Clipped In: B&R Rides Into Aspen with The Little Nell

Most hotels will lend you a bike for an afternoon spin. The Little Nell does something considerably more serious: The Clip-In Cycling Camp pairs guests with a roster of pro riders for several days of guided climbs through Aspen's high country, bookended by proper meals and wine back at the hotel. Now heading into its 13th year, and for the first time, Butterfield &amp; Robinson <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/DceGNKkD8A7/?img_index=1">rode along</a>.It started months earlier, in a conversation at B&amp;R's booth at the <a href="https://classic.foodandwine.com/">Food &amp; Wine Classic in Aspen</a>, where our long-standing love for the town got another spark. By August, Clip-In kicked off with Butterfield &amp; Robinson on as sponsor of Day One's ride, and that spark had become a custom jersey, a van stop and a climb to Ashcroft.

Day One began with breakfast at The Little Nell, then bike fit and setup beside the hotel with Ventum founder and CEO Diaa Nour. Riders were outfitted in the co-branded B&amp;R jersey designed by Pedal Mafia, along with a gear bag stocked with a helmet and sunglasses from Sweet Protection, for a group that included more than a few certified gearheads—the sort who can tell you the weight of their own wheelset to the gram. The week's partner roster read like a well-curated gear closet: Ventum on bikes, Sweet Protection on helmets, Helly Hansen and Supergoop on kit and skin, Saint Germain pouring and The Feed on fuel.

At the front of the ride was <a href="https://www.instagram.com/christianvdv/">Christian Vande Velde,</a> back for his 13th year as lead pro, the former World Tour racer now known equally as an NBC Sports analyst and a Peloton instructor. He was joined by Ventum's <a href="https://www.instagram.com/travis_mccabe/?hl=en">Travis McCabe</a>, a pro-ranks veteran turned athlete manager, and this year's guest pro: Vande Velde's longtime broadcast partner, Bob Roll. Around them, a mix of first-timers and a Dallas crew 13 years deep into the tradition, several training for an Ironman or a world championship.

The route climbed the switchbacks of Castle Creek Road to Ashcroft, an old mining ghost town, before easing into lunch at 3,418 m (11,212 ft), at the members-only Aspen Mountain Club, right at the summit. It's a rhythm we've spent more than 60 years refining on our own <a href="https://www.butterfield.com/how-to-travel/small-group/biking">biking trips</a>—a hard climb by day, a good table by night—which made Ashcroft, of the week's 3 routes, feel the most like home. And at the base of the climb, riders found something any B&amp;R traveller would recognize on sight: a van stop, laid out as a roadside picnic, exactly where legs needed it most.

The afternoon slowed into rest, and the day closed the way it opened: back at The Little Nell, together, for a long dinner.Thirteen years is a long tradition to join, but it turned out to be an easy one to fall into step with. Butterfield &amp; Robinson is glad to now count itself among Clip-In's pros, its partners and its returning riders—and glad, too, to have found in Aspen the same rhythm we chase on our own roads: hard-earned views, generous tables and good company. We'll be back.Photos courtesy of Steve Goff.

Butterfield & Robinson sponsors Day One of Aspen's Clip-In Cycling Camp at The Little Nell, with pro-led rides, a custom jersey and a summit lunch.