It wasn\u2019t Gaige Sippy\u2019s typical Iron Horse Bicycle Classic, at least not in recent years.<\/p>\n
\u201cI rode with my family to Purgatory,\u201d Sippy said of the 2014 IHBC. \u201cHad a nice ride.\u201d<\/p>\n
Up until last year, Sippy had enjoyed a nice ride as the IHBC\u2019s tournament director for seven years, and the IHBC had enjoyed a mostly smooth ride with Sippy at the helm over that time.<\/p>\n
Sippy has been associated with the Iron Horse \u201cin one way or another\u201d since 1989. An avid cyclist and Durangoan, the event is a part of who he is. So it wasn\u2019t an easy decision to leave as director in 2013.<\/p>\n
And, after the 2014 event was modified almost beyond recognition, thanks mostly to a weather-related decision the day before the event, it was an easy decision to return, he said. And with Sippy back, expect the IHBC to get back to its successful recipe of the previous seven years.<\/p>\n
\u201cBy and large, 2013 was a good recipe. It was working pretty well \u2013 the menu of events,\u201d Sippy said. \u201cAnd we have a good core group (of workers and volunteers).\u201d<\/p>\n
Last year, when a snowstorm hit the area the day before the IHBC, Jeff Frost, Sippy\u2019s re placement as director, had the task of deciding what to do. In addition to severely modifying most of the Sunday and Monday events, it was decided on Friday that the marquee Saturday rides \u2013 the road race and citizen tour ride \u2013 would basically be cut in half, running from Durango to Purgatory Resort instead of the usual Durango-to-Silverton route.<\/p>\n
\u201cOrganizers took a lot of heat for making the wrong decision too early (last year),\u201d said Sippy, adding that the norm, at least during his tenure, would be to wait until 6 a.m. Saturday to make that decision. That\u2019s what he did in 2008 \u2013 the only year in the event\u2019s history that the entire IHBC was canceled. The next year also was dicey, with a snowstorm the Wednesday before the race, Sippy said. But as is often the case in southwestern Colorado in late spring, the weather quickly turned \u2013 for the better \u2013 and the IHBC went off without a hitch.<\/p>\n
But because of what happened last year, Sippy and the IHBC hired a meteorologist \u2013 Joel Gratz of www.opensnow.com \u2013 to help give Sippy and companyinformation.<\/p>\n
\u201cLast year it (the weather) was real bad Friday and they made the decision (to modify the events) and woke up Saturday and it was sunny outside,\u201d Sippy said. \u201cThere\u2019s no crystal ball with the weather. But a meteorologist can give us a window of opportunity so we can make the most educated decision possible.\u201d<\/p>\n
As of Wednesday afternoon, opensnow.com was forecasting 1 to 2 inches of snow for Purgatory and Silverton on Friday night, and up to an inch at Purg and 1 to 2 inches at Silverton on Saturday night, but no snow for either during the day Saturday \u2013 both the road race and citizen tour ride should be wrapped up by mid-afternoon Saturday.<\/p>\n
\u201cSaturday isn\u2019t looking great, but the model for Saturday morning is trending the right way,\u201d Sippy said. \u201cIt doesn\u2019t mean it won\u2019t make a 180-degree turn. By and large we\u2019ll do the safe thing. It maybe won\u2019t be the most popular thing. But we do not make this decision in a vacuum. We\u2019ll consult with everyone.<\/p>\n
\u201cI breathe a big sigh of relief when the last cyclist rolls into Silverton. And the biggest part for me is Monday night, when I know all the riders are in.\u201d<\/p>\n
Yes, although he worries \u2013 like a concerned parent \u2013 returning to the challenges and pressures of running likely the biggest event of the year in and around Durango was a no-brainer for Sippy.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve taken part in the Iron Horse in one way or another since \u201889. I\u2019m an avid cyclist and I left the event in a tenuous spot,\u201d he said. \u201cI felt I was probably the best person to help get it back to the model that worked in the past.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI didn\u2019t set out this way. I had a job with the Wells Group as a sales manager. I was ready to transition my career a bit. But I could see the state of affairs of the event, and this is an important event. It\u2019s tough for anyone to walk in and take over if they don\u2019t have a background for this. That\u2019s a lot of pressure. It (the 2015 IHBC) won\u2019t be perfect \u2013 it never is \u2013 but we\u2019ll do our best.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sippy takes a lot of pride in having built up the IHBC by adding various events and opportunities to the mix through the years, and this year will be no different. New for 2015 are the Grassburger Group Ride on Sunday morning, along with the Iron Horse Memorial Train on Saturday morning. And several events that were altered last year will return as they were prior to 2014, including the mountain bike race through Steamworks Brewery (although there will be no King and Queen of the Mountain, Sippy said), and the omnium.<\/p>\n
The Memorial Train will embrace two symbols of the Iron Horse \u2013 the Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad and the celebration of Memorial Day. More than 80 representatives from the Wounded Warrior Project, the Adaptive Sports Association and local veterans and their families will be aboard the train as it makes its annual trek from Durango to Silverton with the riders.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s another example of enhancements for the weekend \u2013 to reach out to a contingent we don\u2019t usually deal with and play up Memorial Day weekend,\u201d Sippy said of the train.<\/p>\n
That, more than anything, means that even in cases of inclement weather, the Iron Horse will be run Memorial Day weekend or not at all.<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery time we start down that path (talking about possibly moving back the IHBC) we\u2019re reminded that it was started for a reason on Memorial Day (weekend),\u201d Sippy said. \u201cIt kicks off the season by bringing people to town. Once we get to June, (hotel) bookings will go way up. But without the Iron Horse, Memorial Day weekend would be quiet. Our identity is built around Memorial Day. We need a three-day weekend. We\u2019re sticking with what we know and will keep going with it. \u2026 Hopefully for another 40 years.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Sippy\u2019s return to IHBC post is a return to a proven \u2018menu\u2019 for iconic event<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5770],"tags":[657,2111,2180],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-112256","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-high-school-sports","tag-cycling","tag-iron-horse-bicycle-classic","tag-road-cycling"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112256","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=112256"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112256\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=112256"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=112256"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=112256"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=112256"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}