-Hosted by Rafa The Hispanic Mechanic-

WELCOME TO THE 2022 AND 10TH EDITION OF THIS GRASSROOTS CLASSIC!! REGISTRATION IS NOW OPEN: GO TO THE REGISTRATION PAGE IF YOU WISH TO ENTER.***IT’S FREE AND REQUIRED!!***
SBFL WILL BE HELD ON SATURDAY JUNE 11TH.
IMPORTANT: LAST YEAR WE MADE A COUPLE SMALL AMENDMENTS TO THE OG COURSE TO REFLECT THE ADDITION OF A NEUTRAL AID STATION IN BUENA VISTA AND A SHORTCUT THAT GETS RID OF MOST OF THE HIKE-A-BIKE INTO FUTURITY;THE POINT IS TO MAKE BOTH OF THESE KNOWN AND AVAILABLE TO ALL RIDERS.
NO MORE THAN 74 RIDERS ALLOWED FOR THIS EVENT!!
This is intended to be a NON-COMMERCIAL, Recreational-Use Activity that is held on parts of USFS lands in compliance with USFS Special Use Rules and Regulations.
Please make sure to read all rules for this. This is fully UNSUPPORTED and you will need to be self-sufficient in order to complete this. The rules are located HERE.
When: >>>>SATURDAY JUNE 11TH<<<<
What: Singletrack and Gravel mix, high elevation, back country self supported endurance epic. Ride the base loop or the long loop. The long loop passes through the ghost town of Futurity (with brief hike-a-bike).
Registration starts at 6:00 AM @ Cafe Dawn, 122 E. 1st St. in downtown Salida. Roll out at 6:30 AM !!
When in Buena Vista: Our friends at Black Burro Bikes will host a neutral aid station; they are located at 801 Front Loop Unit 1A; their shop is right on the course right before it crosses the river into the midland trail system making this required check point the most optimal re-supply, not to mention last year Black Burro Bikes went above and beyond with a stellar aid station and ran it like pro’s!
Finish: Benson’s Tavern at 128 N. F st. in downtown Salida. Record your finishing time on the sign up sheet, submit a screenshot of your run and reflect on your own mortality with a cold one.
COVID-19: Follow safety protocols based on your comfort level. -Thank You-
Out on the Course: Practice good old courtesy, consideration and common sense. Avoid passing on singletrack sections; it is crucial to place yourself within the group early on based on your abilities/experience level before we get into the Colorado Trail.
Lastly: All riders are required to submit a screenshot of or a link to their ride after finishing (Strava,etc) by leaving a “reply” on the main page to ensure the race course was followed correctly.
Navigation: The files below may not work for everyone but both base loop and long loop courses are available on MTB Project which can be used for navigation.
GPS Route: The long loop is 104.8 miles with 12,422 ft of climbing. LONG LOOP GPX HERE. The base route is 89.3 miles with 10,526 ft of climbing. BASE ROUTE GPX HERE. For Ride with GPS users, BASE ROUTE CRS FILE and LONG ROUTE CRS FILE.
Once again for 2022 you will have the Cottonwood Singletrack Option! Here is the GPX for Cottonwood to Salida from the route (here is the CRS version). The Beasway trail links CR175 (the gravel road into town at the end of the SBFL) to Rhumba Trail to Cottonwood Gulch. It is just an option, not required for a finish. The turn is a mere 7 miles from the finish,so instead of coasting downhill for 20 minutes or so, you’ll be riding singletrack that could take as long as 2 hours to complete (more likely closer to 90 minutes). Riders taking the Cottonwood option will get a 100 minute premium, but be aware, it is a technical trail. You will probably be kind of tired, so choose wisely when it’s time to decide to spice your ride up or just roll downhill for another 20 minutes with minimal effort.
Course Description: We will ride south on G Street to turn right on 3rd, staying left on westbound 3rd Street to Poncha Blvd, to CR140, to CR250. We will be branching left on 252 up to Blanks Cabin/Mt Shavano TH. Ride north on the Colorado Trail all the way to Cottonwood Creek, turn right onto road 343 until it merges with road 306 then down into Buena Vista; the half-way point. Then we head into the Arkansas Hills via the Midland Trail. At the end of the Midland, climb Shields Gulch to the Lenhardy Cutoff.
From there:
The Base Loop will go up Lenhardy to the intersection with McGee Gulch, down McGee to Hwy 24 to a straight crossing and up the Mushroom Gulch Road, up the Castle Rock Gulch Road, crossing Bassam Park to Aspen Ridge. Here is a cue sheet for the base loop from BV to Salida in pdf format.
The Long Loop will continue up Lenhardy Cutoff to Chubb Park and then Trout Creek Pass. Then it will descend Mushroom Gulch and briefly join the base route. Then it will climb up to an intersection of roads call Black Dumps, then up to Futurity. After Futurity it will rejoin the base route. From that point both routes head over Aspen Ridge, and down Ute Trail into Salida.
PLEASE NOTE: The recommended way to navigate the route(s) is using a device for following a GPS track! The course is NOT MARKED. The first half following the Colorado Trail is pretty obvious, since you are following the Colorado Trail. But after you leave Buena Vista you will be following a course that can be confusing. Especially the long loop is particularly difficult to know. I strongly recommend not attempting the long loop without a GPS that you have used before. I have provided a cue sheet for only the base loop from Buena Vista to Salida, for those who intend to ride with no GPS or to use as a backup to get back to Salida in the event that your GPS malfunctions.
