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Eagle courts GoPro mountain bike race

EAGLE — Avon wasn’t excited about hosting an enduro mountain bike race as part of the GoPro Mountain Games, but Eagle may be up for the challenge.

During an informal discussion last week, the town board instructed staff to reach out to the Vail Valley Foundation to see if the organization would be interested in Eagle as an alternate location for the event.

“The town board and our event staff feel its well within the realm of what we host already,” said Eagle Town Manager Jon Stavney.



For the past two years, Eagle has hosted the Colorado High School Cycling League’s state championship at the Haymaker trail. Last year’s event saw 613 competitors.

Stavney noted if the Foundation expresses interest in working with Eagle, the town will need to budget for course preparation and repair and there are many details that need to be addressed.

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Location, Location, Location

Those details are what convinced Avon to turn down the race on the West Avon Preserve property. The sticking point for the mountain bike event was the location, not the race itself. West Avon Preserve is dedicated open space and a popular area for mountain biking. Many locals lobbied the Avon Town Council, saying that they did not want to raise the location’s profile. To host the race, the area would have been off limits to local riders for part of the Thursday and Friday of next June’s GoPro Mountain Games. The Vail Valley Foundation offered to restrict spectators and course officials to around 250 to minimize the impact, but in the end the Avon council rejected the option of hosting the race.


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