We’ve had a time trial, then we didn’t have a time trial. Ed added mountain biking when that became big. The event has started in different places, ended at different places in Silverton. “Ed was always very open to changing things over 48 years. “This is a prudent decision for the community,” Patti Zink, Ed’s wife, said when the event was postponed earlier in the month. There are still some critical ones we want to hit.” We want to be able to make contributions to the community like we normally do, but we won’t be able to do as many. “We are going to have hard decisions this summer on what we spend money on and what we don’t. “We wanted to make an exception to do something,” he said.
#Iron horse bike week 2020 registration#
Sippy stressed that the stated policy upon the completion of registration is that no refund would be given in the event of a cancellation and that the IHBC was breaking from the previous policy to offer some form of relief. We already spent a considerable amount to get us to March.” The worst thing we can do is put a 48-year business out of business. What we’ve done is give up half of our revenue over a two-year period to try to do the best we could by our participants and keep the business alive for future years. Essentially, people can get up to 50% back of this year’s registration with the refund and the application of 20% to next year’s registration if they choose to do so. We needed to do what we thought was best for our participants as well as the business of the event. We are currently 11 months into our year and were getting ready to put an event on at the end of May. “We had to make sure we are viable for the future,” Sippy said. It, too, was canceled this year because of the virus. That event was originally founded in 1940 and has completed 76 editions. The IHBC is the second-longest continuous road bike race event in the country behind only the Tour of Somerville in New Jersey. This is the first time the entire event has been canceled. Even in those years, some cycling races were held in Durango in association with the IHBC on Memorial Day weekend. In 19, the road race was shortened to finish at Purgatory Resort instead of Silverton, and that was because of snow on Coal Bank and Molas passes. Only once was the road race canceled, and that was in 2008 because of weather. It is an event that now brings thousands to Southwest Colorado with an average of 44 states and five countries represented among the field of participants each year. The road race has been the staple of the event that has since added more road races, mountain biking, BMX and gravel riding to various editions of the race. Tom won the bet.Ī year later, Tom Mayer and Ed Zink, the longtime owner of Mountain Bike Specialists in Durango who died in October at age 71, founded the first IHBC road race from Durango to Silverton. The Iron Horse Bicycle Classic was formed in 1972, one year after Tom Mayer bet his brother Jim, a brakeman on the Denver & Rio Grande Western Railroad line from Durango to Silverton, that he could ride his bike from Durango to Silverton faster than the train could arrive. It’s a real challenge not knowing when large public gatherings will be allowed again.” I don’t envy folks with fall events lined up. “We are in the same spot we were 60 days ago and don’t know how long it will be like that. “We had to take into account the landscape right now of large participation events and all of the unknowns coming along with it right now. “We spent a lot of time trying to make sure we didn’t let the emotion of not having an Iron Horse for the first time in 48 years on Memorial Day weekend – or an annual event, period – override our decision making process,” said IHBC Race Director Gaige Sippy.
But the uncertainty surrounding COVID-19 and the potential to not be able to host large group gatherings led to cancellation. Organizers had made the announcement April 2 to postpone from its usual Memorial Day weekend event and aimed to find a date in September to hold the race.
Thursday, the IHBC announced its plan to cancel the 2020 event because of the new coronavirus pandemic. In an email sent to thousands of registered participants at 6 a.m. Once postponed and now canceled, the 49th edition of the Iron Horse Bicycle Classic will have to wait until 2021.
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