More than 800 cyclists return to Mount Blue Sky Scenic Byway for Bob Cook Memorial Hill Climb

The Colorado Department of Transportation’s 20-month repair project on Mount Blue Sky Scenic Byway meant all cyclists had to wait two years to return to the Bob Cook Memorial Blue Sky Hill Climb before Saturday’s event.

John Keller actually had to wait three.

“I had a really bad crash,” Keller said, referring to the late June morning back in 2024 when a vehicle in the wrong lane collided with him head-on coming around a blind corner. The 29-year-old suffered multiple ligament tears in his right knee, two fractures in his left hand and fracture around his eyes — and lost the entire season.

“So, that year (it) was hard to see everyone racing at this and Pikes Peak and all the races,” he said.

On Saturday morning, Keller returned to Idaho Springs. He covered the 27.4-mile course, which climbs 6,630 feet to the top of the 14,130-foot mountain in a time of 1 hour, 47 minutes and 50.64 seconds — 13 minutes faster than runner-up James Osborne — to win the event for the first time in his career. He previously won his age group in 2018 in 2:03:17 and finished fourth in the pro division in 2022 in a time of 1:53:29.34.

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The Bob Cook Memorial Blue Sky Hill Climb honors five-time winner Bob Cook, who died of cancer at 23. Since the first running in 1962, the event has welcomed numerous professionals, from the likes of Olympic gold medalist Alexi Grewal to Tour de France pros like Jonathan Vaughters and Tom Danielson. Keller said he had Danielson’s course record (1:41:20) on his mind.

“Yeah, I think I was on pace until Echo Lake,” Keller said. “Really, you have to have a group to work with before you get super high.”

Unfortunately, the unsponsored Boulder cyclist — who maintains a regular, full-time job outside his athletic pursuits — didn’t get much help along the relatively gradual 13-mile opening stretch to the midway aid station. The pro peloton splintered after 3 miles and Keller dropped his last competitor a few miles later.

“If you’re in a group, you could save 50-100 watts,” said Keller, who holds hundreds of fastest-known times across the state on Strava, a fitness-tracking app. “Then you get to the top and you have more in you.”

While Keller didn’t get the record, it’s worth noting that the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency suspended Danielson for six months after he admitted to doping during his time with the Discovery Channel team. The action stripped all of his race results between March 1, 2005, and Sept. 23, 2006. The next fastest winning time behind Danielson belongs to Chad Haga (1:43:39) from 2017.

Fresh off winning the Vail Hill Climb for a second time, Evergreen’s Alayna Szuch won the women’s pro race in 2:18:59.58. Her mom, Caroline, rounded out the podium in third (2:35:23.86) as Lindsey Herman (2:26:46) took the silver.

Rwanda youngster Jonathan Muhawenimana conquered his first Mount Blue Sky trip in 2:20:24.6 to win the 18-and-under category.

“It was pretty gradual at the start, I felt good — I’ve done good training for it,” Muhawenimana said. “But then after Echo Lake, I started feeling the altitude. So, it was an experience; I’ve never been to high altitude — I thought my bike computer was broken at one point.”

Muhawenimana is a member of Team Africa Rising, a nonprofit that identifies and develops talent in Benin, Sierra Leone, Uganda, Ethiopia, Togo and several other nations across the continent.

“We develop mechanics, riders — everything that has to do with cycling in whatever country we’re working in,” said Executive Director Jonathan Boyer, who launched the team after a serendipitous visit to Rwanda in 2006. In the spring of 2007, Boyer returned and selected the first five members of Team Rwanda Cycling (which eventually became Team Africa Rising), one of which was Muhawenimana’s father, Rafiki. Boyer said he’s known Jonathan Muhawenimana basically since he was born.

“He’s got a really high watts-per-kilo, he’s dedicated, he’s been riding since he was 4 — so he’s very agile. He does mountain, gravel and road bike — so he’s very unique in that respect,” Boyer said when asked about what makes Muhawenimana special. “He eats right, he’s serious — he’s dialed in.”

Muhawenimana spends the majority of the season racing in Rwanda, where he attend an American international school 10 minutes from where he lives.

“I’ve come to the U.S. three summers in a row just for training and race experience,” he said. Muhawenimana competed in Steamboat Gravel and Ned Gravel before lining up to take on Mount Blue Sky.

There were 836 cyclists across open/pro and age-group categories on Saturday. One of them was Johnny Moses, who rode Highway 103 for the first time at the last Bob Cook Memorial climb in 2024.

“Then once right before it closed and once about a month ago,” he said before adding that cycling is a way he stays in shape.

“I’m actually a morbidly obese person in a moderately overweight person’s body, and so cycling is how I keep the pounds down,” he said. “If I have a goal — something on the calendar — that helps me keep the calories counted.”

Two weeks after completing the Triple Bypass, the 44-year-old’s goal was to beat his previous time of 3 hours and 3 minutes. He tied it exactly on Saturday.

“It’s one of those things where you do what your body can,” he said. “And my body was telling me, ‘Hey, take it easy.'”

Regarding the new stretch of pavement, Moses said, “It was amazing,” before adding, “all 32 seconds of it.”

While the buttery smooth turn on the only brief respite descending into the Summit Lake rest stop (with 5.4 miles left in the race) was a welcome sight, the rugged ensuing uphill remains, as Moses put it, “harrowing.” 

“But, you get to feel really, really close to God,” he added. “And see all the different ways he’s like, ‘I got ya.'”

Keller will shift his focus to the Broadmoor Cycle to the Summit in a couple of weeks; last year, he won the 13.3-mile race up Pikes Peak in a course record. But the big item on his calendar will be his Mount Washington Auto Road Bicycle Hillclimb debut later in the month. While he doesn’t tweak the drivetrain for either Mount Blue Sky or Pikes Peak, Keller is working on a custom set up for the big peak out east.

“I’m really excited,” he said. “This week I’ve been working on getting all the parts. It’s so steep. … Most people would put a mountain bike chain ring on it so they can still have the cadence.”

Muhawenimana started the year focusing on the Rwanda national cross-country championships before competing in Colorado. His next target is the road cycling world junior championships.

“All my training will be for that now,” he said.

What’s next on the calendar for Moses?

“Oh, with biking?” he said. “I was going to say steak. Steak is the next thing.”