The 20th KTM Adv. Rally
Breckenridge with No Shortcuts
Two decades of dirt, dust, and decisions brought riders back to Breckenridge for the 20th Annual KTM ADVENTURE Rider Rally. What started as a meetup for orange loyalists has become something else entirely, part ride, part reunion, and part trial by terrain. This year, KTM added a twist: the Extreme Team Challenge, turning a legendary rally into something even harder to forget.
Photographer Simon Cudby brought back the story through dirt, water, and lens. His images show machines caked in mud, riders caught between storms and altitude, and the quiet moments around a fire that speak louder than a podium. No captions needed, just the faces, the terrain, and the kind of ride that leaves a mark long after the trail ends
The Rally Gathers
The first thing you notice is the air. It hits cold, crisp, and clean, mountain air with altitude behind it. By noon, the sound of big twins and gravel crunching under ADV tires echoed through the streets of Breckenridge, Colorado. Riders from across the country rolled into the Beaver Run Resort one by one, their bikes loaded, dusty, dented, spotless, or somewhere in between. No two machines looked the same, but they all wore the KTM badge like a second skin.
It was September 11, the start of the 20th Annual KTM ADVENTURE Rider Rally, and the Rockies welcomed the orange wave with weather that had its own plans. Dark clouds crept across the ridgelines just as the GPS uploads began and the first rider meetings got underway. Before long, a soft drizzle turned into full-on mountain rain. Boots squeaked across pavement, jackets zipped up tight, and people laughed nervously under vendor tents while unpacking dry bags and looking at the sky like it owed them something.
But no one was going home.
The KTM crew was already deep in the setup, checkpoints ready, doctors in place, support trucks prepped. Demo bikes lined up for test rides, vendors polishing their last details, and somewhere near the back of the lot, a group was already swapping past rally stories between fork seal replacements and tire pressure checks.
The energy was unmistakable: anticipation wrapped in camaraderie. A Rally doesn’t start with a flag drop. It starts with a nod between strangers, a question about tire choice, a shared tool, a look that says, “you ready for this?”
And everyone was.
Twenty Years on the Throttle
Two decades is a long way to ride. Twenty years of throttle, maps, and mornings that start with a cold visor and a warm engine. When the first KTM ADVENTURE Rider Rally kicked off, GPS units were bricks, most riders still used paper maps, and nobody thought ADV bikes would one day have cruise control.
Yet here they were, 300 of them, back in the Colorado high country to mark the 20th edition of a gathering that has outgrown its own origin story. What started as a meet-up for KTM die-hards has evolved into something far more layered, part reunion, part proving ground, part escape.
This year’s Rally felt like a blend of tradition and something new. Riders who hadn’t missed a single edition parked next to newcomers making their first attempt at mountain altitude. Old decals from past rallies were slapped next to fresh ones. Stories from Baja and Idaho floated through the air over the smell of chain lube and camp coffee.
KTM shaped the celebration to go beyond the riding itself. A welcome dinner opened the weekend, followed by tech talks, gear checks, and a happy hour that turned into a swap of legends and failures. T-shirts and pins marked the anniversary, but what really stood out was the way people showed up: proud, curious, and ready for whatever came next.
Twenty years in, and the Rally still felt like the first time, just with a few more scars on the bikes and stories behind the eyes.
The Trails and The Challenge
Breckenridge delivered a little bit of everything, open sky, tight switchbacks, and the kind of weather that changes everything. What started as a soft drizzle on Thursday had turned into real rain by Friday morning. The trails reacted fast. Green routes blurred into blue, and more than a few turned black without warning.
The terrain offered a mix of personalities. The green loop rolled out with wide gravel roads and two-track sections that invited flow. But if you branched off into the blue or black options, things got personal. Some riders found themselves pushing through waterlogged ruts and slick clay descents where traction disappeared with a single wrong line.
One downhill stretch, heavy with clay, changed character fast. What looked manageable at first turned into a slide zone, “slick as snot,” as someone called it.
Tires lost grip, riders lost balance, and the trail stopped being polite. Mike Lafferty eight-time AMA National Enduro Champion, and Taylor Robert, ISDE winner and multi-time WORCS champion, were spotted riding participants’ bikes down for them. What began as a technical descent turned into an impromptu rescue mission, helmets nodding in quiet thanks at the bottom.
Elevation added its own pressure. Some climbs pushed past 12,000 feet (3,658 meters), with less oxygen in every breath and storms moving fast across the peaks. Riders learned to adapt on the go, body language changed, eyes scanned the trail differently, and every water crossing became a question mark.
Between the hardest stretches, the trail opened up. Long sections of alpine track led to wide valley views, with pines lining the ridgelines and silence waiting at the edges. Even in motion, riders couldn’t help but take in the landscapes they were cutting through.
