Volume 13 , Issue 22

Iron Horse Bicycle Classic

According to the Iron Horse Bicycle Classic website, the Iron Horse Classic was the brain child of Tom Mayer and his older brother Jim. Jim worked as a brakeman on the D&SNG railroad which had run the steam powered locomotive between Durango and Silverton since the 1880's.

It seems Tom was a young bicyclists who grew up alongside the tracks to Silverton. This brought on a challenge to his brother Jim to race to Silverton. Tom on his bicycle and Jim on the railroad. As the story goes, when the train came by the house, the steam whistle screamed and Tom climbed on his 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 took a shorter and easier route, but with limited speed, it was truly a race between man and machine. Hence the "Iron Horse Bicycle Classic" began in 1972 when a group of 36 riders decided to celebrate the first run of the train in the spring.

In those 40 years the Iron Horse has become one of the classic bicycle events in the West. With its centrally location, Durango is an early summer meeting of the riders from the cycling centers of Denver, Albuquerque, Phoenix and Salt Lake City. Over the years many events have been added to the classic train race, such as the criteriums, circuit races, road races, tours, BMX races, Trials, dual slaloms, team trailrides and mountain bike races.

This brings a full weekend of events every Memorial Day weekend for the past 40 years for Durango, Colorado, a town of only 16,000 people nestled in the mountains of Southwest Colorado.

Happy 40th Anniversary to the Iron Horse Bicycle Classic that began back in 1972!   |  View or Add Comments (0 Comments)   |   Receive updates ( subscribers)  |   Unsubscribe

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