Iron Horse 2011
As with years in the past we spent our Memorial Day weekend in Durango Colorado “racing the train” in the Iron Horse Bicycle Classic.
Friday morning we packed up the boys, bikes and all the other gear to head for Durango. The weather forecast for the weekend was calling for mostly sunny and 70′s to 80′s and it did not disappoint! Jen and I both wanted to get in a spin today so first I had Jen drop me off on top of Coal Bank Pass and I rode into Durango It was a nice 35 mile ride mostly down hill but with a head wind I did have to work a bit during the ride 
Once in Durango I gave Jen a call and she guided me over to the place we were staying. She found a nice studio apartment over by 31st and 6th st that worked out great for us. Once settled in we loaded Axel in his Chariot and Kalden got on his bike and we headed into town on the bike path.
In town we got a bite to eat then Jen took off to pre-ride the MTB race course she would be doing on Sunday. The Iron Horse has not had a MTB race in a few years but brought it back this year for their 40th Anniversary celebration. They pulled out all the stops setting up for this years race including this incredible ramp system in which the criterium racers pass underneath while the MTB racers go up and over!
After our rides it was time to settle in for the evening and rest up for the race tomorrow AM at 7:20.
I got to my start and found out that they decided to start the Pro, cat. 1,2 and 3 all together. Well, this is going to be fast! The roll out of town is always pretty sweet. It is slightly down hill and with a pack of close to 100 riders it’s a piece of cake to just sit in and cruise along.
Cruising along pretty effortlessly for the first 20 minutes we finally made it to the base of our first climb. This is where I check out as the real climbers get to the front and punch it! I slowly drifted back and settled into my pace to get up the climb. Once over this small hill I was able to find a new group of racers and jump on the back, I was off again and heading towards the base of Coal Bank Pass. This pass is pretty steady in grade and fairly long. I felt solid going up it just keeping a steady effort and once at the top decided I had better refill one of my bottles. A quick top off and a banana and I was back on the bike in about a minute. The 3 mile descent off the back side is always great and with only a bit of wind so far I felt safe letting the bike run through the turns. Around the turn at the bottom and it’s right up the 4 mile climb to the top of Molas Pass. This pass is a lot easier than Coal Bank. The grade eases in spots so you can shift down in spots and pick up a bit of speed. The Final descent into Silverton is always amazing and FAST. And with a new pavement job from last summer the road was in perfect shape.
Silverton, Colorado
Finishing the descent it’s a 2K ride through the town of Silverton which was lined on both sides of the street with people cheering us on. I got through the finish, grabbed a bite to eat then hung out by the finish to welcome our “team” in as they arrived. Everyone made it and a great time was had by all!
At 1:15 they reopen the road to Silverton and with the van all loaded we made the drive back over retracing the route we had just ridden.
Team Peak To Peak Bicycles/Core Solutions
Dinner at Steam Works finished off the evening then off to bed and get ready for Jen and Kaldens races tomorrow.
Again on Sunday we woke to a beautiful day and rode the bike path into town to get breakfast and find Kaldens race start. The kids races at Iron Horse are so big that they have categories for every individual age and each age category had 20-50 kids! It’s pretty amazing and total chaos!
Kalden had a really good time in his race and most important didn’t get taken out by anyone else!
Next it was Jens turn to get out there. Her race was 2 laps of a 7 mile loop.
Just 3 months back from having our 2nd boy Axel she was excited to be racing again but knew it was going to hurt! Jen had a great race and was super psyched to be out there for sure. She is working her way back to racing fitness fast!
It was a super successful and great weekend for everyone involved. A big thank you to Core Solutions here in Ridgway for hosting the spin training classes over the winter. We had about a dozen riders sign up for the class and all of them did great at this years Iron Horse!
