For the second year in a row, Durango mountain bikers raced on the trails they grew up riding on for cash and bragging rights last weekend.
Ruby Ryan won the women’s pro solo race and Ivan Sippy won the men’s pro solo race to cap off the second annual Durango Derby took place on Sunday.
Riders competed in four timed stages which totaled about 50 miles. There was the option to do the event solo or as a two or four-person team.
Due to low registration numbers, the 2024 Durango Derby was in doubt a few months out. But Durangoans and riders from outside of town signed up late and showed up to make the event a success.
“The event this year was better than it was the year before,” Durango Derby Co-Event Director Dylan Stucki said. “So that's really all we can hope for. It was an awesome time. I talked to countless people who were super stoked at the end. Everyone had a great time. It went really smooth. It's such a complicated event, having racing all over town, the amount of volunteers that it requires and all that stuff. We're just really stoked that it went smooth and people had a great time.”
Stucki and fellow Durango Derby Co-Event Director Dave Hagen decided to change the stages from last year. Stucki said Durango Derby wanted to keep the stages going through the main trail systems in town. He said Animas Mountain has been getting more rocky and blown out over the years which made it even harder. Instead, that section went through the new serve flow trail in that area. Stucki also said the second stage around the Overend Mountain Park was extended to give riders more of a bang for their buck.
The feedback about the course changes was very positive.
Ryan, a senior on the Colorado Mesa cycling team originally from New Zealand, finished first in the women’s pro solo race with a time of 3 hours, 4 minutes and 4.5 seconds.
“I was happy,” Ryan said about her performance. “I rode what I wanted to do. I wanted to have a good stage one, so get some time in immediately and then sort of hang on for the rest of the day. I rode strong on the ups and downs. It wasn't the best day out on my bike, but I definitely was happy with it.”
Ryan had the best first stage which gave her the overall lead. She finished second in the second and third stages before winning the fourth stage to secure her win.
The New Zealand native is familiar with Durango and loves riding in Durango but there were some new trails for her on Sunday. Ryan said she loved the course and all the stages had a good mix of everything. Her favorite stage was the last one since she knew the finish was near after pushing herself very hard.
Ryan said the race reminded her of riding in the forest with her brother in New Zealand for hours.
“I said to everyone, straight up the race, that was probably the coolest and hardest day I've done on my mountain bike,” Ryan said. “I loved the setup of that. Everyone was really in the same vibe. Everyone was super stoked, but also very tired, so we were just trying to get through it together honestly. So it was super fun. I love the community down there. Everyone is so friendly and wants to help out. I've had a lot of people help me out down there, so it's really nice.”
Second in the women’s pro solo race was Durango’s Bailey Cioppa. She finished in 3:07:21.3, about three minutes behind Ryan. Cioppa had the second-best time in the first stage, third-best time in the second stage, had the best time in the third stage and had the fourth-best time in the final stage.
“It was super fun,” Cioppa said. “It was definitely an interesting format. Last year you knew a little bit more where you were because most girls would start each stage together. This year, we really didn't start any of them together, so we had no idea where we were all day. But it was fun.”
Cioppa said she knew Ryan was a strong rider from racing her a few times and Cioppa was proud to finish second behind her.
Her favorite stage was the second stage in the mountain park because of its flowy trails. Cioppa was proud to show off Durango’s local trails and hopes there will be more women on the start line in the future.
Behind Cioppa was Durango’s Lauren Aggeler. The 2024 Iron Horse winner finished in 3:08:56.8. Aggeler had the best time in the second stage.
Sarah Sturm came in fourth in 3:12:49.7. Sturm was happy with fourth. She said the three women ahead of her were very well trained for a race like this while Sturm doesn’t do a lot of races like that.
Alongside Stucki, Sturm has seen Durango Derby grow from an idea into an event. She said it was cool to see over 300 people race and said it felt like a “vivacious crowd” this year.
Sturm’s favorite stage was the fourth and final one. She said she began to feel good on the bike at that time and enjoyed the steady climb and the fun descent to the finish.
Durango’s Ivan Sippy won the men’s pro solo race in 2:33:11.7.
“I had a good time,” Sippy said. “It's a cool format. Everyone's talked about it with the stages and everything. We don't do any races like that. It's super unique. So it was really fun having like four opportunities on four different trail systems base, or four different kind of trails to try to race fast and it felt good.”
Sippy, a junior on the Colorado Mesa cycling team, won the first, second and fourth stages to secure his win.
He had to work in the first stage to catch up to the leading group of Payson McElveen, Toby Hassett and Dane Grey. Unfortunately Grey had a flat in the first stage which took him out of contention for the overall win. The four of them were together for the second, third and fourth stages. Sippy said Grey went hard for the stage four win and he followed Grey and it ended out working in Sippy’s favor.
Sippy said it was fun to race on the Durango trails because people usually only ride and train on them. He said the riding was very hard and he didn’t think about it that before since Sippy had never pieced all the trails together in one day.
“It was awesome getting to do it and definitely a race that I'm going to try to do every year now,” Sippy said. “It was such a good vibe and again such a unique format.”
Fort Lewis’ Toby Hassett finished second in 2:37:37.2. Payson McElveen finished third in 2:40:27.4
The winners of the men’s and women’s pro solo races each got $3,000. Second place each got $1,250 and third place in each race got $750.
bkelly@durangoherald.com