The kind of looking that says, “Yeah. this is why I ride.”
A Storm, a Shelter, and a Memory
Not everything a rider faces comes from the trail. Sometimes it comes from above.
On one of the high alpine sections, Jesse Ziegler, off-road veteran and moto-journalist, and Alexander Smith, experienced rally rider, found themselves riding straight into a storm. They had pushed above 12,000 feet (3,658 meters) when the clouds turned black and the air started to hum. Lightning cracked close, too close. With nowhere to go and no time to descend, they spotted a downed tree and ducked underneath it, hoping it was enough.
They waited there for nearly forty minutes, engines off, gear soaked, thunder rolling over the peaks. When the sky finally cleared, they made their way down, heavy boots sloshing with rainwater. By the time they reached base, each of them poured what looked like a full cup of water out of their boots.
Moments like that don’t show up on the GPS track.
They just stay with you.
Enter the Extreme Team Challenge
If the Rally is where adventure riders push their limits, the Extreme ADVENTURE Team Challenge was where those limits got redrawn.
New for this 20th anniversary edition, the two-day competition brought together expert-level riders in teams of two. The route? Unknown. The terrain? Technical. The goal? Make it through.
KTM structured the challenge in two stages. Riders left Beaver Run Resort with Rally-Comp devices mounted and a single destination: somewhere out there. The first day led into the backcountry, across a mix of steep climbs, narrow descents, rocky switchbacks, and long off-camber traverses. Somewhere along the way, as the weather kept teasing rain, the route pointed them toward Buena Vista, where a campfire and a surprise bluegrass duo waited at an undisclosed overnight site.
The second day hit harder. More miles, more technical terrain, and more opportunities for fatigue to creep in. Navigation mattered. Focus mattered. At some point, it stopped being about speed. Teams focused on staying upright, staying together, and getting through.
There were jokes, mechanical hiccups, shared tools, and more than a few wrong turns. One rider summed it up best at camp: “We came to ride fast, but ended up just trying to keep each other upright.”
Chris Fillmore – In the Middle of It All
Chris Fillmore stayed close to the action. He was out there, boots on the ground, visor down, riding with the rest of them.
As the lead on the Extreme Team Challenge, Fillmore had helped design the format, the terrain, and the feel of this new addition. But once the wheels were turning, he became part of the ride like everyone else. He saw the moments that maps don’t show, the exhaustion on the second day, the nervous energy before a descent, the way teams looked out for each other without needing to say much.
He told us later, “The elevation and rain definitely had an effect. Good for sharing memories later.” Spoken like someone who knows exactly how those memories are made.
He mentioned the Florida rider who tackled his first 12,000-foot (3,658-meter) loop, pushed into it by a new friend. And the veteran, attending his tenth Rally, who said this one, with the rain, was the most challenging yet, and thanked the sky for it.
What stayed with Fillmore had less to do with terrain and more with people, faces marked by weather, eyes lit up after the ride, and that look riders carry when something real just happened.
Riders, Stories, and the Unexpected
Not every story from the Rally had a podium or a finish line. Some started in the mud, on the side of a trail, with a tire iron in one hand and someone else’s tool kit in the other.
There were moments that didn’t make the official schedule: like two riders trying to fix a bent shifter with a rock, or a small group gathered around a broken chain, solving it with zip ties, chain lube, and pure optimism. There was a guy in a soaked rain jacket who pulled off his gloves, smiled, and said, “This is still better than work.”
At the overnight camp in Buena Vista, competitors sat around the fire, boots steaming, talking about old races, missed turns, and the kind of scores that only matter if you care too much. Someone played bluegrass. Someone else passed around jerky. A few stayed quiet and just stared at the flames, like they knew this was the part they’d remember.
Nothing fancy. Just riders, heat, and the kind of silence that only shows up after a good ride
The Finish Line and the Firelight
Back in Breckenridge, engines went quiet and boots hit the pavement slower than before. Some riders went straight to the wash station. Others dropped their gear and stayed still for a while, faces marked by the trail, hands still buzzing from the ride.
That night, riders shared tables. Plates filled up fast. Conversation moved between gear failures, lucky saves, and the kind of quiet only found after hours on the trail. Some compared notes on sections. Others just listened. Laughter filled the gaps where words didn’t reach.
A few bikes were still out front, covered in dust and dripping chain oil, parked close like they’d been through something together.
Inside, someone raised a glass. No big moment. No pose. Just a sentence passed between friends, low enough to get lost in the noise, but strong enough to stay…“See you next year,” like it was already a fact.
Words by: Simon Cudby, Mike the da Torreo – Photo Credits: Simon Cudby
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