It’s not uncommon for 20-somethings to win the Iron Horse Bicycle Classic. Just look at names like Kira Payer and Riley Amos. Saturday’s road race winners – Lauren Aggeler and Cobe Freeburn – are no strangers to those who pay attention to Durango cycling either, but their top spots on the podium are capstones of both their Iron Horse careers so far.
Both riders have been training and racing with the Durango Devo program from childhood, with Freeburn going on to race numerous disciplines with the Fort Lewis College Cycling team. In 2022, Aggeler won two collegiate mountain bike national titles for Northern Arizona University on home courses at Purgatory Resort.
Both riders have earned impressive results, but winning the Iron Horse puts them in special company of Durango cycling royalty. Sepp Kuss won in 2017, just before he broke through into the professional ranks of the World Tour. Sarah Sturm’s 2019 victory took place just before the FLC alumnae was making inroads in the endurance off-road cycling scene. Kuss and Sturm are now household names, and Aggeler and Freeburn are not far behind.
Aggeler circles globe on World Cup circuit
When 20-year-old Aggeler isn’t in Durango, she’s competing around the globe in the mountain bike World Cup, the world’s most prestigious mountain bike series. After spending time on both the Bear National Team and Durango’s Segment 28, Aggeler signed to Trinity Racing in 2023.
The U.K.-based team has both road and mountain bike squads and has graduated riders into the very top ranks of the sport. At the World Cup, Aggeler competes in the Under-23 category, designed for young riders to prepare for the elite category.
She began her season this year in Puerto Rico, earning a trio of fifth-place finishes across four races. Then the World Cup series began with a duo of races in Brazil, where Aggeler’s best result was 18th place in a short track race. After placing ninth in the Continental Championships in Utah, Aggeler claimed second place at a national-level elite race in Wisconsin – not a bad spring campaign to warm up for the Iron Horse.
Aggeler plans to head to Europe to rejoin the World Cup in a couple of weeks.
Freeburn shows off-road prowess
The 22-year-old Freeburn earned top results in his junior and collegiate career with FLC Cycling. Last year, his top result was a fifth place at the U.S. Pro Cup race in Arkansas, and he also completed three World Cup races in Europe
Later in the year, he raced the inaugural Gravel National Championships and also placed 17th in Trinidad, Colorado’s The Rad Dirt Fest gravel race. Once again racing for Bear National Team, Freeburn’s 2024 calendar has included additional gravel races, a discipline that has risen in popularity domestically and abroad in recent years.
Earlier this year, he placed eighth at the well-known Belgian Waffle Ride’s Utah stop and then rode to a career-best second place at a UCI Gravel World Series race in Arkansas.
One doesn’t have to look far down the results sheet to identify additional young talent. Third-place Michaela Thompson (age 21) also won Sunday’s gravel race and this year is competing in the invite-only Life Time Grand Prix series. Third place in the men’s road race went to 17-year-old Emmett McManus of Segment 28 who won his first-ever UCI-level race in Utah last week.
Durango can’t wait to see what else these athletes get up to this summer.
