If you want to ride in Colorado's Iron Horse Bicycle Classic bike race or bike tour this year, then you better sign up soon.
The popular bike race and bike tour through the San Juan Mountains between Durango and Silverton is limiting ridership to 2,500 riders for the May 26-27 event. Organizers say 1,000 have already signed up at a rate 40% ahead of last year.
The decision to limit ridership is based on the safety of riders, the impacts on communities that host the ride, and law enforcement concerns.
Director Gaige Sippy told the Cortez Journal:
“We are announcing the cap locally first because many locals wait until the Friday before the event to register and this year that may not be an option. We will be distributing this information locally first and then regionally and nationally.”
Growing out of a challenge among local cyclists to mark the annual spring return of the Durango & Rio Grande Western Railroad (a narrow-gauge railway that winds through the mountains), the event has turned into a weekend event over 36 years, drawing some 2,300 riders in 2006.
Race or ride
The Memorial Day weekend event is highlighted by a 48-mile bike race from Durango to Silverton that begins at 7:30 a.m. May 26, and a 50-mile bike tour that begins at 8:15 a.m. the same day. Riders climb about 5,700 feet on the route to Silverton; much of the highway will be closed to cars for the event. Arriving in Silverton, riders can either return to Durango via tourist train or bus.
The Tom Danielson Cycling Series takes place at Fort Lewis College in Durango Saturday afternoon and a concert is scheduled for Main Street that evening.
Sunday marks a downtown Durango criterium race.
Triple Bypass
The Iron Horse isn't the only Colorado bicycling event with rider limits. Team Evergreen imposed a voluntary limit of 3,500 riders for the Triple Bypass, a 120-mile ride from Evergreen to Avon scheduled for July 14. The limit was reached on March 3.
State police have been concerned about the size of cycling events in the state in recent years.
In late 2005, the chief of the Colorado State Patrol unilaterally decided to limit cycling events in the state to 2,500. He rescinded the order after meeting with bicycle advocates, but said he would impose limits if ride organizers can't control participants to follow the rules of the road.
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