Yes, you have to go around the Eisenhower Tunnel but that is done on Loveland Pass. The other alternatives aren’t all that appealing. Going through Pueblo/Cañon City/Breckenridge/Kremling is the long way round.

Riding up Poudre Canyon really isn’t much better than riding through the I-70 corridor. Fort Collins isn’t much less urbanized the Denver is.

The Denver Metro area has numerous east-west trails through the area as well as numerous north-south and quite a few other compass points. Even without completely separated trails, riding out to Bennett is a popular ride in the area. Many of us who actually live in the Denver area do ride bikes in town. It’s not all that bad.

The highway counts you quote are misleading as well. Highway 14 is a narrow canyon road where riders are sharing the road with all 1200 of those drivers on a shoulderless road. I-70 may have 26,000 motorists on it but there is also an 11 foot shoulder that they don’t drive on. It’s not like you are riding in the traffic lane.

There is also the advantage of having far more services along the 1-70 corridor than from Fort Collins.

I’ve ridden a number of Interstates across the nation and, while they are a bit noisy, they are at least as safe as riding a narrow canyon road...perhaps safer.

While I’ll agree that I-70 west of Glenwood is not ideal, it’s not as bad as people make it out to be either. It’s only 6 miles and that section in your picture is only a very short section of only a couple of hundred yards. The rest of the road is a normal wide interstate shoulder. Honestly, I would probably be looking for a different route north or south before getting to Glenwood Springs because of what comes after Grand Junction. The ride to Grand Junction wouldn’t be a bad one but there’s whole lot of nothin’ from Grand Junction to, well, California.

I would probably divert north from Dillion to Steamboat and points north on the TransAm.

Distracted drivers is an issue on all roads. It’s especially so on narrow mountain roads where the drivers don’t necessarily look around corners. But the riding in Colorado on the shoulders of I-70 is only in very few areas. If you ride the I-70 corridor from Denver to Glenwood, you won’t even be riding on the shoulder for any of that distance. There is now a bike path from Genesee to Idaho Springs and a bike path from Bakersville to the bottom of Loveland Pass. Once you get to Summit County, it’s bike path to Glenwood Springs. Everything else is on frontage roads or bike paths. The only shoulder riding that I can think of is the six mile stretch west of Glenwood.

The problem with being “o.k. with a granola bar” is getting the granola bar. In the 99 miles from Fort Collins to Walden, there isn’t any place to get a granola bar. Which means having to carry it...along with everything else you might need. There’s nothing wrong with that but it does require planning and foresight.

In the age of Google maps and smart phones, getting across a major city is simple. I’ve ridden around Fort Collins and I don’t find it any more “managable” than Denver when it comes to navigation. And, with all the construction around Ft. Collins, some of those routes don’t match up.

As I said, the scary bits are few and far between. The “not always” shoulder is about as close to “always” as you can get. I’ve driven all of the Interstates Colorado has to offer at one time or another. And, as a cyclist, I pay attention to shoulders. That little section of I-70 is the only place that the shoulder is that narrow outside of construction zones.

I don’t usually ride Interstates as well but I have no problem if there is no other alternative...and, for the west, that is often.

Finally, I assume that people have reasons for where they want to ride. If rdrum729 wants to go through Denver for whatever reason, that’ rdrum729’s choice. I’m not going to suggest a 75 mile detour to the north (Poudre Canyon) or a 100 mile detour to the south (Canon City) just to avoid what is actually a pretty good ride. If someone tries to go over a road that is inappropriate due to terrain, road conditions or weather, I’ll try to dissuade them but if the road is good and the scenery is worth the trip, I’m not going to talk them out of it. The Clear Creek Canyon corridor/Loveland Pass/Summit County/Vail Pass/ Eagle River Valley is a lovely ride. It just happens to have more people.