The Bob Cook Memorial Blue Sky Hill Climb returned to Colorado’s Mount Blue Sky on Saturday after a year off the calendar, and John Keller made the comeback count, posting the fastest overall time of the day in 01:47:51 on the punishing 27-mile climb to the 14,130-foot summit.
Keller, 29, put clear daylight between himself and the rest of the men’s field. Finish rider Sami Inkinen, 51, was next, 12 minutes 22 seconds back, with James Osborne, 43, finishing third fastest, 12 minutes 55 seconds behind Keller.
In the women’s race, pro triathlete Alayna Szuch, 22, topped the field in 02:18:59, holding off Lindsey Herman by 7 minutes 47 seconds and Meredith Loring by 12 minutes 19 seconds.
The day’s standout storyline belonged to the 70-and-over category, where Jonathan Boyer, the first American to compete in the Tour de France, claimed victory in 02:32:13, finishing 10 minutes 56 seconds clear of Robert Campbell. Boyer’s best Tour de France result came in 1983, when he finished 12th overall—still one of the best performances by an American before the Greg LeMond era.
This year’s edition, now formally known as the Blue Sky Hill Climb following Mount Evans’ 2023 renaming, was not sanctioned by USA Cycling, with organizers instead offering gran fondo-style age group categories. The race returned after sitting out 2025 because of road construction on the Mount Blue Sky Scenic Byway in the Rocky Mountains.
With nearly 7,000 feet of climbing from a starting elevation of about 7,500 feet, the event remains one of the toughest one-day challenges in American cycling — sanctioned or not.
Photo Credit: Blue Sky Hill Climb
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