The Hotdogger Mountain Bike Race // 2026 Race Report

The Hotdogger is 50% endurance mountain bike race, 50% hotdog eating contest, and 100% a good time with your friends in the desert of western Colorado. The idea of this team race still cracks me up when I think about it because it’s such a strange concept. To win this race, or competition rather, your team of up to 6 riders, needs to score the most amount of hot dog points between sunrise and sunset. To earn a hot dog “point”, you can simply eat a hotdog, or, complete 1 of the 5 mountain bike loops which would also earn you a varying amount of points (from 1 to 5) based on difficulty. Unlike a normal race, which has a specified course and maybe required lap count, this is a completely open ended competition, allowing the riders to choose how much, or little they want to ride or eat. The only time constraint is that you can’t start until sunrise at 7:08AM, and the last points need to be on the scoreboard just before sunset at 6PM. Which can be simplified down to eating one or two hot dogs every time you complete a lap on your bike over the course of 11 hours.

Taking place in Fruita, Colorado’s trail system called 18 Road. These trails are perfect for this type of event. There is something for all skill levels, and better yet, you can camp right within the trail system for easy laps with your friends, especially for this event. For this race, there are trails that you can ride after climbing up the paved road to the top of the riding area. Each of the 5 trails are worth differing hot dog points from the green trail Kessel Run (1pt) all the way up to the black Zippity (5pts). Both PBR and PBJ are worth 2 points and Joe’s Ridge is worth 3 points. Most of these loops are under 5 miles and 600ft of climbing with the exception of Zippity being 6.3 and almost 900ft of vert. The idea being that you should be able to knock out these laps in under an hour. And even though the laps are relatively mellow, you burn just enough calories to earn yourself a hotdog (or two) after each lap!

Our team, the Salty Dogs, consisting of my buddy Mike, his two friends Aiden and Dan, Courtney, and myself. Already starting with 1 down from a full team, we had our work cut out for us. Looking around at the starting area, and by that I mean the tent where they were cooking the hotdogs, there were plenty of creative teams out there dressed hotdog themed costumes. What type of costumes you might ask? Well anything from literal dog costumes, to artist renderings of Frank Lloyd Wright homes made from hotdogs, to plenty of other inappropriate hotdog innuendo themed shirts and outfits. Needless to say, there was definitely some costume envy as our team really just showed up with some sweet party shirts, but nothing out of the ordinary for a fun group ride. And unlike the top teams, we were out there to have fun, not looking to be the next Joey Chestnut and eat 100 hot dogs while also riding 100+ miles. But we did plan to ride from bell to bell and I was stoked about that.

At sunrise, the entire group of riders cheers their hot dogs, shoveled them down quickly, then mounted their bikes to head up the road for their first lap. Rolling up the road, the climb was so moderate, it was a perfect way to reach the riding zone before ripping down a quick lap. Each lap took anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour depending on how hard you were riding. After each lap, we would roll into the hotdog tent where you’d grab the buns that were stacked up a couple feet high in their bags and quickly received a cooked hot dog with zero wait time. Dealer’s choice on what your toppings were, ranging from ketchup, mustard, hot sauce, relish, you name it. And the morning went on repeat, one lap done with a hotdog lined with a thin strip of mustard on the top. Though not as delicious as the brats and sausages we had all week in Switzerland & Germany the week before this race, but I wasn’t complaining. Hard to have a bad hotdog.

While myself and my team wasn’t exactly fighting for the top spot on the podium, my buddy Nate and his team were absolutely gunning for the win. His bike, along with the 5 others, were all singlespeeds, meaning they only had one gear to climb all the hills and steeps. So it was fun to take laps on Zippity with those guys, just to feel how gnarly each of those punchy climbs were without gearing. I tried to match their effort without shifting, and found myself out of the saddle for every climb. The shorter climbs, at the top section were manageable, but still required full effort. They were more technical to navigate, as they twisted up the climbs. But it was the lower climbs, the longer ones, after riding the spine down the trail that were pushing the limits of my legs. No matter how hard you pushed, ultimately the terrain was just too steep for too long and I eventually just slowed down too much and had to get off to push my bike. But luckily, this wasn’t a real race and only the pride of cleaning the climb faster than my buddies was all that mattered. Because we all just ripped down the trail together and back to the base area for another hotdog.

Towards the afternoon, when Dan finally joined back up with us, we all took a party lap down Zippity. Although, the group did not make it too far together. In the middle of the Frontside traverse, on one of the dry creek crossings, we heard a crash from Aiden who was riding tailgunner. We stopped to wait for him to gather himself and catch up, but he never showed. We the 3 of us rolled back up the trail, only to find Aiden holding his bike up, looking completely perplexed. Aiden had slammed into a rock alongside the trail, snapping his derailleur in half in the middle of the arm, which then wrapped around his wheel, snapping a spoke, which then liberated itself through the wheel and tire. Not a simple tire swap to fix this one. We spent the next 20 minutes trying to break the chain to get the derailleur off to at least have a strider bike. But that also lead to a puncture of the first tube we threw in the wheel. Eventually, with the help of everyone, we got Aiden back on the trail, but he decided to head back down the road rather than push his bike up each of the climbs for the rest of Zippity.

After a day of riding, watching the sun travel all the way across the sky, from the bluffs in the east to the cliffs in the west. The day began to wrap up, but not before one last lap. The party lap. All riders up for it, met in the base area and rode out behind the race crew who threw speakers into the back of the trailer and jammed our out all the way to the top of the road. Everyone ripped down a PBR lap together. The last lap Mike and I got to ride together was on Joe’s Ridge, where my fork decided to let the ghost out and stopped acting like a fork for the rest of the ride and I was left with a near rigid bike that was long overdue for service. But that didn’t stop me from enjoying one of the best days of riding. Getting to ride with my wife, a lap with my dog, and my buddies. Wrapping up the day with another hot dog, we tallied our last laps on the board and crossed off our last hotdogs before the time limit for the day.

Of course we weren’t going to win, but we did our best and finished somewhere in the middle of the pack. And during the closing ceremony, after they raffled off countless bike parts and even a full bike, they listed off the winners. We’d seen four different teams pushing it to the very last minute. Everyone came in, completely exhausted, but still enough energy to shovel down a few hotdogs for every last point before the bell sounded. In totally, as a race, something like 5,000 hotdogs were eaten. And when they called the winners up to the podium, my buddy Nate’s team was standing alone up there as the winners. Their team of six riders, on average, rode nearly 70 miles and ate 15 hotdogs each. Not bad for a day out on the bike. Of course, with the camping right at the base area, the day wasn’t over and we all got to hang out by the campfires and party into the night to celebrate what a wild, idiotic day on bikes it was.