By Andrew Rydland

Editor’s Note: Our photographers are integral to the success of each and every race. We encourage you to support our dedicated photographers by purchasing images from our new Colorado League photo website. All sales go toward supporting our photographers, our student-athletes, and League operations.

Classic Steamboat. The Colorado High School MTB League’s Yampa region race played out with a lightning delay for the freshmen boys, which is starting to feel like a tradition for that field, but otherwise a beautiful fall day for bike racing.

This weekend’s theme contest was superheroes, and the teams took it seriously. Capes all around, masks pushed up on helmets, and even the dogs getting in on the action. Summit Tigers took home the contest win, chosen by our judges, the league sponsors. That team committed.

Steamboat rarely lets you leave without an animal story. We’ve had moose, bees, and bears on course in past years. This time the bears made themselves a little too at home, running their own tour of the pit zone overnight. Nobody was hurt and the coolers mostly survived, but it was a good reminder that this is their neighborhood and we’re just visiting for the weekend.

This venue has been a special one for me over the years as a photographer. The tight start. The descent through the fall-colored tall grass meadow, with tree tunnels thrown in for fun. The light does what it does; I just try to make it part of a memorable composition. The ski jumps standing over the finish venue, where the crowd gets to be right on top of the final action, and every rider hears their name coming down the switchbacks into the venue. And Roberta from the Steamboat team knitting beanies at the exact same marshal point every year. We joked she should maybe just stash her kit there for next time. Not sure if she finished her goal of four hats, but I can attest to the fact that every racer got encouragement whether or not they were from Steamboat.

Some races you just look forward to. This is one of them. There’s a rhythm to the whole weekend that never quite gets old, even after a lot of years behind the lens: the same climb, the same finish, a new group of freshmen (and their parents) figuring out what they’ve signed up for, and a group of seniors who know exactly what they’re about to leave behind.

Congrats to every rider who lined up Sunday. Costumes, bears, lightning and all, you showed up and raced hard. You should be proud of yourselves.
Check the league website for all our photos from the four races this weekend.

Andrew Rydland is a Colorado Springs–based sports photographer who has covered Colorado High School Cycling League races since 2018. Beyond the league, his work includes Imagn Images, the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference, USAFA,  and Colorado high school sports coverage for Colorado Preps and MaxPreps. More at AndrewRydlandPhotography.com.