ABOUT GRO

Gro Promotions was founded in 2009 by Landscape Architect, Cimarron Chacon. The company has two divisions, GRO Race and GRO Trails Consulting.

Gro Consulting provides trail design, construction,  and master planning to communities, non-profits, and private development. These include mountain bike trails, hiking trails, bike parks, and related facilities to enjoy the outdoors and protect open space.

GRO Races’ first event was the 25 hours in Frog Hollow, which was launched on October 31, 2009. The next season we launched the 6 Hours in Frog Hollow on October 13, 2010. The Race division continued to grow, adding the True Grit Epic in 2011 and a Cyclocross Series. While the True Grit Epic has continued to grow, now hosting over 1200 participants over 3 days, we no longer host cross events in St George. Our foray into the cross-realm ended by putting on the mother of all underground cross races, the Single Speed Cyclocross World Championship in 2019. To date, this is the most fun we have had hosting a race.

In 2016 we branched out of the Utah region, partnering with one of our consulting clients, Trails-OV, in Nevada to launch the Beatty Beer and Taco Festival. The next year we added some races and changed the name to the Tinker Classic. Legendary Tinker Juarez was featured at every event. Due to Nevada Covid restriction, this event was not held in 2020 or 2021. Its future is uncertain.

In 2018 GRO Races went international, partnering with Lauf Cycling to develop the Rift Iceland. This specular 200k gravel event became our pride and joy. The event launched in July of 2019 and was a huge success …and then Covid. Managing an event abroad at the caliber we hoped for was difficult. So in December 2020, we gave up our management position so that any event that could take place could be managed within Iceland.

We continue to build cycling competitions and fun whenever the opportunity arises. This year, 2022 we will be launching our second international event in Costa Rica. The Secreto will be a bit of anti-La Ruta, with more focus on fun and personal challenge than suffering.

We are also proud to announce a partnership with UnPAved of Pennsylvania. GRO is coming on board to assist in managing this ‘rising star’ gravel event. When two past SSCXWC race directors join forces, you know the event is going to be fun. We can’t wait to see all our gravel friends out east this summer.

Building and hosting events is an incredibly rewarding job. We get to create adventure and personal challenges for our fellow cyclists. We get to bring a weekend of joy,  fun, and connection to communities around the world.

When we are not planning or directing races you can find us on a bike somewhere in the world.