{"id":100344,"date":"2018-04-17T21:38:03","date_gmt":"2018-04-18T03:38:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/the-durango-fall-blaze-road-event-is-back-for-fort-lewis-college-cycling\/"},"modified":"2018-04-17T21:38:03","modified_gmt":"2018-04-18T03:38:03","slug":"the-durango-fall-blaze-road-event-is-back-for-fort-lewis-college-cycling","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/the-durango-fall-blaze-road-event-is-back-for-fort-lewis-college-cycling\/","title":{"rendered":"The Durango Fall Blaze road event is back for Fort Lewis College cycling"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"For
For the first time since 2015, the Durango Fall Blaze road cycling event will return Sept. 29 as the key fundraising event for the Fort Lewis College cycling team.<\/span>Durango Herald file<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

After a two-year hiatus, one of the hottest fall cycling events is set to return.<\/p>\n

Behind the work of new volunteer director Rick O\u2019Block, the Durango Fall Blaze Bicycle Tour is set for Sept. 29. The event is a benefit for the Fort Lewis College cycling program<\/a>, with 100 percent of net proceeds going toward FLC cycling scholarships.<\/p>\n

O\u2019Block, an avid cyclist who does radio for Fort Lewis College athletics when he\u2019s not busy serving as the head of football officials in La Plata County, was on a bike ride with Steve Schwartz, the vice president of finance and administration at FLC, when Schwartz asked O\u2019Block if he would bring back the Fall Blaze.<\/p>\n

\u201cI work closely with the college and know the financial difficulties, so I was like, \u2018OK, I\u2019ll do it,\u2019\u201d O\u2019Block said.<\/p>\n

The Fall Blaze will offer road rides of 37, 60 and 100 miles, and O\u2019Block hopes to get 500 riders registered in total.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we can get 500, it will net pretty good money for FLC scholarships,\u201d he said. \u201cI don\u2019t know all the expenses yet, but any net profits will go to FLC scholarships for students.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor roadies, this is really the only other road event in town during the season other than the Iron Horse. It\u2019s nice to give them one more event before putting the bike away for the season.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Fall Blaze is the biggest benefit event for FLC cycling. Its return has been celebrated by the program and the college, which has gotten behind the event with marketing efforts. O\u2019Block also is partnering with Iron Horse Bicycle Classic<\/a> director Gaige Sippy for more support.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is so impressive and honorable of Rick to want to help us out like this,\u201d said FLC cycling director Dave Hagen. \u201cIn athletics, everyone knows him well from his commentating on football and basketball games and all that, and he\u2019s a big sports fan, for sure.<\/p>\n

\u201cReally, the college has stepped up a lot to help with the Blaze now, too. They realize how important it is, and it\u2019s really our only avenue for getting scholarships for the team.\u201d<\/p>\n

Every distance of the Fall Blaze will have a start and finish line at the famed clock tower on the FLC campus. There will be staggered start times by 30 minutes, with the goal of getting riders returning from their respective distances close enough to the same time to have a post-race party.<\/p>\n

Riders on the 100-mile course will get a police escort from the college to U.S. Highway 550, then the riders will travel up Shalona Hill and return via East Animas before traveling out to Vallecito.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a great venue on a crisp morning without much traffic on the roads,\u201d O\u2019Block said. \u201cAnd we will have a lot of pros in town riding with the riders. It will be a good ride.\u201d<\/p>\n

O\u2019Block has secured the participation of Durango Olympic mountain biker Howard Grotts, who graduated from FLC. Grotts will be the face of the 2018 Fall Blaze.<\/p>\n

\u201cWho doesn\u2019t like Howard Grotts? The guy is a gem in the world of professional sports,\u201d O\u2019Block said.<\/p>\n

The event will fall two weeks after Todd\u2019s Durango Dirt Fondo<\/a> mountain bike event, giving road riders a fun fall option or another reason for some mountain bikers to keep their fitness level high going into the start of fall.<\/p>\n

The cost of entry will be $80. Registration is open at www.fortlewis.edu\/fallblaze<\/a>. There will also be a registration party at 3 p.m. Sunday at Carver Brewing Co. in downtown Durango to also celebrate the conclusion of this weekend\u2019s Squawker Classic road cycling race hosted by FLC.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s great this is happening the same weekend along with the DEVO bike swap this weekend. It turned into a big weekend of cycling in mid-April,\u201d Hagen said. \u201cWe\u2019re looking forward to the party at Carver\u2019s. It\u2019s great to have this Fall Blaze back up and running, and it has a lot of new energy with Rick taking it over.\u201d<\/p>\n

jlivingston@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

O\u2019Block partners with FLC to bring back road race<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":100345,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5770],"tags":[992,657,132,2180,2343],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-100344","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-high-school-sports","tag-college-sports","tag-cycling","tag-fort-lewis-college","tag-road-cycling","tag-sports-group"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100344","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=100344"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100344\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/100345"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=100344"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=100344"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=100344"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=100344"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}