In 43 years of the Iron Horse Bicycle Classic, only three races have been affected by weather, and only one was canceled. But in this year’s event, change was the name of the game, and race organizers stayed one step ahead of the clouds to pull it off smoothly.
By Friday night, Saturday’s road race over Coal Bank and Molas passes to Silverton was cut short before the big climbs because of weather. Instead, it ended at Purgatory at Durango Mountain Resort.
“As much as the weather impacts us,” race director Jeff Frost said, “this is what we do. ... We figured out a way to make it happen.”
After last-minute juggling, it somehow was a success, shrinking a long, drawn-out race of climbing and descending into a full-on sprint up a 27-mile, 2,000 foot hill.
Then, with good rain Sunday morning, the cross country mountain bike race was called off, largely to avoid racers pushing and carrying their bikes over a saturated course of sticky mud and clay.
Longtime professional cyclist and five-time Iron Horse champion Ned Overend said it was the right move.
“If they would have let those racers go, I don’t think they would have had that much fun,” he said.
Being one of the most celebrated athletes in cycling, as a Durango local, Overend should know.
“The promoters had a lot of challenges this year,” he said.
He took second place in the Iron Horse road race behind Durangoan Troy Wells, who on Sunday said, “In Durango, you should know it can snow a foot overnight.”
“Overall, it was a great event, and I think people understand you just can’t control the weather,” Wells said.
In lieu of an off-road cross country race, Iron Horse officials held an impromptu fat-tire criterium downtown to offer something to hungry competitors, Wells included. Twenty minutes of pounding laps around a four-block radius, plus three more just to make it hurt. Another success.
But the course changes weren’t the only things to set the event apart from years past. The mountain bike race, which was scheduled this year at Fort Lewis College, used to run right through Mountain Bike Specialists and Steamworks Brewing Co., but Frost said officials favored a more traditional, safer approach for one of the country’s oldest cycling events.
“It’s old school, traditional. It’s Durango,” he said.
And a younger generation is steadily growing to keep tradition alive. Amy Haggart, director of youth cycling club Durango Devo, 350 kids ages 2 to 18, said young riders had strong presences this year.
“These kids are loving being outside,” she said. “They love feeling healthy and being role models, and they’re not even trying to do it.”
Haggart, who has worked as a mountain-climbing guide and other jobs in the outdoor industry, said cycling is something people can enjoy their whole lives. The weekend’s events, she said, are a great start to summer.
“It creates an environment, and this is a lifelong sport,” she said. “These are the relationships and friends that come with it.”
Overend agreed.
“Durango is a bike town,” he said, “so it gives everyone a chance to celebrate bikes.”
And it’s an “every kind of bike town.”
“It’s not just a road bike town or a mountain-bike town,” he said. “It’s a commuter-bike town and a cruiser-bike town. It celebrates all kinds of cycling, and that’s what Durango is all about.”
The Iron Horse, Frost said, is still about the train and racing the iron behemoth to Silverton, even though this year that tradition was derailed, but he said the spirit of the event is evolving.
“If you look around,” he said, among Sunday afternoon festivities with kid races, families, professionals mingling with community members, a Cruzer Crit, and a spur-of-the-moment fat-tire crit, “this is the real soul of the event.”
bmathis@durangoherald.com
Iron Horse Events
East Animas Time Trial presented by BP, 8 a.m.-12:30 p.m., East Animas Road (County Road 250), north of 32nd Street.
For more information, visit www.ironhorsebicycleclassic.com.
