2024 North South Colorado Recap – A Long, Solo Win – Zack Allison | The Radavist | A group of individuals who share a love of cycling and the outdoors.

The North South Colorado Bikepacking Race, a 610-mile adventure from Fort Collins to Trinidad, Colorado, is known for its challenging and scenic route over some of Colorado’s iconic (and lesser-known) passes. This year’s event saw around 60 riders toe the line, ready to tackle the diabolical journey. The course, notorious for its demanding 50,000 feet of elevation gain, offers a diverse mix of terrain, including smooth and blown-out gravel roads, trails, and even an abandoned train trestle precariously perched on the side of a mountain.

After a scratch on Day 2 of last year’s race Zack Allison returned this year with renewed confidence and a well-thought-out strategy. Zack, who spends most of his time racing gravel bikes and co-promoting the FoCo Fondo with his wife Whitney, provides a thorough recap of his North South Colorado win. His account delves into the highs and [mostly] the solitary lows of his journey to take the win at one of the toughest bikepacking races in the USA.

An early morning start on July 5th, the race split up early, and naturally, as the rollers got bigger and bigger. Still in Larimer County at the end of Taft Hill Road I found myself off the front, alone, settled that that’s that from there on. Through the Cherokee Park corridor, we got a high-elevation vantage of the Wyoming border before turning south, destined for Trinidad.

With a 2L camelbak and a 1L bottle on the frame, I’d planned on bringing enough food and water to get to the store in Gould just over Cameron Pass, but I ran out of water towards the top. So I snatched some fresh, super clear water out of Michigan Ditch to tie me over until the Gould Store. I was delighted that it was less windy than the normal gail force at the top of Cameron Pass – making for a quick pop-down. I got some tunes going, probably 30 total hours of listening to “Willin’” by Little Feat and “East Bound and Down” by Jerry Reed, in between raw dogging most of the ride staring at my tire on the dirt road in front of me.

We entered the Routt National Forest and 20 miles of steep, rolling, chunky terrain to traverse. This was the first place I felt the 45mm WTB Vulpines were maybe a bit aggressive, but I suffered no flats or mechanical issues. I made my way pretty quickly to Hwy 125 – a paved climb – up to Willow Creek Pass at 9,600 feet before a fast, paved, descent down to the bottom of Stillwater Pass road.

Stillwater Pass gets progressively rougher and steeper as you get to 10,500 feet. Over the top, I had some cell service, so I checked that my tracker was working. It was not. I moved it to a different location and made sure it tracked a point. I checked Trackleaders to see where I was at and was pleased with the gap, but I noticed the Stuart brothers putting on a solid chase. I just stuck with the plan of sending it over Rollins Pass for the day and getting as close to Idaho Springs as possible before a potential nap. I stopped in Granby for some pizza, a New Belgium Hard Charged Ice Tea, and all the rehydrations. On a map, it looks like a short gap between Granby and Winter Park, but from Granby, we headed up the Granby to Winter Park trail connector, which is a rad, albeit challenging, way to get there. I started charging my phone off my Sinewave light and dyno hub as I had to turn my lights on just before Winter Park. This was the start of my inexperience showing.

I suck at battery management. Luckily the Garmin 1040 Solar has unbelievable battery life, after riding all day to this point I had 85% battery still. My phone on the other hand, was pretty low and the Sinewave USB charger is like 3 watts output. I should have put my phone on low power mode from the start, and still, it would take hours and hours to charge. I got all the food I could at the Snack N Save in Winter Park, knowing it would also be breakfast the next day, and charged my phone for a bit on the outdoor outlet before heading up Rollins.

I hit the trail and train trestle on Rollins just before midnight. The descent down to Tolland was a real taint-buster. I made it down and decided to keep pressing on over Mammoth Gulch to get it over with – because I friggin hate Mammoth Gulch, so it’s probably better to just get it over with in the dark. I probably hiked half of it as it took me an hour to go 4 miles to the top. I wanted to make it a fair bit lower before trying to sleep, so I headed down the trail toward Central City.

It was 3:30 am, and I was warmish, so I decided to take a nap a couple of miles from Central City next to an old cemetery. Huge shout out to Anton Krupicka and Andre Onermaa, you guys have posted some race reports of North South in the past on Strava. Those reports are great reads, and it’s also really generous of you guys to share that info. I read all those and they closed some gaps in my lack of bike packing experience. I slept for about 90 minutes. I woke up pretty cold, but that’s bound to happen, and got everything packed up in a couple of minutes and onward through Central City.

