FoCo Fondo has grown into one of Colorado’s most distinctive gravel events, blending fast, varied routes with a community-led scholarship programme that puts inclusion at the heart of the race.
FoCo Fondo has become one of the standout gravel weekends in the American West by offering something more than a hard day out on the bike. Based in Fort Collins, Colorado, and now in its 11th year, the event combines a broad range of route options with a clear community mission: make gravel racing feel more open, more welcoming, and more representative of the people who want to take part. For co-founder Whitney Allison, that mission is not a side project. It is central to what the event is and how it survives.
“We were basically gambling on ourselves that we would have enough registrations to cover the scholarships and programming that we were promising people,” Allison says. That financial tension is one reason the event recently evolved into a nonprofit structure, allowing the outreach work to “live independently and to grow independently.” It is a practical move, but also a philosophical one. FoCo Fondo is not just trying to put on a race; it is trying to build an ecosystem around it.
A race with range
One of the strongest features of FoCo Fondo is its flexibility. Rather than forcing every rider into a single mold, the event offers multiple distances that reflect both the geography of the Front Range and the different levels of rider ambition. Allison describes the terrain as “more on the plain side,” with rolling roads that get progressively more challenging as the routes lengthen. That progression helps create a race that is approachable at the short end and properly demanding at the long end.
The 30-mile route is the entry point for newer gravel riders. Allison points out that much of it runs over treated roads: “We have a lot of treated gravel roads. They’re like, treated with mag chloride. So you might have heard, like, SBT says, like, champagne gravel.” The comparison is apt. This is not rough, technical racing in the mountain sense. It is fast, smooth, and designed to let riders get a feel for gravel without being overwhelmed by it.
At the other end of the spectrum is the 118-mile route, which pushes far beyond the introductory experience. Allison describes it as “a much more arduous journey,” one that climbs into the mountains and heads through Aspen forests before a long descent and a fast return to town. “It’s a super fast 118 miles,” she says, but that speed comes with a warning: the extra 18 miles beyond the 100-mile option are all climbing. In other words, the final leap to the premier distance is small on paper and huge in reality.
Why the event matters
What makes FoCo Fondo feel distinct is not just the route design, but the sense that the event is deeply embedded in its local setting. Allison and her husband have lived in the area for a long time, and that local identity shapes how they think about the race. “We’re just very much about making sure all of our local businesses and people are really elevated,” she says. That approach shows up in the event logistics, the partnerships, and even the route itself.
One of the clearest examples is the way the 118-mile course has been built in cooperation with local landowners. Allison explains that the event works with a rancher who allows riders to use a cattle run to pass under a highway that would otherwise be impossible to close. “We get to work with different community members to make this all the thing for everybody,” she says. It is a small detail, but it tells you a lot about the event’s ethos. FoCo Fondo is not designed as an imposed spectacle. It is built through cooperation.
That local, collaborative character matters because gravel racing increasingly sits at the intersection of endurance sport, travel, and destination culture. Events can easily become extractive, especially when they depend on a place but do little to support it. FoCo Fondo appears to be working in the opposite direction. The race is using its platform to elevate local businesses, create a distinctive route experience, and keep the surrounding community part of the story.
Inclusion as structure
The strongest part of Whitney Allison’s voice comes through when she talks about the scholarship and leadership program, because this is where the event’s values become tangible. The program is designed for BIPOC, women, para-athletes, and gender-expansive riders, and the selection process is intentionally not based on social media reach or traditional merit signals. “We’re not looking for how many social media followers you have or anything like that,” Allison says. “It’s just a gift, freely given.”
That phrase is important because it reveals the moral framework behind the program. The scholarships are not a branding exercise. They are a form of access. Community leaders who belong to the represented groups help choose the riders, which means the program is shaped by people who understand the needs of their communities directly. Allison says the event does not ask those leaders to justify their presence or prove their worth. Instead, “they run their own programming and advocate for their own communities to us, and then we just find them the resources they need.”
