For Lake County, the City of Leadville and Visit Leadville Twin Lakes
For Leadville and Lake County
A proposal to host Grand Tour Gravel, a small multi-day gravel stage race, in the third week of September: after the August races, when the town has beds and tables to fill.
grandtourgravel.com/partners/town/
The pitch
A September week for the town
Proposed Wednesday September 15 to Sunday September 19, 2027. Five stages, Leadville home every night, a finish in town on the last day. Our planning field is 100 to 200 riders; the permits set the real cap.
Leadville's summer is full and its September is quieter. A stage race keeps riders, and whoever travels with them, in town for most of a week. That's the point of the date.
Illustrative arithmetic, not a forecast
Based only on our planning figure: if 150 riders each bring one companion and stay five nights, that's about 1,500 visitor-nights, or roughly 750 room-nights if each pair shares a room. Across the 100–200 planning range, the same assumptions give 1,000 to 2,000 visitor-nights. Staff, crews and media are extra. We haven't estimated spending and won't until there's a field and a budget.
What the published numbers say
Lake County's visitor economy
The Colorado Tourism Office's county figures (Dean Runyan Associates) also put Lake County's travel-related earnings at $23.1 million and state tax receipts at $1.5 million in 2025.1 The state's county lodging tax report shows $169,538 in county lodging tax on $8,922,885 of lodging sales in 2025, up from $8,478,428 in 2024.2
Seasonality. Lake County's tourism director told the Vail Daily in July 2026 that about 750,000 of the county's 1.1 million annual visitors arrive in summer.3 The same report showed how exposed that makes the town: during the 2026 Willow Fire, visitation from June 27 to July 7 was down 26.5% on the year before and the county's June sales tax fell 30%.3 A second anchor event outside the peak spreads that risk.
We couldn't find monthly lodging-tax figures for Lake County in public sources. The City and County hold their own filings and can test the shoulder-season case against them better than we can.
What the race asks of the town
The asks
- PendingPermits. City and County special-event permits, alongside the Forest Service special-use permit for the passes. Harrison Avenue carries US 24, so a finish there also involves CDOT.
- ProposedRoad use. County roads for stage starts and returns, with the smallest closures and traffic control the safety plan allows. Details come with the course design, not before.
- ProposedVolunteers. Help recruiting local volunteers for aid, marshalling and the finish. We'll publish how many are needed once aid points are set. Volunteer page.
- ProposedThe finish in town. A finish and awards on Harrison Avenue on the Sunday, inside the National Historic Landmark district.
What it gives back
The return
- ProposedPart of every entry stays in Lake County. The beneficiary will be chosen with the community. We'd like the County, City and tourism office in that conversation.
- ProposedLocal first. Hire locally for race staff and course crews, and buy locally where it's offered: food, lodging blocks, rentals, printing, sanitation.
- ProposedMedia. Daily photography from the passes and the finish, a short documentary about the town and its roads, and coverage the tourism office can use. Media and production plan.
- PendingStewardship. Leave No Trace, cupless aid and a pack-out plan, plus a restoration morning for riders in the Willow Fire area if the Forest Service agrees. Land, town and air.
Avoiding friction
How we stay out of the way
ProposedThe calendar
No date on any Leadville Race Series weekend. Its season typically wraps up in August, so mid-September clears it. We'll check the published 2027 calendar, and the town's own events, before filing.
ProposedCrews and parking
Designated crew parking only, no stopping on shoulders or course turnouts, and set crew zones where the roads allow. Stages start early and return to one base, so traffic comes in predictable waves. Crews page.
ProposedFire and smoke
Follow every closure and fire restriction without asking for exceptions, plan alternates for stages near the 2026 Willow Fire, and check air quality in each morning's go/no-go call. Fire plan.
Next step: a conversation
We'd like to sit down with the County, the City and Visit Leadville Twin Lakes this fall, before any permit is filed, and hear what the town wants from a September event and what it doesn't. Nothing is asked for in writing yet.
Leadvilleutvtours@gmail.com · subject "Grand Tour Gravel – host town" · grandtourgravel.com/how-we-run-it/
Sources
- Dean Runyan Associates for the Colorado Tourism Office, The Economic Impact of Travel in Colorado, 2025p (June 2026), County Impacts Table, Lake County, p. 55. Listed on the Colorado Tourism Office research page; report file: drive.google.com/file/d/13OYBcAvoved_Pywy0rjMlLv_qoKlZew_. Figures for 2025 are preliminary.
- Colorado Department of Revenue, Office of Research and Analysis, County Lodging Tax Report, 2012 to Date (prepared April 2026), Lake County rows. From cdor.colorado.gov lodging tax reports. Covers the county lodging tax collected by the state.
- Vail Daily, "Leadville Race Series get green light for final 4 summer events as Willow Fire reaches 40% containment," July 17, 2026: vaildaily.com.
- Velo, on the 2026 Leadville Trail 100 MTB reroute for the Willow Fire: velo.outsideonline.com.
The visitor-night figures above are our own illustrative arithmetic from the 100–200 rider planning figure, not a projection. Everything on this page is subject to permits, sanctioning and insurance.