The Durango to Silverton, Colorado

Iron Horse Bike Classic (IHBC)

27 May 2006

By Charlie “Czar” Czarniecki

In 1980 Barb and I bought 3.5 acres in the mountains 9 miles north of Durango Colorado, it is one lot from the San Juan National Forest. I started reading the Durango Herald newspaper in 1997 when we found it on the internet. I’ve read about the Durango to Silverton Iron Horse Bike Classic (IHBC) http://www.ironhorsebicycleclassic.com/tour.html every year since then. In 2002 a Colorado University Journalism Masters Degree candidate was interning at the newspaper and wrote the story as he experienced it from his bike saddle. We exchanged EMAILs for a few weeks after that. It was then that I made a life goal to do this 50-mile ride. I even announced this short term goal during my AF retirement ceremony from the stage on Oct 27, 2004.

The ride history tells us that a brother of a Durango and Silverton Narrow Gauge Rail Road (D&SNGRR) engineer started racing the train on its first run of the season – he raced it on his bicycle. The tracks are close to the road for the first 10 miles or so out of Durango (6,500 feet high), and then the train goes up an eastern Animas River canyon to Silverton, while the road continues north. The road climbs up past the Durango Mountain Resort at Purgatory Mountain (8,900 feet); then pitches up a 6%, 6-mile climb up Coal Bank Pass (10,600 feet); descend about 3 miles at 5%; then climbs a 5% 4-mile road to the top of Molas Pass (10,700 feet); then there is a 6+ mile 5% descent to Silverton (9,300 feet high). The train takes 3 hours and 30 minutes. It was a couple of years before the bike started beating the train.

Memorial Day weekend was the 35th annual IHBC. The “event” has grown so there are professional racers and “citizen” riders. There is this 50-mile road classic on Saturday, Sunday is criterion closed circuit bike races on the streets of Durango, and Monday is filled with mountain bike races in the hills outside of Durango.

I was going to do this ride in ’05 but broke my arm in a bike accident 5 weeks before the ride. The AF Academy doctors convinced me that I could not train for this ride using only 1 arm. So my registration was transferred to ’06. I prepared for this ride by climbing all the hills that I could find here in Colorado Springs since March. The week before this ride I rode 102 miles in our club sponsored Buena Vista Bike Fest. I felt ready for the challenge. Last year before I broke my arm I was in Durango with my bike and rode up Coal Bank Pass as a test. I stopped every mile on the ascent and caught my breath as I made notes. That climb left me a bit worried.

We drove to Durango from Colorado Springs in about 7 hours on Friday (5/26), we left in mid-morning. We checked into our motel and headed to the race/ride registration. I was pre-registered so every thing flowed smoothly. As they suggested, I brought a bag of clothes to change into after the ride. I marked it and they transported it to Silverton to wait for me. We then went off and visited a few places around Durango (including our mountain property).

Saturday we checked out of the motel and Barb dropped me off at the Citizen’s Ride start point in front of the train depot downtown. There were over 1,200 “citizen riders” there on bikes. The racers (over 900) were up at the Durango Rec Center (27 city blocks up the road) and were started in age groupings before us. Our road blockades were removed at 8:15 and we started just as the steam locomotive blew its whistle and left the Durango Station for Silverton. The weather was mostly clear and sunny with a gentle south breeze blowing on our back as we rode. Everyone was wearing colorful riding jerseys, race bib numbers, lots of music was in the air - it was quite an exciting way to start a ride. And we were all headed in the same direction at the same time. The two northbound lanes of US 550 through town were blocked for us and we all headed out in a giant parade start. Barb was up at the Rec Center and took a few pictures as I approached. She said that I was in the 1^st 1/2 of the parade. After I passed her, I started looking for bikes going my speed to start drafting.

I found a group of 3 of us that were moving along. Then we jumped on with another group of 3, then another group of 9, and before we knew it we had a double paceline of over 30 people. After the first gentle climb out of Durango the road gets pretty flat and I saw that we were cruising at 25 mph; we took the shoulder and about half the right lane of traffic. Traffic thinned out after a while and it was rare to see anyone drive by. People came out of their houses and housing developments and “partied” along the road. They were yelling, shouting encouragement, ringing cow bells, and using all sorts of noise makers as we rode by. It was really a neat way to ride.

At the town of Hermosa the train heads off to the east and up its canyon. At that point the road starts its first big climb out of the valley. Interesting, that it was at this point that the paceline dissolved. Now I felt lucky to find 2 people keeping the same pace for any period of time. I skipped the 1^st of 4 rest stops because the next one was only 6 miles ahead; and I thought there would be fewer people in the “outhouse” lines. The 2^nd reststop was at the entrance to the Durango Mountain Ski Resort. It was an excellent idea to drain my bladder before starting that 6-mile Coal Bank Pass climb. I ate some of their snacks and they filled my water bottles. Several of us looked to the ski mountain and shared the same thought – the runs don’t look that steep when they have snow on them and we are wearing skis. From this point forward the road was officially close to vehicle traffic until 12:30 in the afternoon. That is the only way to ride!! Within a mile I was starting the Coal Bank Pass climb.

I rode just this climb a year earlier when I was in town skiing. The lesson from that morning was “don’t be stubborn about the speed, drop into 1^st gear early and just keep spinning”. I switched my speedometer to the odometer and counted down the 6 miles as I climbed, I learned from last year’s practice that I get frustrated fast when I can’t climb faster than 6 mph. On that practice ride I had to stop every mile to catch my breath. This time I made it into the 4th mile before stopping. I found that I could not climb, breath, and drink at the same time. So I stopped twice on both climbs to rehydrate. I kept a really solid pace and was only passed by 10 people or so the whole 6-mile climb. It was helpful to have landmarks on the climb from my practice ride. I stopped at the top of the pass for snacks and more water. The sky now had a high overcast blocking the sun, but we still had a trailing south breeze blowing us up the mountain (angle breath perhaps?) I noticed most people were putting their riding jackets on. I figured the speed going down the other side must be chilling, so I put mine on too.

