SBT GRVL 2026: Everything You Need to Know Before Champagne Gravel Saturday

Every year, gravel cycling's most devoted pilgrims make the journey to a small Colorado ski town and proceed to suffer spectacularly on some of the finest dirt roads in North America. SBT GRVL presented by Wahoo returns to Steamboat Springs, Colorado on June 26–28, 2026, and by every measure — field depth, course freshness, and community energy — this edition looks like one for the ages. If you have a spot on the start list, you're one of the lucky ones. The 2026 ride and race sold out months ago.

A Redesigned Course Built for Chaos

Organizers went back to the drawing board for 2026. The new Black Course covers 108 miles and 8,189 feet of elevation, rolling through sections of Routt County that riders haven't seen before alongside stretches that will be familiar from past years. Racers roll out from Yampa Street in downtown Steamboat Springs at 6:00 a.m., climbing the iconic Zipp Cow Creek before ascending toward Trout Creek and Wahooligan Pass on their way to Hayden, then returning for a final descent back to the finish line.

The course is rated Tier 1 by Gravel God with 10/10 scores for both VO2 power demand and race specificity — meaning you will spend time above threshold whether you want to or not. The altitude adds a non-negotiable tax: the Green Course alone sits at 7,000-plus feet, and the Black Course ventures well beyond that.

For recreational riders, the new 2026 Green Course — 25 miles, beginner and e-bike friendly — offers a true entry point into the SBT experience. It transitions from pavement to champagne gravel and finishes on the celebrated Zipp Cow Creek section. As the course guide puts it, the distance is bite-sized but the climbing at altitude is real.

The Pro Fields Are Loaded

The women's race features some of the deepest gravel talent assembled anywhere in 2026. Former SBT GRVL winner Sofía Gómez Villafañe enters as a podium favourite, joined by fellow past champions Melisa Rollins, Lauren Stephens, and Lauren De Crescenzo. IRONMAN World Champion Chelsea Sodaro adds an intriguing wildcard, while Tiffany Cromwell, Cecily Decker, Cécile Lejeune, and Alexis Skarda round out a field that could shred any one of them on any given climb.

On the men's side, three-time SBT GRVL winner Keegan Swenson comes in as the obvious benchmark. Defending champion Brennan Wertz will be testing whether lightning can strike twice, while Peter Stetina, Adam Roberge, Simon Pellaud, and Alexey Vermeulen all have the form and experience to shake things up. Swenson's three wins show he knows how to race this specific terrain, but gravel is famously unforgiving of complacency.

The GRVL Femmes initiative returns for its second year, bringing more than 100 amateur female cyclists into a dedicated competitive format with a $3,000 team prize purse for the top three fastest amateur women's teams on the Black Course. It's the kind of programme that other events should be watching closely.

Numbers That Matter on Race Day

Total field size for 2026 is capped at 2,750 participants — 2,000 recreational riders and 750 competitive racers across four courses. That cap is a direct result of negotiations with Routt County commissioners, who unanimously approved the 2026 road permit after organisers committed to improved aid station placement, dedicated command infrastructure, and a full course sweep the day after the event.

For pacing and fuelling, the numbers are equally demanding. Experts recommend targeting 60–80 grams of carbohydrates per hour across the Black Course's 108 miles, starting fuelling within the first 30 minutes to prevent the late-race collapse that catches out ambitious riders who start too hard. Time cutoffs are strictly enforced: riders averaging below 10 mph elapsed time on the Black Course will be redirected to a shorter route.

The Friday Night MTN CLMB presented by Ventum opens the weekend with a head-to-head elimination hill climb on Steamboat's ski mountain, with a $1,000 prize purse and a concert at the base. Saturday brings the SBT TRL Running Race plus a full expo featuring more than 80 vendors on Yampa Street.

What Champagne Gravel Actually Means for Your Tyres

"Champagne gravel" is not just marketing language. The fine, small-diameter gravel of Routt County's ranch roads rolls fast — genuinely fast — but it also generates dust clouds immediately after the first gravel section begins. Riders consistently report being covered head to toe early in the day. 38mm tyres represent the current consensus sweet spot for this surface: enough volume for confidence on loose sections, not so much that you're giving away free watts on the firm stretches.

For the dusty conditions, sealed bearings and a pre-race drivetrain service are non-negotiable. The neutral support zones and improved aid stations in 2026 offer some mechanical backup, but the course's remote sections through Routt County ranch country mean self-sufficiency still matters.

What This Means for Your Riding

Even if you're not in Steamboat Springs this weekend, the SBT GRVL format offers a useful training template. The event's preparation profile calls for random-interval chaos blocks — efforts ranging from 30 seconds to three minutes at 85–130 percent of FTP with no predictable pattern — precisely because gravel racing doesn't let you settle into a rhythm. Terrain, wind, and competitors dictate your power output, not your plan. Build that tolerance in training now and you'll arrive at whatever your next big event is better prepared to handle the moments that go off-script.