Colorado – Rodeo Adventure Labs, LLC

The Tour Divide, Day by Day

In June 2024, Edyn Teitge became, at 15, the youngest solo rider of the Tour Divide. This is his story via his own words, day by day through the ride. Images throughout by Edyn and Eddie Clark Media.

The Tour Divide is one of the world’s longest and most well-known off-road bikepacking races. Stretching nearly 2,700 miles from Banff, Alberta, Canada to the US-Mexico border at Antelope Wells, New Mexico, it closely follows the Great Divide Mountain Bike route along the spine of the continent. The route gains around 150,000 feet of elevation with conditions ranging from unkept narrow single-track sections of the CDT, to smooth gravel and dirt roads, to death mud, and to long stretches of pavement. And somehow I got it in my mind that it would be a “fun” thing to do.

Pilgrimage to Radical Hill

The onset of Alpine season in Colorado first takes us to that spot in the map that we’ve been wondering about for years: Radical Hill. It was no easy thing getting there, but we never having to dig deep on the way to Colorado’s treasures.

Adventure Colorado Cycling Flaanimal Gravel Bike Mountain Biking Rodeo Labs traildonkey

The Rodeo Newsletter, Chapter 4

I’m not sure how it’s April 2024 already, but here we are. Newsletters are tricky! Each month I intend to write one, but they are probably the single most difficult thing for me to stop what I’m doing and work on. There is so much to catch you up on though! Rodeo Labs has been non-stop on so many levels through the end of last year and into this year, and I’d love to bring everyone up to speed.

Adventure Colorado Cycling Flaanimal Gravel Bike Rodeo Labs Rodeo Rally traildonkey

A Season of Lessons, Pt II

Summarizing a 10-month season of racing is complicated, but in an effort to take you all along with me through 2023, I’m going to try. Events like Mid South in mid-March now seem so distant compared to the more recent sweltering heat of Foco Fondo in July. Now it’s December, and I’m deep into prepping miles for the 2024 season. My brain wanders while on the trainer: What is it that defines a season as a success or a failure? Is it really either-or, or is it neither-nor?

Colorado Cycling Gravel Bike Rodeo Labs traildonkey

Four improvements with TD4

Bike brands spend a lot of time obsessing over details that distinguish their product from others. They hire PR firms, bring in R&D to discuss and verify the finer points. They hire athletes to say they ride faster because my gear is better than other peoples, or something close to that. Comparison is important in a market place of ideas and products, after all.

Adventure Colorado Cycling Gravel Bike Rodeo Labs Trail donkey review traildonkey

The Rodeo Newsletter, Vol 3

Summer has transitioned to fall, and with the change of seasons a lot of change has also come to Rodeo Labs, even more than I had anticipated, it seems! So before we dig into any product or event news, let’s talk about the biggest news at Rodeo Labs right now:

We’ve moved!

Adventure Colorado Cycling Cyclocross Flaanimal Gravel Bike Mountain Biking Rodeo Labs Rodeo Rally traildonkey

The Rodeo Newsletter, Vol. 2

It has been a hot minute since I last published a Rodeo Newsletter, and there is a whole summer worth of activity to bring everyone up to speed on, so let’s get started!

Adventure Colorado Cycling Flaanimal Gravel Bike Newsletter Rodeo Labs Rodeo Rally traildonkey

Robididn’t: Open Range Tornados

I experienced a wide range of emotions after standing on the podium at Unbound. Climbing up there and fulfilling a long journey of hard work and sacrifice filled me with elation. However, it also left me with a lingering question of “what’s next?” The following four days were mostly filled with snacking and sleeping as I basked in achieving my biggest goal of the year, only touching the bike to clean it.

Colorado Cowtown Gravel Cycling Gravel Bike Rodeo Labs traildonkey

Chris’ Switch-Up Flaanimal Titanium

Flaanimal 5 Titanium switch-up gravel bike

@chrismagnotta is one of the original five riders who said “sure I’m in” when the Rodeo team started in 2014. Since then he’s done innumerable questionable things on his Donkey, such as Leadville 100, Unbound 200, White Rim, Slickrock, etc etc. so when he decided it was time for a new Flaanimal Ti he asked “should I go flat bar or drop bar?”

We responded “Why not both?”

Adventure Colorado Gravel Bike hydraulic couplers Mountain Biking Rodeo Labs

Changing seasons. To Ride Alone

In 2020 I dreamt up a route that both thrilled me and terrified me. A Super Sized ride, if you will. Over the years my definition of such a ride has constantly morphed from “I wonder what it would be like to ride my bike for two hours” to their current iteration: Ambitious single day routes built around idealistic objectives. Most often the objectives are peaks, or mountain passes, or geographical features that make me feel infinitely small when I finally arrive at them. Tiny tiny person, huge huge landscape; that’s my ideal, my singularity. That contrast charges me up and fills me with the sense that I am indeed living life, not watching it pass by from the sidelines. I have a small collection of these rides among my memories. They are among my most precious adventure memories: Black Bear + Imogene, Antero, Breck Super Loop, Three Passes, Denver to Kansas, Solo 200, White Rim Solo. There might be others. There are definitely others. Each of these rides gave me equal measures fear and ultimately elation upon completion. Many took more than one attempt to finish. If I were to point at why I ride bikes in an effort to explain it to people, I would point at these experiences.

Adventure Colorado Cycling Gravel Bike Jones Pass Rodeo Labs traildonkey