One excellent adventure will be even bigger in 2016.
After successfully launching Todd & Ned’s Durango Dirt Fondo mountain biking event last year, legendary mountain bikers Todd Wells and Ned Overend have announced a second day of festivities for this year’s group ride event.
On top of the single-track ride scheduled for Sept. 17, this year’s event will feature a gravel ride titled “La Strada La Plata.”
The new gravel ride will feature two routes, one a 70-mile ride and another at 35 miles. The course will include quality dirt roads with several timed sections, a news release said.
“We had a great response from riders last year, and many pressed us to add a gravel stage,” Overend said in the release. “The new format accommodates those that just want to experience our trails, those that want gravel and those that want an epic weekend of both.”
The single-track event is open to 500 participants and will feature 30- and 50-mile options The event connects much of Durango’s best single-track trails, and there are plans in motion to add a high-country section for the 50-mile course. That would come in addition to the lower elevation trail systems and transitions of hard pack bike paths and roads, a news release said.
Both events will be rider-friendly with on-course nutritional, mechanical and medical support. Prizes also will be awarded for timed segments.
Riders who complete both of the events all will receive a King/Queen of the Dirt prize.
Both events will start and finish in downtown Durango.
The fondo, a production of The Iron Horse Bicycle Classic, offers world-class single-track where elite riders such as Overend and Wells have trained for years.
The fondo also picked up a title sponsor this year in Fort Lewis College and its cycling team. Wells is a Fort Lewis College cycling alum.
“Without that program and without the support the Durango community has afforded to cyclists for so many years, it’s unlikely that I would have been able to accomplish what I have in the sport,” Wells, a three-time Olympian, said in the news release. “We’re honored to have FLC as the title sponsor.”
Registration for this year’s event will open March 7 at www.ToddandNedFondo.com. The 50-mile fondo ride costs $95, and the 30-mile fondo ride will cost $75. There will be cutoff times of 5½ hours for each course.
The gravel event also will cost $95 for the long course and $75 for the short, with a cutoff time of 5 hours.
Beneficiaries of this year’s event include Trails 2000, the Fort Lewis College Cycling Team Scholarship Fund and the Mercy Health Foundation.
heraldsports@durangoherald.com