This is a more meaningful model than token inclusion because it shifts power outward. The event is not simply inviting people in; it is helping them lead. Allison says the leadership program is now in its fourth year, and it has evolved as a result of that rider-led direction. That evolution matters. Inclusion is often treated as an add-on in sport. Here, it is part of the architecture.
Scholarships with support
The scholarship package is also more comprehensive than a free entry alone. Allison explains that the program includes housing supported by New Belgium Brewing, and that the event works with different budgets to make the support go further. Riders stay in a college dorm close to the start, which she calls “amazing,” and travel support is scaled according to need. “Maybe a rider from Denver, which is a one-hour drive, maybe only gets a one-night stay, where a rider coming from Pennsylvania would get three nights,” she says.
That detail gives the program practical credibility. It acknowledges that not every rider is facing the same costs, and it avoids wasting limited resources. The event is trying to maximise the number of riders it can support while staying realistic about the funding available. Allison is candid that this is a balancing act, but the intention is clear: “We’re trying to balance all of that out where we can, like, accommodate the maximum number of riders within the budgets that we have.”
The program also goes beyond the event weekend itself. Riders receive a welcome package, and the selected scholars take part in monthly virtual calls. These were introduced because the organisers wanted riders to feel connected before they arrived in Fort Collins. “We wanted to have ways for people to connect virtually going into event weekend, so that people didn’t feel like, ‘Okay, I got this scholarship, and now I still don’t know anybody,’” Allison says. That is a smart and humane response to the social barriers that can make sport feel exclusive even when entry is technically open.
Practical preparation
The monthly calls are not just social check-ins. They are used to prepare riders for the realities of the event and the environment. Alison says the program includes speakers on heat and altitude because the race sits at around 5,000 feet, or 1,500 meters. There are also sessions on tyres, body care, and coaching. The aim is simple: “So that riders can have those barriers broken down.”
That kind of preparation turns the scholarship into something more substantial than a one-off opportunity. It gives riders information, confidence, and community ahead of race day. It also reinforces the idea that inclusion is not only about who gets to start, but how well people are set up to succeed once they do.
The support continues into the weekend itself, where scholarship recipients have their own gatherings. Again, that is a meaningful touch. It means the program is not just distributing entries and leaving riders to navigate the event alone. It is creating a social framework around the race, which can be especially important for people who may not already have a strong connection to the gravel scene.
The event picture
FoCo Fondo is now large enough to sit firmly on the gravel calendar, with more than 2,000 riders taking part in recent years. But scale has not erased its local character. If anything, the event seems to have become more intentional about what it wants to be as it has grown. The nonprofit structure, the leadership program, the route variety, and the community partnerships all point in the same direction: this is an event trying to be both competitive and welcoming.
For riders, that means choice. A 30-mile intro on smooth gravel, the most popular 100-mile route for a fast century effort, or the 118-mile mountain challenge for those wanting something more serious. For the broader scene, it offers a model worth paying attention to: one where access is resourced, not assumed, and where the people closest to the communities being served help shape the program itself.
Race details
Event: FoCo Fondo.
Location: Fort Collins, Colorado, USA.
Format: Gravel fondo with multiple route options, including 30 miles, 100 miles, and 118 miles. Plus a bonus Saturday 12-mile Kids & Family route.
Terrain: Rolling plains, treated gravel roads, and a mountain extension on the longest route.
Inclusion work: Scholarship and leadership programs for BIPOC, women, para-athletes, and gender-expansive riders.
Support offered: Free entries, housing, travel support, and pre-event virtual programming.
Entry: Scholarship applications are open for one month and are selected by community leaders from the relevant groups.
Timing: Annual event; the transcript does not include the exact race dates.
FoCo Fondo’s real strength may be that it understands gravel racing as more than a test of fitness. It is also a test of who gets to belong. Whitney Allison’s answer, repeated throughout the event’s structure, is that belonging should be built into the race from the start.
If you want more information or to enter, please visit:
🚨 Before you go, help support PRO. Gravel!
If you enjoyed this piece, tap Like ♡ and Restack ⮂ to help us reach more riders.
Subscribe to stay up to date with everything we’re doing at PRO. Gravel.
And drop a comment 🗨️ we read every one.