The Iron Horse Bicycle Classic road race might be the main event, but Sunday’s Adventure Pro Straight Rhythm BMX sprint races will provide spectators with a spectacle that might give the road race a run for its money.
BMX made its Iron Horse debut last year with Friday night’s Iron BMX event at Durango’s Cundiff Park. Now, it’ll get a shot on the big stage with a brand new, invite-only, straight rhythm, head-to-head sprint tournament beginning at 1 p.m. Sunday on a closed stretch of Main Avenue in downtown Durango. The three-class field is invite-only for 16 BMX riders, eight mountain bike riders and eight women racers.
The addition of BMX falls in line with the IHBC’s continued mission of filling the event with something for everyone. With a growing lack of interest in the Monday time trial held in previous years and the scrapping of fan-friendly downtown circuit race, IHBC Director Gaige Sippy chose to give BMX a shot on Sunday in an area where it can succeed.
“We wanted to do BMX because it has some interest in this town,” Sippy said. “But unless riders know where Cundiff Park is, they’d never find it and that makes it kind of tough. So, we figured if we build a track in town right on Main for the Iron Horse, BMX can thrive.”
AJ Construction will work through the night Saturday into Sunday to build the track. The design will be similar to portions of the Cundiff Park track.
“We’re going to start it at night and hopefully have about eight hours,” AJ Construction’s Grady James told The Durango Herald in April. “We’re excited. It’s not very often you can display heavy equipment in the middle of downtown Durango. A lot of the work we do specializes around doing heavy equipment operating in sensitive areas, whether we’re on Second Avenue or up in a national forest. We take pride in the precision work we do.”
Their work will be on display when riders take the staging area at 9th Street and Main Avenue. The competitors will be seeded in brackets and compete head-to-head in a sprint with another rider down the block to 8th and Main. The winners advance and the losers go home until a champion is crowned.
“We’re just thrilled to have the Iron Horse promoting a BMX specific event like this,” Durango BMX’s Jordan Rupe said. “It should be quite a spectacle in town. We have some local riders, and we’ve invited some of the best riders in the region. We hope it’ll be the start of something special.”
According to Rupe, the top regional professionals in the event are Kalvin Davis, Tomas Fernandez and Colorado Mesa University’s Collin Hudson. Local riders will also be featured, such as Durango High School and Fort Lewis College graduate Brennan Buiso.
“For me and a lot of Durango BMX riders, it’s really a dream come true and kind of overdue,” Buiso said. “I can’t imagine a better way to introduce BMX to the Iron Horse. The straight rhythm format is super popular right now but rare in BMX. I think that has attracted some of the top pros in the area.”
Buiso expects a track that will demand tight and technical racing. However, there’s one factor that could make or break the riders’ experience, and that’s the start ramp the IHBC worked together with FLC to construct.
“It’s anyone’s guess at what the start ramp will look like,” Buiso said. “That will be a big deciding factor for the riders. I hope it’s not too steep.”
Either way, the spectators and the local BMX community will be the big winners – and that’s most important.
“When you watch a talented BMX rider, it’s awesome in the real sense of the word,” Sippy said. “Sometimes you just stand in disbelief at what they’re doing out there. Having that kind of flare on Main Avenue on Sunday is going to be hard to replicate.”
jfries@durangoherald.com
