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“Are people going to avoid large events? Do they want to eat out as much? We don’t know the answers to those questions yet,” Sippy said. Still, Sippy said it’s too early to tell if the COVID-19 pandemic did any long-term damage to the Iron Horse.Īnd it is too early to tell if people have gained a long-term germophobic fear of attending events with large crowds, he said. We’ll be doing some special things for the 50th, and I think people are waiting for that,” he said.
#IRON HORSE BIKE COMPANY REGISTRATION#
“We offered folks from the canceled 2020 event priority registration for either 2021 or ’22, and I think we’re going to have big numbers for 2022.
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With a big shebang planned for 2022, Sippy believes a lot of people who have the Iron Horse on their bucket list are holding off until then. In 2020, IHBC registrants were refunded 30% of their entry fee and offered a 20% discount for the $100 entry fee for either the 2021 or the 2022 race.
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IHBC 2022 will be the 50th anniversary of the event that started when Tom Mayer, a cycling enthusiast, challenged his older brother, Jim, a brakeman on what was then the Denver & Rio Grande Western Railroad, to a race to Silverton. IHBC 2022 is likely a big reason for the slow registration this year. And since we had to scale all that back, we have a ton of people that asked to defer to 2022.” “A lot of the fanfare that we have around the events brings people here. It’s not just the ride to Silverton,” Sippy said. Gone this year are the kids race, the Cruiser Crit and the mountain bike race through Steamworks Brewing Co., though there will be a mountain bike race held away from downtown starting and finishing at Durango Mesa Park.Īlso missing this year will be the festival-related events with tent campuses in Silverton and Durango to host special events. In addition to the lingering hangover from the pandemic, Sippy said IHBC normally opens registration for the event in December, but this year registration didn’t open until April 15.Īlso, the event is essentially a mini-me version of the annual classic. He also noted the Iron Horse will be the first major gathering in town in more than 14 months, since the beginning of the pandemic. Registrations would have come in at a faster clip if the race were held in September rather than May, further from the outbreak of the pandemic, Sippy said.
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So, I think that's partly why we're seeing so many people registering later than normal.” “They’re unsure about travel plans, they're unsure about events getting canceled. Part of it is folks are still unsure about doing stuff,” Sippy said. “In the end, I think we’ll be at the 1,000 number. Normally, the IHBC allows a total 2,500 riders to compete in the two major events, with the bulk of the riders participating in the Citizens Tour. Instead, they attribute the slow pace of registration for this year’s race between cyclists and the Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad’s train to the truncated nature of this year’s gathering and the aftereffects of the COVID-19 pandemic.Īs of Thursday, Sippy said 850 riders had registered for the available 1,000 spots for IHBC’s two major events, the Citizens Tour to Silverton and the Road Race. Durango’s iconic kickoff to summer, the Iron Horse Bicycle Classic, has seen slow registration for this year’s Memorial Day weekend events – unusual for an event that has been known to fill its available slots within a day.īut IHBC race director Gaige Sippy and economic leaders across town aren’t worried the luster is coming off the shine of the event that helped put Durango on the outdoor recreation map.