Gravel Race Series to Showcase Northern New Mexico

A three-round gravel race series in San Juan County hopes to bring something unique to the bike race scene in the Four Corners region. You're watching the "Local NEWS Network" brought to you by Home2 Suites and Northern Edge Casino. I'm Connor Shreve. Aztec Adventures continues to grow since its inception in 2021, and the 2024 Summer Race Series includes some new venues and race improvements. The Galactic Grinder starts things off outside Aztec, New Mexico, April 6th.

That's exciting because we've got a new event location, and so it's the property just north of the Cedar Hill Cemetery. It's a full 40 acres, we can camp out there at night, and it accesses these gravel roads in a very safe way. And it also doesn't fill up the Alien Run parking lot, which we've done in the past.

The race features a sharp climb up the San Juan Alps near the Colorado border and the jaunt into the Alien Run Trail System. That's just some of the terrain Hannum hopes to showcase to riders from surrounding communities who haven't ridden the area.

I think some of the things we offer are events that are located and permitted in a space that is local to some of these athletes, but they've never really gone and done... They've never gone to those areas for rides or been on events in those areas.

If you've driven by the gas field roads of San Juan County and wondered, "What's back there?" Hannum says you'll find unique terrain.

Roads that are less occupied by traffic as well when I say the gas field roads. And so you have the opportunity to explore these places with maybe five vehicles coming past you, where sometimes when you're out on the gravel roads, there's a lot of gravel traffic getting home or getting out to their farms and such. And so I think that offers less traffic in some of the spaces and maybe more of an open wilderness feeling.

The race series showcases the sandy washes and high desert ridges unique to Aztec and Farmington. Hannum wants to continue to bring riders from biking hotbeds like Durango and Moab to Northern New Mexico. He credits the first step in that mission to community support.

And so that's first like learning how to get all the paperwork done correctly and make sure you're working with the local landowners. And so that was a big amount of support. And so at this point, I think it's still building blocks, and hopefully this year, we're reaching out to the regional communities and to invite them to join us at some of these events.

The Gas Field Grinder is set for June 8th in Aztec, and the series culminates with the Holy Grit based out of Wines of the San Juan in Blanco on October 12th. Register for all three and get 20% off. Check out the details online. Learn more about this story and others at farmingtonlocal.news. Thank you for watching this edition of The "Local NEWS Network." I'm Connor Shreve.