Desert Gravel is proud to announce Knight Composites as its official wheel sponsor of Co2uT gravel race for 2020 and 2021. The inaugural event (scheduled for October 10th, 2020) starts and ends in Fruita, CO, and travels around and across the Colorado-Utah borderlands.
A Colorado-based wheel company sponsoring a Colorado-based event makes perfect sense. But initial partnership conversations stemmed from simple Instagram posts. “As a brand new event, we are building our social media audience from scratch. Back in May we began by following riders, racers, organizations and brands we admire on Instagram…one of which was Knight Composites. We quickly saw that our tone, content and voice matched that of Knight’s,” Event Director, Morgan Murri explains.
It wasn’t long before we made a more tangible connection and from there a natural partnership was born. The brand offers a fantastic product that’s a great fit for our terrain but we also like who they are as a company.
Knight Composites (based in Boulder, CO) builds wheels with 3 simple goals in mind: compliance, speed and durability. Each of those goals come into play when you’re riding gravel in the desert. The 1,000 gravel race participants will have 5 “amazing desert gravel experiences” to choose from. Named after the dinosaurs that once roamed the area, the Co2uT courses range from the 30-mile “Fruitaden” up to the 190-mile ‘Allosaurus’ / a.k.a. “The BIG Monster”. Each including the unique terrain and stunning views of the Grand Valley.
As part of this year’s sponsorship, Knight Composites will be offering a set of their “All Road/Gravel” carbon wheels (retail value $1699) to the female and male winners of the Allosaurus course. A swag bag will also be up for grabs for the QOM and KOM of the “Knight Composite Strava Segment” (to be unveiled in advance for anyone who wants to practice).
“A good wheel is only good if it can hold up to the abuse you throw at it. We get it. We build our wheels to ride across just about any terrain, in all conditions on the same wheels. Whether it’s race day or Wednesday, we don’t want to think about our wheels. We just want to ride. And that’s what we want for our customers, as well.” said Knight Composites Brand Manager, Brad Swaim. “We’re excited to be a part of the Co2uT – an event that’s a perfect fit for our wheels… and truthfully one that we all can’t wait to ride, ourselves.”
Cyclists participating in Knight Composites’ Independence Day Bike Scavenger Hunt on the 4th of July in Boulder, will have a chance to meet some of the folks behind Co2uT at the Co2uT/Team Evergreen checkpoint. “We’ll be posted up on some buttery gravel at the Boulder Reservoir,” said Team Evergreen Director, Jen Barbour. “We’ll have swag to stuff in your jerseys and we’ll be offering up a free Co2uT entry as an event prize. Come get your gravel on, get an air-high-five and say ‘hello’.”
Registration is almost full, but folks wishing to participate can register with confidence for the Co2ut with Desert Gravel’s industry-leading registration and refund policy. As a Team Evergreen event, the proceeds from the event will go to local non-profits within the host community. For more information visit www.teamevergreen.org.