SBT GRVL Runs Afoul of Local Ranchers & Residents in Colorado

[gravelreformist]

I happen to be working in Colorado now and driving on many of these ranch roads every day. I'd actually read this article prior to seeing it posted here.

While there are absolutely some valid complaints the overall tone the ranchers strike is that article is of the ultimate entitled NIMBY'er. They are worried that a large cycling event doesn't align with the county's 'agrarian values' which I find to hold exactly zero water. Times and places change. The ranchers are on land that was stolen from people who had lived on that land for generations before them. The gravel roads are public and people have the right to use them. (The private roads in this race do not appear to be part of the complaints - the landowner is extensively quoted in the article).

An all-day road closure impacts people who live on it pretty much equally whether they live in a large city, small town, or mountain canyon. The fact that there are plenty of other roads in the area doesn't help much if YOUR road is closed all day. So again, I find that argument entirely pointless.

As someone who lives in a rural area I think it's pretty much cultural that many of those people simply don't want the area to change in any way - from the way that they have experienced it. They are largely incapable of having the kind of introspection necessary to realize that their experience only exists because they pushed someone else out.