Cyclists Say Exclusive Tour De Wyoming One Of Best Bike Tours In The Nation

LANDER – Mark Ryan was wandering around after an 80-mile bicycle ride from Riverton, somehow still full of energy and eager for more adventure. 

Ryan was one of about 250 cyclists riding this year’s Tour de Wyoming, which rolled into Lander on Monday evening, setting up a small tent city in Lander City Park. 

The group was following right on the heels of the International Climbers’ Festival, another tent city that just rolled out of town on Sunday night.

Back in the camp, there was a bubble machine manufacturing a mood, while a volunteer Ryan knew only as “Fred The Smoothie Guy” was preparing cold and fruity smoothies for a little bit of apres biking. 

A caterer that usually serves wildfire crews follows the cyclists around, preparing hearty meals every night to fuel up for the next day. And there’s also both a masseuse and a yoga instructor to help the group get their muscles “stretchy” again and ready to put more miles of pavement under their tires. 

That’s all very nice, Ryan said — nicer than most bike tours he’s been on. But he wasn’t ready to relax yet, even after riding 80 miles up, and then down, 4,000 feet of elevation. 

“Wyoming just has so many little gems,” he told Cowboy State Daily over a green chili burger and beer at Lander’s famous Cowfish restaurant. “You can’t just roll through here. You’ve gotta kind of get in there (and dig), and that’s what I’m going to do while I’m here. 

“No dinners at the camp. I want to get like the local perspective, what’s happening in the state.”

The St. Louis resident was born and raised in Rock Springs, Wyoming, which made this year’s Tour de Wyoming something of a homecoming.

“When people ask me where I’m from, I tell them I’m from Wyoming,” he said. “It’s where I grew up in my formative years. And I always come back. I do a lot of backpacking and cycling.”

The cyclists are halfway through their six-day ride that finishes Friday back where they started in Riverton.

Winning The Lottery

This year’s Wyoming trip was extra special for Ryan. 

That’s because he finally won the Western cycling lottery — that is, a ticket to the Tour de Wyoming. The event only takes 250 riders, and prior losses don’t improve one’s chances of a win.

This year’s ride turned away 100 riders, according to longtime organizer, Amber Travsky. 

Everyone starts from ground zero from one year to the next, she told Cowboy State Daily, and the winners are selected randomly. 

The exception is groups that bring a volunteer to the event are automatically in. That’s made it difficult for individual riders like Ryan to break in, but it’s how the tour manages to staff all the rest stops along the way.

“I’ve been trying for, like, six years to do this,” Ryan said. “This year, it just happened to be the Windies (the Wind River Mountain Range), which is really close to Rock Springs where I grew up.”

Winning his ticket this year felt a bit like fate, and the ride so far has been refreshing, like a cold glass of beer on a hot summer day.

“I was like, ‘That’s a slam dunk. Here I go,’” he said. “A lot has changed in 25 years since I lived in Rock Springs. But a lot of things have stayed the same. 

“And the guy I talked to at the brewery, we talked about all kinds of stuff. Politics, the environment, and Lander, what buying a house in Lander means.”

Some things sound a lot like the trends Ryan is seeing across the nation and even in St. Louis, particularly the heat in the housing market.

“(Housing) is crazy everywhere,” he said. “Wyoming, Lander, is no different than anywhere else.”

A Wyoming Showcase

As a longtime, avid cyclist, Ryan has been on lots of bike tours, and said the Tour de Wyoming is one of the best he’s ever done. He’s hopeful he’ll get to do it again. 

“This is the first one where I’ve actually seen a barista,” he said. “I sent my friends a picture of it and I’m like, ‘Guys, you’ve gotta see this thing.’”

The baristas are John and Jodi Guerin, owners of Coal Creek Coffee in Laramie, and they’ve been providing coffee for the Tour de Wyoming for the last 18 or so years. 

John Guerin is an avid cyclist and a longtime participant in the Tour de Wyoming, and he agrees the tour is among the best.

He particularly likes the way it showcases Wyoming on different routes each year, which is somewhat down to all the expert planning. It has all the right lookout points, all the right rest stops, and the routes to the towns are all plotted at just the right distance away. 

Travsky has a whole committee helping her plan the route, making sure it will be just right. That makes it a great way to see the state. 

“I’ve ridden every pass in the state, which is awesome and super fun,” he said. “And I would have never done it otherwise.”

Travsky began the Tour de Wyoming in 1997 while she was heading up the governor’s Council for Physical Fitness and Sports.

“We had like 40 riders when we started,” Travsky told Cowboy State Daily. “And I was still chair for another year, so we went through them again. Then we went off and formed our own group.”

At times, Tour de Wyoming has been much bigger, Travsky said. 

“At one point we had 350 riders,” she said. “But our towns and our highways really couldn’t handle that many riders. So, we’ve found our sweet spot with, we have 250 paid riders and about 30 volunteers.”

How About A Hydro Massage

Tuesday morning, the Tour de Wyoming camp was already awake and alive even at 5:30 a.m.

People were decked out in riding gear and standing in line for coffee from the Guerins and/or breakfast, which ranged from yogurt with granola to heartier fare like eggs and has browns. There wasn’t a frown in the place.

Among those wearing the biggest smile was Carol Tremble from South Hero, Vermont. This was a return trip to Wyoming for her, and she was proudly wearing the No. 250 on her back — the ride’s last lottery winner.

“I love the state of Wyoming,” she said. “And this is a very well-organized ride.”

Becky and Keith Meyerholtz have also been on the ride multiple times thanks to having a volunteer on their team. Meyerholtz’s favorite part of the trip so far has been the chill, babbling stream that winds through Lander.

“I went down to the river and got, like, a hydro massage,” she said with a smile. “There’s this, like, water coming out over this rock, and then there’s a little pool.”

When she leans back into the pool and up against the rock, and it feels just like water jets.

“It literally felt like I was getting a hydro massage,” she said, demonstrating with her hands chopping down at her legs. “That was after 80 miles. That was pretty darn good.”

Rainbows Over Wyoming

People from all over the world vie to get into the Tour de Wyoming, which travels through a different part of the state each year.

There’s always a little bit of magic. Some of its planned, but some is just pure Wyoming, and you never know what might happen along the way.

“Today we’re going to go up to Sinks Canyon and then come down Sinks Canyon,” Travsky said. “And there’s a route, Squall Creek Road, which is about a 12-mile loop. 

“So, people can literally go up the canyon as far as they like, then turn back around. They can do whatever they want today because we’re not moving camp.”

That was the planned part of the magic for this year’s group. But it’s Wyoming, so Tuesday morning there was a rainbow, even though it wasn’t raining, arching over the highway for the early morning riders.

Sandra Ryan-Burkett was awake to see it as she was heading out for another beautiful, but challenging, day.

“This is a good way to see different parts of the state,” she said. “You see it much closer than if you’re driving by at 70 mph. And you meet all types of people, from lots of different places.”

At night, the bubble machine will be back again, setting a mood after a long day of bike riding around the canyon. 

The Low Water String Band will play for the group’s last Lander night, strains of music floating out into the night as eyes start to droop and the sun slips from the sky.

After that, it’s on to Dubois for new adventures on the open road of Wyoming, where rainbows appear without rain to inspire travelers on. The pot of gold at the end of such a rainbow isn’t shiny metal. It’s all the great adventures, planned and unplanned, that come with riding the Tour de Wyoming.

Renée Jean can be reached at renee@cowboystatedaily.com.