Durango – Thousands of bike spokes chattered into motion and a shout went up as the piercing whistle of an antique steam train set Colorado’s oldest bike race – and the fourth oldest race in the country – into frenetic motion Saturday morning.
The Iron Horse Bicycle Classic celebrated its 35th anniversary with 2,300 racers from every state in the union. Middle-schoolers to 80-somethings headed over the mountains to Silverton as train passengers clicked pictures and hollered challenges.
“When that whistle blows, that is such an adrenaline rush,” said race director Ed Zink. “I think that adds a little charisma to this race.”
The race also celebrated this anniversary with a look back at the only ride in the country to pit bicyclists against a steam train. That challenge had its inception in a now-historic wager between two brothers.
Tom Mayer was an avid Durango cyclist in 1971 when he bet his brother Jim, a brakeman on what was then the Denver Rio Grande & Western Railroad, that he could ride the 50 miles over two nearly 11,000-foot mountain passes to Silverton faster than Jim could get there in a wheezing locomotive that had run the rails between Durango and Silverton since the 1880s.
When Jim’s train chugged into the Silverton station, Tom was waiting. The next year, local bike enthusiasts turned that idea into an organized ride and 36 intrepid cyclists on 10-speeds took the challenge.
Now thousands of racers and citizen riders whiz over the mountains on lightweight carbon-fiber and titanium bikes. They are fueled by electrolyte energy “goo.” They have the aid of heart monitors and handlebar computers. And the fastest carry on Mayer’s legacy by beating the Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge train.
Racers were sipping coffee more than an hour before the train chugged into the Silverton station Saturday.
Ned Overend, 50, was among them. He rode the Iron Horse for the 25th time this year and has won it four times – more than any other rider. He’s also been in the top six 20 times. This year, he placed ninth by crossing the finish line in two hours and 20 minutes. He’s done it all those years in a way that would make the U.S. Postal Service proud.
“I’ve ridden it in snow, rain, cold – below freezing – and wind,” Overend said.
The legacy of the race includes some fierce mountain weather to add to the challenge of pedaling over mountains. In 1996, a spring blizzard dropped three inches of snow in 30 minutes and riders had to huddle together like Antarctic penguins to keep from freezing to death. Snowplows lumbered up Cola Bank and Molas passes to rescue them.
The next year when a similar storm hit the mountains, organizers turned racers back at the Durango Mountain resort. It was the only year the race couldn’t be completed.
This year’s Iron Horse includes a town party to honor race “old-timers” like Overend and to thank the hundreds of volunteers who do everything from driving busloads of weary riders back to Durango to handing out orange slices on top of nippy passes.
Organizers also have opened a temporary Iron Horse museum in a downtown mall with memorabilia from past races.
