On first glance, the field for the 2014 Iron Horse Bicycle Classic professional women’s road race looks light.
This year’s race, which will start at 7:30 a.m. Saturday on Main Avenue near Buckley Park and traverse the 47 miles from Durango to Silverton, is missing four-time champion Mara Abbott and defending champion Abby Mickey.
Neither defending time trial champion Mindy Caruso nor defending criterium and omnium champion Anne Perry will be in the field, either.
Most of the field’s traditional big guns will be at the USA Cycling Professional Road & Time Trial National Championships on May 25-27 in Chattanooga, Tennessee, which are running concurrently this year with the Iron Horse.
“National championships would take precedent, and it’s not really the Iron Horse’s fault; (IHBC organizers) have it on the same weekend every year,” said Mike Engleman, a champion of women’s cycling and the former USA Cycling women’s developmental director. “It’s a shame the big pros couldn’t come, but Mara Abbott had to come from somewhere.”
A lack of USA Cycling sanction also could be contributing to the smaller field because the International Cycling Union doesn’t let international racers compete in non-sanctioned events.
But the show must go on, and three time runner-up, 10-year veteran and Durangoan Marisa Asplund appears to be the early favorite. She’s returning to racing after a couple of years off after being diagnosed with a form of anemia, a blood disorder.
“I didn’t know if I’d ever be able to race again. The last couple years I’ve come to terms with a more recreational perspective,” Asplund said. “I get kind of emotional about it, because I didn’t know I’d be able to do it again. It’s coming from an intrinsic place less about results and about really loving what I do.”
Asplund, a 37-year-old former middle school teacher who now is a coach, counselor, personal trainer, therapist and triathlete, most recently has finished first at Fort Lewis College’s Squawker Classic road race in the senior women’s category in back-to-back years.
“It’s a new journey for me,” said Asplund, who has finished second to Abbott in three of the latter’s IHBC women’s record four victories. “I did know that Mara wasn’t in it. That put a little glimmer of hope in my eye.”
The lack of a bevy of stars leaves the field wide open for a breakout performance by a young rider.
Local mountain bike star Kaylee Blevins fits the bill. Blevins is entering the race for the first time since winning the 2013 USA Cycling Cross-Country Mountain Bike Nationals junior championship. She also represented the United States at the UCI Cycling Mountain Bike World Championships in Pietermaritzburg, South Africa, last season.
“I think the mountain bike training translates to this race, just working on climbing and the distance; most mountain bike races are endurance races,” said Blevins, daughter of Field and Priscilla Blevins. “You have to have some more dynamic descending skills. It helps going down some of the mountain passes and not being as scared.”
Ivie Crawford of FLC cycling also will be in the women’s field fresh off a Collegiate Road Nationals appearance.
All of the women in the field will be competing for a $2,250 prize, equal to the men’s winner for the first time ever.
“It’s intentional so to make everything equal. Our prize money is equal, even though the women’s field is significantly smaller,” first-year IHBC race director Jeff Frost said. “My kind of philosophy is equal. I would get the field size equal if I could, but there’s not that many women racing, especially at that level.”
Frost said there are “35 or 40” women entered in the race compared to “150 or 160” men.
“It’s the perfect time of year to race your bike for a lot of folks,” he said. “It’s a bucket-list event for a ton of cyclists.”
kgrabowski@durangoherald.com
