Each generation of Durango’s famed mountain bike legacy will be represented at this weekend’s Iron Horse Bicycle Classic. Before any of them hit the dirt Sunday, first they’ll line up on the road.
A stacked field of local athletes will roll out for the Coca-Cola Road Race from the new start position on 33rd Street and East 2nd Avenue early Saturday morning with 47 miles of pavement and 5,700 feet of climbing separating them from the finish line at the end of Silverton’s historic Greene Street.
Minus the current talent of road racing stars Sepp Kuss and Quinn Simmons along with 2021 Olympic hopeful mountain biker Christopher Blevins, much of the rest of Durango’s cycling royalty is ready to welcome the IHBC back with a bang after a one-year hiatus caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
“This will be so fun. We’ve got the whole generations thing going on now,” said 2016 mountain bike Olympian and 2018 IHBC road race winner Howard Grotts. “It’s going to be a really interesting race to see who is the strongest right now.”
Along with the 28-year-old Grotts, who is now two years removed from regular professional racing and will make his return to Durango after a year of school in Montana, there is a strong list of past IHBC champions and some seeking their first taste of glory in Silverton.
There is 65-year-old former world champion Ned Overend, who owns the record with five men’s IHBC road race wins. Three-time mountain bike Olympian Todd Wells, 45, has been close many times but has never finished first at the IHBC road race.
And all eyes will be on 19-year-old Riley Amos, a rising superstar fresh off two incredible showings in the men’s under-23 field at the International Cycling Union (UCI) World Cup races in Germany and the Czech Republic, with fifth- and second-place finishes, respectively.
“Riley is really exciting to watch,” said Overend, who first won an IHBC road race in 1983 and last won 2011 but has been a perennial podium contender every year since. “Coming in second as a first-year under-23 at a World Cup, those are really competitive World Cups over there in really challenging conditions. It shows how focused and talented he is against a field that strong.”
Amos will make his IHBC road race debut, though he’s used to training on rides to Silverton.
“I’m a little bit nervous, to be honest, even coming from the World Cup stage to the Iron Horse,” Amos said. “The Iron Horse is a big deal because of who comes to race this amazing event. I am super excited, and we’ll see how the body holds up.
“I’m super fresh to road racing and the tactical aspect that comes with that. I’ll be laying back a little and trying to read the race a bit and see how everyone’s feeling. I’m not sure or too familiar with where the race is won or lost. I have to research and see where the critical parts of the course come to see if I can be ready for it.”
Amos might get a chance to work with one of his mentors in Wells and his brother Troy Wells, a 2014 IHBC road race winner when it was shortened to end at Purgatory Resort. But any kind of team tactics in the small race lacking more than two or three riders willing to work together usually fall apart as riders begin the ascent of Coal Bank Pass, with a summit of 10,610 feet.
Coal Bank is the longest climb of the day before a ripping descent with speeds as high as 50 mph. And since the IHBC isn’t a UCI sanctioned race, riders will gladly lean down on their top tubes in the now outlawed “tuck” for a more aerodynamic descent.
That speedy downhill leads into the final climb of Molas Pass to the top at 10,912 feet. Then it’s another winding downhill into Silverton. If any contenders are still together rolling into town, it will all be decided on the final two-mile uphill sprint finish at an elevation of 9,318 feet.
Todd Wells has been in those sprints before, including in 2016 when Payson McElveen won a five-man sprint for the win. He’s yet to come out on top, but Amos, Grotts and Overend all believe that drought could end this year for the retired racer.
“Todd is so fast,” Amos said. “He’s retired from the sport, has a full-time job, wife and kid, and he’s still faster than 90 or 95% of the pro mountain bike field in the U.S. I was riding with Troy the other day trying to get Todd to come with us on a long, easy road ride, and Todd was doing intervals for the Iron Horse doing hard hill repeats. He’s 40-something out there doing intervals just for the hell of it. There’s not a lot of guys and girls who have that absolute love to be fast. He’s a pretty special guy, and I’m sure we’ll have our hands full with him at the Iron Horse, too.”
Of course, nobody has forgotten about Grotts, either. His 2018 win in 2 hours, 19 minutes, 25 seconds saw him edge Jelly Belly teammates Cormac McGeough and Keegan Swirbul, as he beat the 2015 champion Swirbul in a sprint to the line. That winning time was even faster than Kuss, who now races in the world’s biggest events such as the Tour de France, when he won in 2017 in 2:21:50.
Nobody knows what kind of shape Grotts will come into the race with after a year away from Tuesday night group rides and pro mountain bike races. But few other than Kuss have ever shown the climbing prowess of the multi-time national champion, three-time Leadville 100 winner and 2018 Cape Epic champion.
“The last month has been pretty good for riding in Montana,” said Grotts, who rode 98 miles in Glacier National Park last week. “I’ve been doing a local series that are 30- to 40-minute time trial type efforts. That’s all the racing I’ve really had, so it’s going to be a big tossup for me in a race over two hours. But you can’t go wrong with the Iron Horse, and I am excited to go and see some friends and race with them.”
Though he’s 65, few doubt Overend’s ability to defeat father time. He’s been the favorite among local pros to win a sixth title for years, and everyone has seen him at group rides or working out on the passes going into the race.
“I’ve been up and down this year, but I’m looking forward to it,” Overend said. “Having warmer weather than usual is going to be a bonus for me. We have so many fast guys here. Obviously, I’m getting older, so maybe I’m just getting slower, but the level of riding among the locals is world class here, right?”
It won’t be all mountain bikers at the IHBC men’s road race.
While McGeough is no longer teammates with Swirbul, the Fort Lewis College alum is back to try to earn his own IHBC victory after his third-place finish in 2018. The Wildlife Generation Pro Cycling Team rider has had a strong spring of racing in Turkey and Rwanda. He arrived in Durango early in the week to train alongside former FLC teammates such as James Hilyer, a 2019 collegiate road race national champion who also will compete this weekend.
“It’s always a hard race just because it’s unpredictable how the altitude is going to affect you,” McGeough said. “When you’re at 11,000 feet, you’re going to be in pain no matter who you are, whether you’re trying to beat the train or beat Howard Grotts.
“I’m not going to be content with anything but the victory I think just because I’ve already been on the podium before. I’m very prepared this year. I’ve had the privilege of having a ton of race days in the legs with 25 race days in Turkey and Rwanda, and Rwanda is an eight-day stage race at altitude at about 5,000 feet and higher that whole week. Coming off of that, I’m pretty confident.”
There is almost always a surprise at the IHBC from an out-of-town rider, too. Past Tour of the Gila champion and IHBC podium chaser Fortunato Ferrara, 42, is registered, as is former Death Ride record holder Nick Gould, who used to call Durango home before moving to Colorado Springs. A handful of Colorado Mesa University athletes could challenge the group in FLC jerseys, and there are always a few surprise names who find their way toward the front near Coal Bank.
While the total prize purse has been reduced to $650 per category because of a smaller field and hasn’t come close to comparing to the $40,000 once seen in the mid-1990s, all of the pros in the field will line up Saturday with their chance at something more valuable, and that is local bragging rights and the ability to call themselves an IHBC champion.
“It’s crazy we get this look at all the talent that has come out of Durango,” Todd Wells said. “All of us are within a few years of each other, and it’s amazing how the next generation just keeps coming.
“When it comes to the Iron Horse with those long climbs, everyone is out there racing for the win and wants to do well for themselves. Nobody is going to let their buddy win if they have the opportunity to beat him.”
jlivingston@durangoherald.com
