When’s the last time you hopped in the saddle for a ride with an all-star cast of hall-of-fame mountain bikers and Olympic cyclists?
About 300 mountain bikers turned out for the first-ever Todd and Ned’s Durango Dirt Fondo on Saturday, for a riding event of epic proportions around Durango’s flagship trail system.
They hauled up climbs in Horse Gulch, sped down descents at Chapman Hill, dug in deep up switchbacks on Animas City Mountain and carved the buff singletrack of Overend Mountain Park.
More of a community fun ride than race, fondos are more popular overseas, but a few local two-wheeled celebrities wanted to stir things up and remind the rest of the world just how good the mountain biking is in Durango.
World and repeated national champion Ned Overend, who calls Durango home, partnered with Durango’s other favored fat-tire son, Todd Wells, to bring the event to life. He said visitors were gushing over the occasion and the terrain.
“They’re just enjoying it here,” Overend said after leading the 25-mile short course tour of Durango’s singletrack. “The coffee, the food, the beer. It’s all good.”
Wells, a three-time Olympic cyclist and 14-time national champion, said the fondo came off better than he hoped. He led the 45-mile off-road tour and said locals are lucky to have access to such trail networks.
“We just wanted to get people excited about Durango,” he said.
The two courses of the fondo led mountain bikers through a variety of trail systems that Durango is internationally celebrated for hosting and maintaining. Beginning and ending at the Powerhouse Science Center, riders pedaled across downtown and along Fourth Avenue, up College Drive and Goeglein Gulch, then climbing into the Telegraph Trail System. Without a cloud in the sky, things warmed up, and so did the competition.
Two timed sections of trail clocked riders as they rode through rocky and twisting trail conditions, just for fun.
A large portion of the course baked, and while some riders noticed more than others, temperatures remained in the mid-80s.
Troy Wells, a professional mountain bike and cyclecross racer also of Durango, said it was a tough, terrific day.
“It was definitely a hot and hard day,” he said. “I don’t think there was anybody that didn’t suffer, so now everyone has that camaraderie. People like to do an epic fun ride, and I think this fits in for what people came here expecting.”
Riders hooted and hollered through the descent of the Chapman Hill Flow Trail, the original site of the slalom course of the 1990 Mountain Bike World Championships. In fact, the fondo itself was put on the fast track to celebrate its anniversary, and many of the original competitors pulled on their lycra and stepped up to the starting line in honor of it.
“A lot of these people were world champs,” Todd Wells said. “I had their posters hanging on my wall as a kid.”
Many elder statesmen and women of the sport hit the trails Saturday. Overend and mountain-biking legend Juli Furtado, Mountain Bike Hall of Fame inductee and in the United States Bicycling Hall of Fame, rode the 25-mile course together.
Todd Wells said it was indescribable to be on the same course with his heroes.
“We have all these past champions and pioneers of the sport,” he said. “To have all these people on the starting line, for me, was awesome. I’ve (raced in) a couple of Olympics and I think this was more fun.”
From Olympians to former champions to riders who just love to ride, the trails around Durango buzzed as tires moved over rocks and dust.
One female rider drifted across a tall berm at Chapman that arced her out of the forest like a curve ball, sending her laughing despite her shortness of breath.
“This is so awesome,” she said, regaining composure and speeding off.
Riders grunted up the foot of Animas City Mountain, and long-course riders wrapped around Dalla Mountain Park, then everyone toured Overend Mountain Park and returned to the Powerhouse.
“Today exceeded my expectations,” Todd Wells said. “I wanted to do something different. Durango is known as a mountain-biking town, and I just hope this grows from here.”
bmathis@bcimedia.com
