Few familiar faces, if any, will toe the starting line for the 2015 Iron Horse Bicycle Classic professional women’s road race Saturday.
Defending champion Marisa Asplund won’t compete because of health reasons.
“If I had a dime for every person that asked me if I’m racing the last few days, I’d be a rich woman,” Asplund said Thursday. “I was planning on racing, but I’ve had to take a medical leave for the next few months.”
There only were five women registered for the women’s pro open category in the Coca-Cola Road Race on Thursday, and three are from Durango.
Race director Gaige Sippy has said that the start lists on the race’s website are official, but professional riders know they can register at the last minute.
“There is lots of watching the weather before making a decision,” Sippy said.
Weather shortened last year’s race to Purgatory Resort, and the IHBC brain trust appears cognizant of the same possibility this year.
There’s still hope of a big name, though.
Four-time champion Mara Abbot said she will be in Durango for the weekend and will race if the weather cooperates.
“If she rides, she will win,” Sippy said of Abbot.
Blame Chattanooga, Tennessee, for the field’s lack of sparkle. The Volkswagen USA Cycling Professional Road, Time Trial, & Para-cycling National Championships will be there over the weekend, drawing most of the country’s top talent.
“Lauren Hall and Carmen (Small), who are local, are going to be in Chattanooga,” said Michael Engleman, former U.S. Women’s Cycling Development Program director.
Which brings the focus back to Abbott, who could tie Durango and world mountain biking legend Ned Overend with five IHBC championships.
She already has won the Redlands Bicycle Classic and the Tour of the Gila this season.
“She’s obviously going good, and she has a history at the Iron Horse,” Engleman said. “And she’s one of the best climbers in the world.”
Not a bad skill to have going over Coal Bank and Molas passes before rocketing down into Silverton with a $3,000 purse on the line.
As for the rest of the weekend’s races, the field looks even slimmer.
No professional women were registered for Sunday’s circuit race or Monday’s time trial as of Thursday. That still could change as the races near, but interest appears mild.
The Road Omnium championship returns after a one-year hiatus, though no women are in a position to contest it because of the lack of circuit race and time trial participants.
There’s a $1,000 purse for each the circuit race, omnium and time trial that could go unclaimed if no one registers.
Thank goodness for Saturday’s cross-country mountain bike race. Moved to Fort Lewis College and cancelled last year because of rain on the trails, the race will return to downtown Durango and once again will pervade Steamworks Brewing Co.
There’s a $2,500 purse on the line that will be contested by local favorites from Durango High School and Fort Lewis College. Stanford’s Kaylee Blevins, a DHS alumna, and FLC’s Sofia Gomez-Villafañe jump off a start list that also features other regional contenders. That includes Johanne Albrigtsen, a CU-Boulder rider who helped end FLC’s eight-year reign atop the collegiate mountain biking world in October in Beech Mountain, North Carolina.
Other contestants include 18-year-old Albuquerque native Tiziana DeHorney and Terrin Lane, a veteran racer from Phoenix.
Like the rest of the weekend, though, it’s anybody’s race.
kgrabowski@durangoherald.com
