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When last year saw Outside Bike & Brew participants pedaling through snowstorms and dancing to Reverend Horton Heat in raincoats, it could have been easy to write the whole thing off as stormed out and therefore fizzled out. Instead, the event returns this year with some beefy additions to the lineup, and the goal of boosting Santa Fe’s image as a cycling destination that drew three years of public financing to the festival also seems bigger than ever.
"They all talked about how hardcore Santa Fe is, about how all 40 women showed up for the 40-participant women's clinic, and all of them had fun and went away stronger cyclists and fired up," says Chris Goblet, the organizer for Bike & Brew. "Whatever we did, whatever we have, if it's great people or terrible weather or great restaurants or nice cushy hotels, something about Santa Fe makes it different from all other bike festivals. "
The Three Bs:
Bikes, Beers and Bodacious Tunes
Bikes and beers together would be enough for almost anyone to have a great time, but the annual Outside Bike & Brew pedals that extra mile with special outdoor performances from San Francisco soul/funk champs Con Brio and Los Angeles indie-folk rockers The Lonely Wild. The two-day lineup is all about creating an unforgettable experience and strikes the perfect balance of accessibility with enough of an edge. Friday’s show with Con Brio is a new take on Motown that pays respect to the titans of the field but forges its own territory—think Foxygen with more sex appeal. Saturday’s act, The Lonely Wild, resides someplace between the neo-folk sound of Mumford & Sons and a throwback paean to the indie world of the late ’90s. Yes, they rock, but they’re also smart enough to know when to go subtle and how to carry a layered complexity. Festivities begin at 5 pm. $15 per night or $25 for both. (Alex De Vore)
This year's Bike & Brew returns, moving from the Railyard to Fort Marcy Park and scheduled for May 18-22, not shying away after last year's rowdy weather, but instead adding events and firming up its place to stay in Santa Fe. Which is good news, because it's got a message to deliver that doesn't seem to have gotten through.
"New Mexico in general, and Santa Fe in specific, is a really underrated mountain biking destination," says Erin Ladd, marketing manager with Outside. "Tourists come to Santa Fe for a lot of different reasons—art, food, culture, shopping. There are these very expected reasons why people come to Santa Fe. The thing that flies under the radar is that we're this amazing outdoor destination."
It's no coincidence that the magazine, staffed with enthusiastic bikers and skiers, has its headquarters here, she adds, nor is it that they've chosen to put their name on Bike & Brew, the only event to hold that distinction.
"The value that we see of this is not just for the people who live here and already know what an awesome outdoor destination this is," Ladd says. "These are for the people who haven't yet experienced it for themselves, people who are coming into town from other places."
It is, in other words, high time everyone notices what's going on around Santa Fe—and that it's more than green chile and art galleries.
Bike & Brew's lineup of events includes rides guided by members of Santa Fe's Fat Tire Society; clinics; a bike expo; a food truck festival; concerts (see sidebar); beer dinners; biking tours to taste beer, wine and cider; movies; and sampling beers made by breweries such as Oscar Blues, Stone, Ballast Point, Second Street, Marble, La Cumbre, Bosque, Bathtub Row, Blue Corn, Sierra Nevada and Santa Fe Brewing.
"We just bundled it all together," Goblet says. "It's about healthy living, outdoor recreation and a celebration of kicking off the summer with something fun and kind of different."
Increasing the event's magnetism this year is the addition of a Big Mountain Enduro race, scheduled for May 22. This style of mountain bike racing, now surging in popularity, covers numerous trails in an area, showcasing the best through a demanding course. In Santa Fe's case, that'll mean 35 miles and some 8,000 vertical feet on four different trails, each of which riders will have to pedal to the start of. Though it's only a one-day race, and some of their events stretch up to four days, it may be one of the hardest courses in the lineup this year, says Brandon Ontiveros, executive director of Big Mountain Enduro.
"We're super excited to race a new venue, to be partnering with everybody down there in Santa Fe," he says. "We've already got over 300 people registered, so not just us internally, but our audience and the racers who follow us are pretty stoked on coming down there for this one."
The number of registrations is expected to top out around 350, and with families and support teams that will bring a total of up to 1,500 people to town—all part of the young, athletic contingent often missing in Santa Fe's tourism scene.
When the race organizers came down to ride Santa Fe's trails last year, they found themselves pleasantly surprised by the variety and accessibility from town, and the hope is to make Santa Fe a regular stop.
"We don't put races on or events and just one time and out. We work with the town, city, trail builders and everyone else to try to make it a multiyear event," Ontiveros says. "Our hope is to keep racing down in Santa Fe and to explore more trails down there and get more of the local community involved. We definitely have a long-term vision of sticking around."
Why fight through for another year, despite last year's dismal conditions?
"Because a lot of people say they really like it and believe in it," Goblet says, "and it takes time to get something started."
Outside Bike & Brew also continues what the Santa Fe Century, a 100-mile road biking event, began 31 years ago.
"Without them, we would not exist," Goblet says. "But we have built on their history and hopefully can add to their legacy. … Hopefully, we're still talking about cycling in Santa Fe 100 years from now."
And so far, this weekend's forecast looks clear.
Outside Bike & Brew
Ft. Marcy Park, 490 Bishop's Lodge Road, 660-2951
The Main Event (beer garden, bike expo and concerts):
4 pm- 9 pm Friday, May 20
and Saturday, May 21
outsidesantafe.com
Santa Fe Reporter