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Ned Overend furthers legendary Iron Horse Bicycle Classic career

59-year-old local legend wins 44th IHBC omnium title
Ned Overend hadn’t rode his time trial bike in 15 months going into Monday, but the 59-year-old legend pedaled it to a second-place finish to capture the omnium championship at the 44th Iron Horse Bicycle Classic, further solidifying himself as the greatest IHBC athlete of all time.

Ned Overend racing in the Iron Horse Bicycle Classic has become as symbolic as the train itself.

At 59 years old, the cycling legend claimed the omnium championship of the 44th Iron Horse Bicycle Classic with a second-place finish in the BP Time Trial race Monday.

It was his best finish of the weekend after a pair of third-place results in Saturday’s Coca-Cola Road Race from Durango to Silverton, the annual race against the train, as well as Sunday’s Morehart Murphy Subaru Circuit Race in downtown Durango.

He entered the weekend expecting to, at most, participate in the road and circuit races, but he couldn’t turn down the chance to race all three days of Memorial Day weekend in the town he’s called home since he first moved to Durango as a 25-year-old in 1980.

“Well, I should,” Overend replied when asked why he decided to participate in all three races this weekend. “It’s the hometown race, and I want to support it.

“I’m psyched that I won. Third in the road race, third in the circuit and second in the time trial. Consistency got me the overall.”

Overend has been consistent his entire career. He won his first of a record five Iron Horse Bicycle Classic road race titles in 1983 and has been a contender every year since.

He made it big in mountain biking in the 1980s and became the first-ever champion of the UCI World Mountain Biking Championship when it was held at Durango’s Purgatory Resort in 1990.

Since then, the titles have continued to pile up, and Overend hasn’t slowed down.

“I ride year-round,” said Overend, who spends much of his time these days in California working as the captain of the Specialized Cross Country Team. “I never get out of shape anymore. Back in the day, 20 years ago, I used to gain five to 10 pounds in the winter and get out of shape, but I can’t do that anymore.

“When you’re old, it’s important to keep your fitness up, because once you lose it I don’t think you ever get back to quite that same level.”

Still, competitors marvel at Overend’s ability to keep up with the young guns of the cycling world, be it on mountain bike or a road bike.

Keegan Swirbul, 19, of El Jebel is one of America’s rising stars on a road bike and claimed first in the road race and circuit race this year before heading home a day before the time trial, leaving Overend as the favorite to win the omnium.

Swirbul was the strongest climber in the IHBC road events this year, but he couldn’t believe it when he looked over his shoulder and saw Overend right next to him atop Molas Pass at 10,910 feet above sea level.

“That’s insane. When I saw him coming up to me, I was just amazed,” Swirbul said Saturday. “I tell you, there aren’t many people in the world his age that can do what he can.”

Overend is an icon in the sport and an inspiration to athletes old and young. At 35 years old, Durango professional cyclist Rolando Gonzalez joked he still has 24 years to become the caliber of athlete of Overend.

“It’s always nice to see Ned winning. At that age going that fast, that’s hard,” Gonzalez said. “He’s a legend, and it’s nice for younger kids to race with him. A legend racing among you.

“He’s an ambassador of the sport and is always around riding, but it’s still really amazing to see him do what he does because it’s so hard to keep the mind fresh and always want to ride at that level. He inspires me.”

Overend admitted he was happy this year’s addition of the IHBC had drawn to a close. He’s already looking forward to a family vacation in Hawaii next weekend.

“Kind of glad the week is over. I’m tired of getting up early and preparing for a race every morning,” a fatigued Overend said at the time trial finish line Monday.

Always growing along with the sport he helped build in the United States, Overend claimed his first USA National Fat Bike Championship earlier this year, proving he can get it done on any man-powered machine on two wheels.

“Now that there’s cross bikes, fat bikes – fat bikes keep me in shape in the winter racing on snow – mountain biking, road biking, there are plenty of bikes to ride.”

jlivingston@durangoherald.com



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