Now we were on road that I’ve seen by car, but not bike. Most of us were using the whole road on the descent, so I was in the left lane on occasion. It was on one of those moves that I discovered that this highway has “rumble strips” cut into the center line. The first time I hit it I thought my bike was starting to fall apart (going some where around 40 mph). I looked at my bike computer and it said it was only 34. It wasn’t until I started the 2^nd mountain climb that I realized I hadn’t switched back to “speed” and it was actually showing me that it was 34 miles from the train depot.

The 2^nd climb is supposed to be easier because it is shallower and shorter. But it is still climbing. I started overheating in my jacket and stopped just over a mile up to take it off and drink. A ways further up the hill found 4 guys in green kilts jumping up and down on a sofa at the side of the road - while they told us it was 1 mile to the top. This climb has a lot of false summits on it and I was beginning to think that there wasn’t a top to it. The kilt guys lied, there was over 1.5 mile, but I finally saw the top and there was a hospital helicopter standing ready in the parking lot. I was with a grouping of 5 people at that point and we all started heading down hill. As we passed the rest stop, I asked myself why some one would stop there when it is 6 miles down hill to the finish line – maybe the view?

Well the gang descended at comparable speeds so we all spaced about 10 yards apart and followed each other down the mountain. I never rode this part before and didn’t know what was around all the “blind” left hand corners. Now that I’ve done it once, there are only 2 left to right hairpin turns on the whole descent that I really need to slow down. I can take this part much faster the next time I ride the course. On the descent I had the speedometer selected and the whole 6 miles was taken between 34 and 47 mph; we were flying and I had a huge smile on my face! I got to the edge of Silverton and slowed down with everyone else as we passed the traffic cone barrier and entered their main street. We were slowly “touring” about half way through town before we realized the finish line was on the other side of town. So we geared back up, picked up speed, and went under the Contential tire arch finish line. As I approached the finish line it seemed so appropriate to hear the train whistle blow once; the time was exactly 12 noon.

There was a mass of people starting at the park finish line. The racers had to get their times recorded, but the citizen riders didn’t. I seemed to be in a line and finally figured out that it was a slow line to give the race/ride organizers my bike. They loaded all the bikes in semi trailers (with furniture pad protection) and took them to the Rec Center at Durango for us. This exercise lasted 25 minutes (the one part of this adventure that they still could improve). I then found my clothes bag and went to the “men’s changing tent”. There was a public address system with radio quality music and local DJ up on a scaffold platform at the finish line, they kept the party atmosphere alive in Silverton. The sun was out and there was a breeze and a slight chill – I was glad that I had packed my long sleeve shirt. I went to the prize tent and collected my race T-shirt (you have to finish the ride to earn it; it isn’t included in the registration package). I picked up a few bottles of water and then found the next event bus to be returned to Durango. (There is an option to take the train back, I didn’t opt for it because I had no idea how fast or slow I’d cover this ride.) I boarded a Mountain Waters Rafting company bus and we left at 12:55. From what I saw in Silverton, I was easily in the top 1/3 of the citizen riders. I made notes on my digital recorder as we drove back. One note was that the bus was a great way to visit with fellow bike people and unwind. I was either climbing hard or on a fast descent on the ride and hadn’t noticed all the snow in the hills, big water falls near the road, nor how green every thing was on the mountains. I noted that there were still a lot of riders on the road on my journey back. Some were just starting the last climb. The organizers said they would encourage riders who hadn’t reached the top of the 1^st climb by 1pm to retire for the day – the road was open to all traffic again by that time. I got back to Durango at 2:15 and called Barb using our Cobra ski radios. She was already monitoring the channel – neither of us had any idea how long it would take me to ride and certainly no idea how long it would take to get back to Durango. She agreed to drop by Burger King and get my usual so that I could eat as we waited for my bike to return. The Durango weather was sunny and there was a warm breeze, a perfect day. Barb arrived with the food at 2:35, the same time as the bike vans. I ate my lunch as they started unloading the bikes, and was able to walk up and quickly find my bike in their temporary wooden bike racks. We stayed in Durango for a few hours to attend church, and then drove home - arriving in C Springs shortly after midnight. It was one of my best bike days.

I’ve looked at the race results and talked to the organizers. There were 767 men and 145 women racers that competed that day. The fastest man finished in 2:17, the slowest was 5:35. The fast woman was 2:41, and slowest was 5:55. They don’t time the citizen riders (1200+) but they know the fastest covered it in 2:45. The last person to finish was wearing blue jeans (not “riding clothes”) and came in after 7 hours on the road. There is one more set of riders that go unaccounted every year. They are some of the locals (guessing less than 50) that just show up along the road and ride. They don’t have bib numbers so there are no rest stop goodies, no bike transported to Durango, no ride back to Durango, and no support vehicle on US 550 when the roads are closed to public traffic. On a nice day (like this year) it is a nice ride, but when the weather is bad they ride at their own risk. I finished in 3:35 saddle time, 3:45 by the clock when I included my rest breaks. It was better than I had hoped - the training paid off.

With this done, I accomplished another personal bike goal. This isn’t something to try without doing some training. I was tired at the end, but at no time in danger of “bonking”. I think I’ll do it at least one more time in a few years and buy a “1-day racing license”. That way I can start and ride with a faster group. I’ll also get my time recorded in the official race results which will be a permanent record that I covered the course and at a pretty good speed.