{"id":23127,"date":"2025-03-15T21:39:34","date_gmt":"2025-03-16T03:39:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/cortezs-high-desert-devo-gears-up-for-march-31-season-start\/"},"modified":"2026-03-30T22:27:35","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T04:27:35","slug":"cortezs-high-desert-devo-gears-up-for-march-31-season-start","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/cortezs-high-desert-devo-gears-up-for-march-31-season-start\/","title":{"rendered":"Cortez\u2019s High Desert Devo gears up for March 31 season start"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"This
This spring\u2019s season of High Desert Devo will start on Monday, March 31. (High Desert Devo\/Courtesy photo)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

High Desert Devo is preparing to start another season of shredding with Montezuma County youths.<\/p>\n

The spring season runs March 31 through May 15. Summer practices will be available the last two weeks of June and July.<\/p>\n

The fall season runs Aug. 18 through Oct. 2. The 501(3)(c) also has a new executive director, Ed Whritner.<\/p>\n

A few ability levels are offered in the program, with the addition of a recreational based groups that focuses on teaching riders how to mountain bike or \u201cride for fun with others.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another group, the Crank Girls, allows girls to ride with others girls as they learn together.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur Crank Girls programming is open to all abilities from first-time mountain bikers to competitive riders,\u201d said program Chase Wesley. \u201cWe also have groups for skill\/competitive\u00a0based riders who are looking at enhancing their fitness and technical skills that will allow them to perform their best in a race or at their highest level possible.\u201d<\/p>\n

Prerequisites to joining High Desert Devo include being able to ride a bike on a paved path or bike path without training wheels.<\/p>\n

Wesley shared they hope to expand their programming to teaching children how to ride a bike, but aren\u2019t quite there yet.<\/p>\n

In High Desert Devo, riders are placed into teams based on their age, rather than on their ability.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe hope that riders take away the belief that they can \u2018always be shredding.\u2019 We know that being able to shred on a mountain bike is going to look different for everyone. For the first time rider it may look like just getting out there and trying something new whereas for another person it may be riding that one climb or descent that has always gotten the best of them, or it may be the rider who is sending jumps every chance\u00a0she gets,\u201d Wesley said.<\/p>\n

\u201cRegardless of who the rider is, the concept is the same. ABS is the heart of High Desert Devo, celebrating the highs, pushing through the lows and never riding alone. When you\u2019re surrounded by good people who share your passion, you\u2019re part of something bigger than just a team. That\u2019s what ABS is all about.\u201d<\/p>\n

Those who wish to join the program but don\u2019t have the funds to purchase a bike, gear or registration fees can apply for support on the group\u2019s website<\/a> www.highdesert.org.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are hoping to look at building community sponsorships to help us keep getting more kids from Montezuma County out onto bikes,\u201d Wesley said.<\/p>\n

Along with being a fun sport for youths, Welsey said he hopes those who participate will discover a lifelong love of riding.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur mission is to empower the youths of Montezuma County by helping them to develop a life long passion for cycling,\u201d Wesley said. \u201cAll of our coaches\u00a0have had cycling impact their lives in a very positive ways from teaching them such as: confidence, resilience\u00a0to keep trying and the freedom from the distractions of life.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

hopes to instill the belief that participants can \u2018always be shredding\u2019 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":23128,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[21,28,60,977,29,346],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-23127","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-cortez","tag-headlines","tag-montezuma-county","tag-mountain-biking","tag-newsletter","tag-sports"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23127","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23127"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23127\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":77987,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23127\/revisions\/77987"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23128"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23127"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23127"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23127"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=23127"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}