PLEASE USE THE REGISTRATION PAGE IF YOU WISH TO ENTER.
June 11th, 2012 at 8:03 am
2012 Results are posted here:
http://schizoidepics.wordpress.com/2012/04/18/sbfl-results/
June 17th, 2013 at 9:00 am
2013 Results:
https://schizoidepics.wordpress.com/2013/06/09/salida-big-friggin-loop-2013-results/
June 8th, 2014 at 1:14 pm
2014 Results:
http://schizoidepics.wordpress.com/2014/06/08/sbfl-2014-results/
June 17th, 2015 at 8:57 am
2015 Results:
https://schizoidepics.wordpress.com/2015/06/07/sbfl-2015-results/
December 7th, 2015 at 1:00 am
IMPORTANT: PLEASE DON’T LEAVE COMMENTS ABOUT REGISTRATION HERE! I OFTEN DON’T NOTICE THESE!
TO DROP OR REQUEST A SPOT GO TO
https://coloradoes.wordpress.com/swes-event-list/sbfl/sbfl-registration/
When you leave the comment, you will be asked for an email address. BE SURE IT’s A VALID ADDRESS, AND ONE THAT YOU CHECK OFTEN!
January 17th, 2020 at 4:47 pm
[…] the BC Bike Race had gone through, so I had a sense of the lay of the land.” Another event, the Salida Big Friggin’ Loop, inspired her to ride a local bikepacking route she hadn’t known about. She didn’t feel like […]
June 4th, 2020 at 10:09 am
Any chance of moving this to Sunday instead of Saturday? 80% chance of T-storms Saturday and no rain on Sunday. Or allowing ITT on Sunday?
May 24th, 2021 at 10:00 am
Does anyone have the GPX file for the long loop? It’s tossing up an error and is not downloading from this page.
June 2nd, 2021 at 7:45 pm
Is the MTB Project GPX file updated for the 2021 course that has the new route to the neutral aid station in BV and also the shortcut route into Futurity the avoids the HAB? Links on this page are not working for GPX downloads
June 3rd, 2021 at 11:58 am
Hey Chris,I’m working on the updated file that incorporates the changes,I will post an announcement for it as soon as it’s ready. Thanks for reaching out. -Rafa
>
June 10th, 2021 at 10:05 am
Any update on where we can download the course?
June 4th, 2021 at 12:42 pm
Count on me ray calza
June 10th, 2021 at 12:12 pm
2021 SBFL ROUTE GPX
The GPX file is available for riders to download here:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1W71eE5wv0wuDszgnm2gwh1vEgqdZfva8/view?usp=drivesdk
We will post this in as many locations as possible. Please let us know if you have trouble accessing or downloading it to your device and we will do our best to troubleshoot. 🤘🏽
June 10th, 2021 at 1:32 pm
Hey Raf, all I get is a bunch of code from that link. I certainly could be doing it wrong, but it’s not working for me…
June 10th, 2021 at 1:34 pm
Disregard – I figured it out. Thanks for posting, see you Saturday!
June 12th, 2021 at 12:05 pm
Bailed in BV
June 14th, 2021 at 9:27 pm
Thanks to all riders who participated in the 9th edition of SBFL !!
Results are now posted on the SBFL Results page:
Congrats to Josh “Flying Toast” Tostado on another SBFL win in the books!
Next year will be the 10th year anniversary of SBFL! We’ll have to do something special for it!
LBFL details and GPX will be posted ASAP to allow peeps to preride the course.
Have a killer rest of the season y’all; I’ll be seeing some of you at MMB in August.
-Rafa
May 30th, 2022 at 2:45 pm
In but I’m gonna be slow. Might need to settle for the smaller big friggin loop.
June 9th, 2022 at 6:47 am
The cottonwood to salida gpx link doesn’t seem to work, is it possible to re upload?
June 10th, 2022 at 2:15 pm
Hello SBFL riders! Stoked for tomorrow’s adventure day! I see lots of familiar names including some dangerous fast ones and many new willing to dig deep under the Colorado sun. Siiiiick!!!
As far a Cottonwood grand finale option: the file doesn’t work with all devices or Apps. Try downloading it onto a few different platforms to see which works best; if I recall correctly,it works dang good on Map Out for instance. Another option is to piggyback off of someone’s strava from last year as they are posted above within this thread. Last year’s winner Josh Tostado included Cottonwood:
https://strava.app.link/GmVJ41u44gb
Safe travels y’all! See you bright and early!
June 11th, 2022 at 6:50 pm
We DNFd in BV:
Allison Seymour
Dan Heinze
Stacy Bellestri
Sorry for not checking in at Bensons
June 11th, 2022 at 3:07 pm
Dropped computer that promptly got ran over by a jeep. Won’t be making it to Salida -Fletcher
June 13th, 2022 at 7:20 pm
Hey y’all, nice work under the scorching heat! See ya next year. Results are posted here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1i3chKuxRm_XTfBE_zPnRCDd6AE3oEO4xI7EQ_rfivzE/edit#gid=0