cannot close it (for) cyclists.’”

The list of past winners who summited the oxygen deprived 14,265’ peak first reads like a Tour de France pro team lineup, including: Alexi Grewal, Mike Engleman, Jonathan Vaughters, Scott Moninger, Peter Stetina, Lachlan Morton, Chag Haga, Mara Abbot, Jeannie Longo (women’s record holder at 1:59:19) and Tom Danielson who set the course record in 2004 at 1:41:20.

2024 Mount Evans / Blue Sky Hill Climb information and registration information HERE.

Photo Credit: bicyclerace.com

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