This Is What Independence Looks Like

Another Glorius Firecracker 50 Neutral Start

This weekend, we celebrated independence. Maybe that word means a little more to us this year.

Freedom is the ability to go somewhere.

To take a risk.
To try something.
To follow an idea before we know exactly where it will lead.
To look at something that does not exist yet and wonder:

Why not?

This past year, that question has taken us on quite the ride.

What started simply, finding more people to ride bikes with, has slowly become something much bigger.

Hundreds of people connecting.
New friendships.
First rides.
Hard rides.
Fast rides.
Slow rides.

People inviting other people along.
People trying things they did not think they could do.
Lately, doors are beginning to open that we never would have imagined when this started.

Conversations are happening with local businesses, people who have spent decades inside the cycling industry, larger brands, community partners, and people who see something in what we are building.

It has made us stop and realize something:

Maybe we are allowed to dream bigger.

Let the games begin

One Lap. Burn Every Match.

Of course, this Fourth of July weekend did not go according to plan.

Smoke from fires around the region continued to affect Summit County. As air quality worsened, we made the call to cancel Thursday Night Spice. Then the Firecracker was cut in half. What was supposed to be two laps became one.

Somehow, that may have made the racing even harder. A lot of us trained expecting to pace ourselves across two laps. Once the race was shortened, there was suddenly nothing left to save.

One lap.
No pacing for later.
No matches left in reserve.
Burn everything.

It was a brutally hard course, a massive effort, and an incredible day for this community.

So many people connected to Spoke lined up.

There were wins.
Podiums.
First attempts.
Personal victories.
Hard-earned finishes.
A whole lot of people willing to show up and do something difficult.

Unfortunately, there were injuries too. Rest up Nate!

The results were incredible, but afterward, we realized something else.

We did not do a very good job documenting the part that matters most.
We have race photos.
We don’t have finish-line photos.
We don’t have podium photos.
We do not have one great picture of all of us together.

The conversations before the start.
The nervous energy.
The encouragement.
The cheering.

The simple fact that so many people who have found one another through bikes were standing in the same place, doing something hard together.

We will get better at capturing that.

Accomplishments matter, but the people surrounding them are the real story.

Thanks to Lee for nudging Patrick off the pavement and onto the dirt.

Maybe Independence Does Not Mean Doing It Alone

This week will look different too.

For personal reasons, we will be without our usual founder-led schedule for a few days.

The first Tuesday Night Social Ride was supposed to launch this week.
Thursday Night Spice would normally have its usual leader.
Neither of those things is going to happen exactly as planned.

Maybe that is not a problem.
Maybe it is an opportunity.

Spoke was never supposed to become a community where every ride, every idea, and every invitation had to come from one person.

That is not independence.
That is dependence.

What we are trying to build is something stronger.

A community where any one of us can say:

“I’m going for a ride. Who wants to come?”

It does not need a flyer.
It does not need a clever name.
It does not need to be 20 people.
It does not need to become a weekly series.

Three people meeting after work is a ride.
Five people heading out for an easy spin is a ride.

A fast road ride.
A slow road ride.
A gravel adventure.
A mountain bike lap.
A ride does not need to be big to matter.

Maybe this is what independence actually looks like for us.

Not one person doing everything.

More people sharing ideas.
More people taking ownership.
More people inviting someone else along.
More people realizing they are allowed to lead.

Then Comes the Triple Bypass

This is July in Colorado, and the big bike days just keep coming.

This Saturday, July 11, at least a dozen people from this community will line up in Evergreen for the Triple Bypass.

One of the biggest cycling days in Colorado.
Thousands of riders.
Three major mountain passes.
A very long day on the bike.

Somewhere along the way, an idea started getting passed around.

What if some of us rode up Loveland Pass to meet the group?
What if we waited at the top, cheered them across, and rode down into Summit County together?

Then the idea got bigger.

Maybe Loveland Pass is too much.
So maybe some people meet the group later and ride along the dam.
Maybe others wait near the bottom of Vail Pass and climb with them.
Maybe someone just finds a spot along the route and cheers.
The options are limitless.

Honestly?

That may be the most exciting part of the whole thing.

You do not have to ride the entire Triple Bypass to be part of the Triple Bypass.
You do not have to be the strongest rider.
You do not have to climb Loveland Pass.
You do not have to prove anything.

Find the part of the day that works for you.

Ride five miles.
Ride twenty.
Climb a pass.
Cruise the dam.
Meet us near the finish.
Cheer from the side of the road.

Just be there.

This is one of the biggest biking days of the year in Colorado, and on Saturday, we have a chance to make the entire route through our county feel like home.

Imagine crossing Loveland Pass after hours on the bike and seeing familiar faces waiting at the top.
Imagine coming down into Summit County with more riders joining along the way.

A few from the pass.
A few more at the dam.
More on Vail Pass.
The group growing as it comes home.
That is bigger than a bike ride.

That is community.

We Are Allowed to See Where This Goes

Something is happening here.

We feel it on the rides.
We see it when dozens of us end up at the same community event.
We hear it when someone says they finally found people to ride with.
We notice it when people outside Spoke begin asking what we are building and how they can be part of it.
We do not know exactly where all of this leads.

That might be the best part.

The freedom to dream is one thing.
The courage to say the dream out loud is another.

Finding people willing to help build it with you?

That is where a dream starts becoming real.

So this week:

Call a ride.
Invite someone along.
Keep watching the smoke.
Make smart decisions about the air.

On Saturday, find your way into one of the biggest biking days of the year.

Ride the whole thing.
Ride one pass.
Ride five miles.
Stand on the side of the road and ring a cowbell.

There is no single right way to belong here.

This weekend, we celebrated independence.
This week, maybe we get to practice it.

Let’s see who grabs the handlebars.