Four days of moun­tain-bike rac­ing is com­ing to trails in the Col­orado Springs area this week with stages con­test­ed at Palmer Park, Ram­part Range Road, Gold Camp/Jones Park and the High Dri­ve area.

Called the Pikes Peak APEX, the event will unfold Sept. 24–27 on dirt roads, Jeep trails and sin­gle-tracks against the back­drop of Pikes Peak. Par­tic­i­pants will include home­town favorite Katie Comp­ton, a 15-time U.S. Cyclocross cham­pi­on, accord­ing to a news release.

The prize purse will be a min­i­mum of $25,000 and will jump to $50,000 if 250 rid­ers reg­is­ter. They were just about 200 cyclists reg­is­tered as of Fri­day after­noon, accord­ing to Alex­ea Ven­era­cion, com­mu­ni­ca­tions man­ag­er for Vis­it Col­orado Springs, one of the event sponsors.

“I’ve always enjoyed mul­ti-day races, and hav­ing this one so close to home on trails I get to ride fre­quent­ly is pret­ty great,” Comp­ton said in the release. “The stages are chal­leng­ing and will make for some hard rac­ing, but the views will make the suf­fer­ing a lit­tle more manageable.”

An 11-mile time tri­al at Palmer Park with 1,000 feet of ele­va­tion gain will start things on Thurs­day. The next three days will entail 110 miles of rid­ing with more than 14,000 feet of climbing.

Due to the coro­n­avirus, spec­ta­tors are asked to avoid gath­er­ing at the start and fin­ish areas.

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