Town is full. Bicycles are everywhere. It’s a happy time in Durango, but the happiest person in Durango this weekend is no longer with us.

The Iron Horse Bicycle Classic brings one of the best sporting weekends of the year to this mountain town. While the event might be more about the tour riders than the professional races these days, the top-end of the pro field in the road race to Silverton and the mountain bike race in Durango still give local fans and this sports journalist the chance to see some of the most talented cyclists in the country work their craft.

That is the case again this year with a strong roster in both the men’s and women’s pro races at the IHBC. But one familiar, smiling face won’t be at the front of the peloton when the road race glides through the Animas Valley toward the first climb of Shalona Hill. It is that of Benjamin Sonntag.

This will be the first IHBC without “Ze German” since 2014. The longtime Durango resident from Germany was killed when he was struck by a driver while out on a training ride on a remote gravel road in southwest La Plata County in March 2020. He was 39 years old.

That was shortly before the COVID-19 pandemic shut down sporting events and the world as we know it. That included the IHBC, which canceled its 2020 event.

So now, as the IHBC gets going again this weekend for the 49th edition of the race, it’s another sobering realization that Sonntag is no longer with us.

His blue and red Team CLIF Bar jersey won’t be visible at the front of the race he finished on the podium of numerous times, though he was never closer to winning the road race than in 2016 when he lost a sprint finish by half a wheel to fellow Fort Lewis College cycling alum Payson McElveen. Those two duked it out again in 2018 in the mountain bike race in a sprint McElveen again claimed.

“It’s going to be different this year,” said Troy Wells, one of Sonntag’s best friends fellow Team CLIF Bar athlete. “We were teammates out there, and not having him there at all this year is going to be hard. He was always there rolling in the valley with a smile while everyone was joking around before it became game on up Shalona Hill. It’s going to be weird not having him out there.”

During pre-race interviews with local legends such as five-time IHBC road race winner Ned Overend, the phrase, “Never count out the German,” was something I would hear every year leading into the IHBC.

I will miss getting a couple of minutes with Sonntag before the race. He would ride up to me with a big smile and a nasal strip in place to help him with some of the allergies he battled this time of year. He would have told me how he felt, how the weather conditions were looking, and I’d let him know I was going to be quietly cheering for him from inside the media car, where on a warmer day like this year I would take the coat he had rode to the start line with so he didn’t have to worry about stashing it somewhere else.

I’d see him in Silverton for a post-race interview before the podium ceremony. Nobody gave a better play-by-play description of what they saw happen during the 47-mile race up 5,700 feet of climbing. He truly loved the climbs and everything about the race.

“The historic Iron Horse weekend always made Ben’s calendar,” said his girlfriend, Sarah Alsgaard. “As a proud Durangoan, racing in his hometown with his community was the ultimate. He also never complained about sleeping in his own bed, waking up to his espresso machine and cats before racing some of the fastest riders in the world all from his front door.”

Sonntag would finish eighth in his last IHBC road race in 2019. I’ll fondly remember his fourth-place in 2017, the year Sepp Kuss won before going on to World Tour fame at races such as the Tour de France and Spanish Vuelta. Longtime neighbors, Sonntag had a soft spot for Kuss and was thrilled to watch him win and to get a first-hand look at how the climbing sensation worked his way up Coal Bank and Molas passes.

Sonntag was proud of that 2017 race for reasons beyond Kuss and his own results. His parents, Irmgard and Klaus Sonntag, had come to visit from Germany. They had been before, but this one was special. Sonntag wanted to show his parents the Iron Horse and the kind of cycling community Durango was. Them being able to see the IHBC festivities, he said, gave them a true look at why he made Duango his home and why he had never returned to live in Germany after graduating from Fort Lewis College. Seeing his parents at the finish line was as good as crossing it first.

“His parents found a new love for Durango with the amount of time they spent here,” Troy Wells said.

Sonntag was, of course, a staple at the mountain bike race, too. Ripping through Steamworks Brewing Co., and back out across downtown Durango, he masterfully handled his bike. He always wanted to win, but he was also so willing to give a positive comment about the winners in front of him, whether it was McElveen, Todd Wells, Howard Grotts or Stephan Davoust. The excitement in his voice matched his wide smile after the big effort.

While Sonntag won’t be there to line up at the mountain bike race this year, a memorial to him will be. A bench was crafted from stone and engraved in his honor. Troy Wells had it placed near the start and finish line for the race at the Durango Mesa Park for the week. During pre-ride events of the course, many have already stopped by it to pay respects, including some of Durango’s youngest cyclists Cooper Wells, son of Todd and Meghan Wells, and Titus Wilderman, son of Cody and Linda Wilderman. Those young guns will ride in the under-14 race Sunday.

“Ben, we miss you every day, and there will be a huge void this weekend,” Meghan Wells said. “Thank you for inspiring all of us and especially this younger generation.”

While it will sting not to hear his voice or see that infectious smile, we can take some solace knowing Sonntag’s positive attitude will live on in the peloton this weekend and in IHBC events for years to come.

John Livingston is the Regional Sports Editor of The Durango Herald. He can be reached at jlivingston@durangoherald.com. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram, @jlivi2.