On Saturday, Cobe Freeburn showed why he was the defending Iron Horse Bicycle Classic men’s pro road race champion.
The Durango native bided his time in the chase group as they steadily caught Isaac Allred off the front during the 2025 IHBC men’s pro race. Freeburn timed his attack perfectly and brought Kai Lokey with him. Freeburn had the speed descending into Silverton to gap Lokey and cruise to his second consecutive victory in the 53rd addition of the IHBC.
“It feels really good,” Freeburn said. “It's definitely something that's been on my mind for the last year. It’s been a rough start to the year. I did a lot of training over the winter and wasn't quite feeling super fresh. So I’m really happy to finally put it together. I played my cards right.”
Freeburn finished first out of 36 men’s pro riders in the iconic 47-mile race from Durango to Silverton in two hours, 15 minutes and 46.8 seconds; Freeburn won in 2024 in 2:12:20.6.
Fans will have another chance to see Freeburn in the IHBC Subaru Mountain Bike race tomorrow. He’s also competing in the GoPro Games in Vail in two weeks.
The 18-year-old Lokey was mature beyond his years, stayed in the chase pack and hung with Freeburn despite being at a physical disadvantage on the descents with his smaller size. Lokey finished second in 2:16:10.3, a drastic improvement from his 11th-place finish in 2024.
“I'm feeling pretty good,” Lokey said. “Cobe just got me on the flat bit on Molas. I feel like I could have gotten one more dig, but I kind of hit muscular failure there at the end. So, I don't know. I'm just pleased with the overall effort because it was everything I had.”
Fellow Durangoan Emmett McManus finished third for the second consecutive year, this year in 2:16:25. McManus had a shot at the win but had contact with Freeburn toward the end of the race, resulting in a crash. Like Freeburn and Lokey, McManus stayed in the chase pack for the right amount of time before attacking Allred.
“I felt good in the race; my legs were good,” McManus said. “I was pretty smart at the top of Coal Bank. Then I overlapped wheels with Cobe and crashed. Then I was off the back after that and chasing from there, a bit steady, but couldn't get back so it’s a little disappointing.”
McManus will compete in Sunday’s LaStrada LaPlata gravel race and is thinking about doing GoPro games in two weeks.
Fort Lewis College’s Allred finished sixth in 2:17:37.4. Allred was ultra-aggressive immediately, pulling away from the main peloton and going out on his own before Shalona Hill. He had a gap of over three minutes at one point, but fell apart on the climb on Molas Pass. Freeburn and Lokey easily passed Allred as he hung on the best he could for sixth.
IHBC and mountain bike legend Ned Overend improved on his 22nd-place finish in 2024 and finished 20th in 2:28:56.1.
“I suffered like every year at the Iron Horse,” Overend said. “I was a little disappointed because I came off the main group around Glacier Club and there was a little bit of a headwind that was really inefficient to be alone behind the group; you’re working hard than the group is. Eventually, a couple of guys caught me and we worked together all the way here (Silverton).”
Chaz Hogenaur from Salida and Allred started the race by pulling away from the pack a mile into the valley. Landon Dendy from Grand Junction and Dominic Castanoli from Denver led the chasing pack of about 30 a minute back.
Allred was on his own at the start of Shalona Hill. Kip Taylor from Fort Collins broke away to try and chase Allred in the middle of the Shalona Hill; Allred had a 4:30 gap on Taylor.
“I was hoping to sit in and save my matches,” Allred said. “I knew I wasn’t going to be able to hang when it got steep there. I was super happy to have those gaps going into the climbs.”
John Keller from Boulder led the chase group that caught Taylor. McManus and Lokey were right behind Keller in the chase group. Scott Maison from Albuquerque took a turn to lead the main peloton.
Overend battled hard to get back on the peloton right around Havland Lake after briefly being dropped. As Overend has gotten older, he said he’s still good at steady climbing. The problem for him was that the younger guys were throwing these surges of speed at the group and Overend has trouble these days accelerating to keep up.
Allred was alone at mile-marker 45, about a half mile from Needles Country Store. He had a gap of about 2:20 to the chase group of 15, about a mile away from Purgatory.
The FLC student-athlete was breathing heavily a mile up Coal Bank Pass as he continued his quest for the win alone at the front.
Keller had a little gap on a chase group of six highlighted by McManus, Freeburn, Lokey, Seth Hirsch from Boulder and Maison about three miles up Coal Bank. The group seemed like it wasn’t breathing as hard as Allred and were in good spirits as they were given updates on the gap to Allred.
Freeburn and Lokey made the move at the top of Coal Bank, closing the gap to Allred to a minute as the riders flew 50-55 miles per hour down Coal Bank. McManus, Hirsch, Maison and Keller were only 10 seconds apart in groups of two as they descended Coal Bank.
It looked like sharks saw blood in the water as Freeburn and Lokey finally had Allred in their sights going up Molas Pass. Freeburn and Lokey made contact as they got toward Andrews Lake; the chasers were going two miles per hour faster as they caught Allred at mile 40 of the race, about a half-mile to Andrews Lake.
“Isaac did really well and got up the road further than I was expecting,” Freeburn said. “I was thinking maybe he'd get two minutes by the end of the valley. But it seemed like he had close to four minutes at one point. I was a little worried going up the top of Coal Bank when he had two minutes. I thought, ‘Oh, he could hold on to this.’ So I definitely tried to rail the bottom of Molas pretty hard until I saw him.”
Freeburn said the plan was always to go hard and accelerate to the top of Coal Bank. It worked for him last year in his first victory. He was happy to have Lokey with him because it was still a long way to go alone.
Lokey took a turn at the front as the two leaders approached Andrews Lake with only one mile to the top of Molas Pass.
At the steepest part of Molas, Lokey had Freeburn on the ropes, but Freeburn recovered and used his 50-pound size advantage to descend quicker than Lokey.
Freeburn didn’t want a sprint finish, so he attacked on a flat section and into the last turn, into the descent into Silverton. Freeburn had enough of a gap on the finish in Silverton not to sweat the speedy Lokey.
bkelly@durangoherald.com
