Ruth Holcomb of Durango High School rides in the varsity girls race during the Colorado Cycling League state championship in 2018 on Durango Mesa.
#Iron horse bike stage pro
The future FLC cyclist won the pro women’s field in 2019 and placed second in the Queen of the Mountain omnium competition. In the women’s field, Ruth Holcomb is also coming off a stint racing in Europe. Amos has had perhaps the most experience racing around the Durango Mesa Park of anyone in the field, as he won a high school state championship there as a senior at Animas High School and won the cyclo-cross race there put on by FLC last fall. Amos placed second in the under-23 race in the Czech Republic, a career-best result for the young rider. Plus, as a Durango local, he’ll know the course well, including the steep climb up Telegraph trail.Īnother local who’s on form is Amos, a 19-year-old coming off of a successful stint of racing in Europe on the World Cup circuit. “He's got the bike skills and the high-altitude fitness right now, and not doing the road race will probably help him.”ĭavoust recently won the cross-country race at the Solider Hollow Bike Festival in Utah, which shows that he’s on form. “He'll be a racer to watch for,” Grotts said of fellow Durango Devo and FLC alum Davoust. For his part, Grotts tips Davoust along with Fort Lewis College alum Henry Nadell as two riders who could do well.Ī multiple-time winner of the Iron Horse Bicycle Classic men’s mountain bike race, Durango’s Howard Grotts will look for another, though on a vastly different course this weekend. Grotts may claim that it’s “a toss up,” but his competitors know he is nearly always riding fast, and recent rides logged on Strava prove that. “I don't have any expectations, it's just going to be a toss up to see what I can do." "Having a lot of the race in Horse Gulch will make it a bit more interesting in the pro race,” said Grotts, a former mountain bike Olympian and multi-time winner of the race. In the women’s field, Olympic hopeful Erin Huck will butt heads with Evelyn Dong of Utah and Ruth Holcomb of Durango. This Sunday, Durangoan Stephan Davoust, the 2019 mountain bike champion, will face off with riders such as Riley Amos and Howard Grotts in the pro men’s race. The IHBC mountain bike race often features fields that are just as competitive as the more lauded road race to Silverton, featuring established professionals along with up-and-comers. The course will also be a new challenge for competitors, many of whom are Durango locals who compete on the world mountain biking stage. The new course, which is nearly all singletrack and features longer climbs and descents, will almost certainly create different racing dynamics than its predecessor. This year, COVID-19 has blocked the novel course popular with both riders and spectators, and a new course was designed using the Horse Gulch trail system. In recent years, the Iron Horse Bicycle Classic mountain bike race has been defined by sending racers through downtown Durango and through the bar at Steamworks Brewing Co. New course uses tough trails in Horse Gulch, starts and finishes at Durango Mesa Park