Iron Horse Bicycle Classic (Saturday)

The Classic, man versus machine!

The Citizens 50 mile tour from Durango to Silverton is the one that started it all! Take off with the train, traveling over two 10,000ft mountain passes enroute to the historical mining town of Silverton. T

here are four aid stations with food and water along the route. There is no technical support on course. 27 miles of the route to Silverton is a closed road.

The Quarter Horse (starts at 08:15)

25 mile Tour from Durango to Purgatory Resort. 2300 vertical feet of climbing finishing at the village of Durango Mountain Resort. Food, fun and jubilation await riders at finish.... Great for families!

The Iron Horse Bicycle Classic was the brain child of Tom Mayer and his older brother Jim. Jim worked as a brakeman on the D & R G W railroad which had run the steam powered locomotive between Durango and Silverton since the 1880's. Tom was a young bicycle enthusiast who grew up alongside the tracks to Silverton. Tom challenged Jim to a race to Silverton. As the train came by the house, the steam whistle screamed and Tom climbed on his trusty steel framed 10 speed and pedaled up over the rim of the old volcano and descended into the caldera to the mining town of Silverton. The train takes a shorter and easier route, but with limited speed, so it is truly a race between man and machine. When Tom became strong enough to win, the bragging rights were his, and the whole town knew it.

In 1972 a group of 36 riders decided to celebrate the first run of the train in the spring by accepting the challenge. It's been all up hill since then.

Durango is centrally located between Denver, Albuquerque, Phoenix, and Salt Lake City. The Iron Horse is an ideal early summer meeting of the riders from each of these cycling centers as they attempt to bring home the glory to their own communities. In recent years the participants have come from every state and many foreign countries to ride the famed Iron Horse course. Each year hundreds of riders will feel the thrill of descending into Silverton and looking to see if the train has arrived. And familiar faces will be there, as many people come back year after year to the "best race we have around."

Over the years several events have been added to the classic train race. There have been criteriums, circuit races, road races, tours, BMX races, Trials, dual slaloms, team trail rides, and mountain bike races. There has been a full weekend of events every Memorial Day for the past 41 years. In 2011 the IHBC had over 3500 participants in 5 events. Not bad for a town of only 16,000 people nestled in the mountains of Southwest Colorado!