I hit the Idaho Springs Kum and Go. I changed my kit, cleaned up a bit, and breakfast burrito, coffee, and sunscreen. I checked Trackleaders and saw that the Stuarts camped just past Winter Park and were moving pretty well up Rollins, but were at least 5-6 hours back. I got moving. I was feeling pretty motivated by all the new roads in front of me. Evergreen to Conifer there was some trail, some steep kickers, and I started to drag a bit. I stopped at the Stinkers in Conifer to refuel. I didn’t eat or pick up enough food here as I thought it would be a quick jaunt to Deckers, but North Fort Trail was a fun descent, the climb before was drining, and the fun quickly turned into fatigue. Soon I was out and onto S Platte River Road for some fast, flat pavement riding to Deckers.

I had planned on Deckers having like…..a store or… something substantial. What’s there is a so-called convention center with a strange restaurant, but you can only get chili and/or a couple of iterations of Frito pie… aaand for another $5 you can use the internet. After begging for the internet with it being too late to give back the Frito pie, I got out of there after spending way too much time just frustrated at the place, and I was not fully prepared for the next sector…..Matuka Road/Goose Creek.

In reading Anton’s previous reports, I knew this was a hard, exposed section, but it sucked for more reasons than just that. The road was a huge sand trap, brake bumped to the max. It was the July 4th weekend, and there were hundreds of campers up there with motorized toys of all sizes. Rolling from steep climb, to slow sand pit descent, from mile 310 to 330. I melted a bit. I was over-electrolyted and under-fueled and I was doing the math that I was not making it to Lake George before 5:30 pm when the store closes – in a bad spot. I confirmed the Goose Creek Campground water spigot pump does not work; instead, I filtered some water from the Goose Creek itself and just kept moving towards Lake George to figure it out.

I finally found an open room at The St. Nicholas – 2 blocks and 200ft of climbing off Mainstreet – I was greeted by the super-cool dude who runs the place, and lives there. He gave me a brief tour of this former hospital-now-hotel and showed me to my room. Apparently, this hotel is quite haunted, but it was a cool spot. And I guess I’m right with the spirits. Charged my electronics, charged my Di2 – which was a huge relief it was still good 372 miles in – and caught a few hours of sleep.

Pleased with not setting off in freezing temps, I was headed off towards Cañon City, straight into Red Canyon Park for some rolling climbs on red rock-lined roads before hitting Cañon City’s Skyline drive. Elevenses (shout-out Shire Folk) in Cañon City then a push to Silver Cliff/Westcliffe. Once again, I checked TrackLeaders. This time to find that the Stuart brothers had scratched, so some race-situation pressure was off, but honestly, it was not a boon to my motivation and thereby my speed. Chris Langager was the next chaser and he looked like he was moving pretty good, but it was a big gap back to him.

Out of Cañon City, Oak Creek Grade was a brute. Arriving in Westcliffe, I hit the first store and had some great homemade chicken sandwiches and burgers with all the fixings. Ate one, packed one, and got all the fuel I needed knowing there was an 80 mile gap from here to Walsenburg. As I got further south along the Hwy 69 corridor the wind switched and was blowing a big storm towards me. Then off the highway and onto loose, steep rollers with sizable brake bumps. Just sucking the morale down. When I finally got back down to Hwy 69, I was headed into the town of Gardner.

I had looked up Gardner before and knew there was no store or services here, but I did come across “The World’s Smallest Liquor Store” the only store in Gardner with an open sign. I think it’s always open as the guy lives next to it and when the dog barks he knows someone wants some booze. Unfortunately, it was cash only and I only had a dollar bill left. He took pity on me, and we settled on a warm Mikes Hard Lemonade. Basically, I got iced. Not sure if it was the Mike’s or the last 70 miles of warm headwind that caused my nose bleed, but that drove home my indifference to this whole sector from Westcliffe to Walsenburg. I did my best aerobar sprint over the last few miles to Walsenburg as the ominous-looking storm cell finally hit me.

I made it just in time to the TravelCenter in Walsenburg to not get hailed on, but spent way too much time there. A burger, fries, and probably a half gallon of coffee later I was ready to keep rolling. It was 9pm, mile 512 and I’d bought everything I thought I needed to make it to La Veta to camp. Got to La Veta around soon after and decided to keep going towards Cuchara.

About 10 miles before Cuchara, it started to rain. It was a bizarre feeling as I still had a ripping tailwind, which was warm, and the rain was moving in the same direction as me at a similar enough speed that it was just in the air all around me and not really getting me wet. That lasted about 30 minutes. I couldn’t stop and camp in the rain without risking freezing, so I committed to finding something to sleep under in Couchara. It was about 1 am, I dried off the best I could, put on the dry clothes I had, and bivvied up. I don’t think I slept at all, but the rain stopped around 4 am.

This is a beautiful area. Still being in a rain cloud, thick healthy forest, and fun dirt roads over Cordova Pass, it was starting to feel like I was in the home straight. I went around the lake on trails with short kickers that really sting the legs, but I jammed along, knowing I was in the last 10 miles. The last dirt road into Trinidad takes you within a couple of miles of the finish at Cimino Park. My wife Whitney was waiting for me there to get the most-Cracked-Zack-content anyone’s ever seen.