Founded in 1993 with a focus on scenic, challenging rides, Rocky Mountain Cycling Club - "For People Who Love To Ride" - is the home of Colorado’s brevet program. In its first season, RMCC offered a full Super Randonneur series, which has grown to a year-long schedule of brevets, populaires, team events, UAF audax brevets, and gravel rides. RMCC also organizes three 1200k’s: the Last Chance, Colorado High Country, and Front Range 1200. That’s the rando program.

RMCC has also offered mountain doubles (the Colorado Triple Crown) and week-long tours (the Spring and Super Contrails) in the Rockies, Arizona, and New Mexico. We continue to host a yearly Challenge Series of shorter but still challenging paved and gravel rides, which do not require RUSA membership.

On the Lefthand Canyon 400k

The Randonneuring Program

Early Years — When RMCC was founded, Gary Koenig was looking for a good Denver area club to sponsor brevets so folks could qualify for PBP, which he had ridden in 1991 while living in France. That’s how, in its first year, RMCC offered a full Super Randonneur series. Gary also ran non-SR brevets such as the 270 km Woodland Park brevet just for fun. International Randonneurs was the sanctioning body at that time, superseded by Randonneurs USA in 1998. At that point, John Lee Ellis (JLE) volunteered to be the Regional Brevet Administrator under RUSA.

Evolution — The rando program has branched out from season to season as new event types have been introduced, and as members have put forward new ideas. Some highlights:
 
 · 2001 – first Last Chance 1200, the third 1200k in the US, based on ideas from Bob Fourney and Charlie Henderson
 · 2001 – first 1000k brevet
 · 2002 – first flèche, so riders could complete their ACP Randonneur 5000 Award – the first team was the Prairie Dogs
 · 2003 – first populaires
 · 2011 – first Colorado High Country 1200
 · 2016 – first Front Range dart
 · 2018 – first Colorado Haute Randonnée 1200k Six-Pack
 · 2022 – first Audax brevet
 · 2023 – first Colorado Front Range 1200
 · 2023 – first 8k600 climby brevet
 · 2024 – first "Gravel Rouleur" series

Our rando calendar has grown from four events in 1993 (late April through June) to 38 events in 2025 (from January to December), with multiple chances to achieve Super Randonneur, and mountain brevets such as the Vail Pass Volley.

Other RMCC Programs

Developmental Club Ride Program — The aim of the original club ride schedule was to build distance and climbing from week to week to prepare riders for a challenging century or other event by June. Starting locations were iterated along the Front Range from Loveland to Larkspur to provide variety. Sundays normally offered a recovery ride. For the last few years, the club ride schedule has been more ad hoc, based on the weather and whoever is willing to lead.

Colorado Triple Crown — RMCC historically offered three mountain doubles: the Joe Lookingbill Denver-Aspen Classic, the Grand Loop, and the Colorado Death Ride. In the early years, Denver-Aspen was a public event, attracting 120-150 riders. The Grand Loop is a classic climb over Trail Ridge Road and back over Berthoud Pass to a start/finish in Golden. The Colorado Death Ride is a one-day circuit of the San Juan Skyway (226 miles). In 2009, Charlie Henderson and Mark Lowe created the Colorado Triple Crown from those events, and then added other courses over the years. Riders needed to finish at least three events in a single year to earn the Triple Crown Jersey. The series was last held in 2022.

RMCC Challenge Series — This moniker has covered an array of more challenging, shorter length (100k+) rides, with an emphasis on climbing in the foothills west of the Front Range. In recent years, the Challenge Series has included a fair amount of gravel, and explored more remote locations, such as Trinidad and Gunnison.