{"id":40310,"date":"2022-05-28T19:25:11","date_gmt":"2022-05-29T01:25:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/payer-gets-her-first-iron-horse-victory\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T02:55:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T08:55:09","slug":"payer-gets-her-first-iron-horse-victory","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/payer-gets-her-first-iron-horse-victory\/","title":{"rendered":"Payer gets her first Iron Horse victory"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Kira
Kira Payer wins the 2022 Iron Horse Bicycle Classic pro women's road race Saturday in Silverton. (Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald)<\/span>Jerry McBride<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

After five years of trying, Kira Payer succeeded in winning her first Iron Horse Bicycle Classic road race Saturday, crossing first in 2 hours, 47 minutes, 34.5 seconds.<\/p>\n

\"Cyclists
Cyclists compete in the 50th annual Iron Horse Bicycle Classic women\u2019s pro road race Saturday from Durango to Silverton. (Nathan Van Arsdale\/Ballantine Communications)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

\u201cIt\u2019s fun. I\u2019ve been trying since I\u2019ve lived here,\u201d she said. \u201cI had good legs today, and it just fell into place.\u201d<\/p>\n

Payer, who rides for DNA Pro Cycling, said she worked together with Sarah Sturm of Specialized throughout the race, and they ended up crossing first and second.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were a little team,\u201d Payer said.<\/p>\n

Payer, however, got a little separation on the last downhill to take the win.<\/p>\n

\"Kira
Kira Payer leads a group of riders during the 50th annual Iron Horse Bicycle Classic women\u2019s pro road race Saturday from Durango to Silverton. (Nathan Van Arsdale\/Ballantine Communications)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

\u201cI felt she deserved the win,\u201d Sturm said. \u201cIt was special to see her go for it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sturm wasn\u2019t planning on racing. She was recovering from COVID-19 and has a big race coming up, the Unbound Gravel 200 in Kansas.<\/p>\n

\"Kira
Kira Payer, left, Katie Clouse, center, and Sarah Sturm celebrate after taking the top three spots in the 50th annual Iron Horse Bicycle Classic women\u2019s pro road race Saturday from Durango to Silverton. Payer won, followed by Sturm and Clouse. Photo by Nathan Van Arsdale\/Ballantine Communications<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

\u201cSomething is wrong with me,\u201d Sturm said. \u201cI can\u2019t not race.\u201d<\/p>\n

She said she tried to keep her heart rate down and keep it comfortable.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was special,\u201d she said. \u201cBecause of that I got to ride with all of these girls.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sturm finished second, 16 seconds after Payer.<\/p>\n

Katie Clouse finished third in 2:45:16 and was followed by 2021 Colorado high school state mountain biking champion Bailey Cioppa, Lauren Aggeler, Mindy Caruso, Ashley Frye, Erin Osborne, Ruth Holcomb and Madelyn Roberson in 10th.<\/p>\n

Holcomb said the Iron Horse is the only road race she does each year.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can\u2019t miss the hometown road race,\u201d she said. Holcomb has been competing in Europe this season in the UCI mountain bike World Cup in the U23 division, which she said better suits her strengths.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s pretty different,\u201d she said. \u201cIn mountain biking, my strengths are my skill and the downhills. On a road bike, it\u2019s not as much skill compared to who has the most endurance and is the strongest.\u201d<\/p>\n

Holcomb started the race strong but pulled over for a while because of stomach issues, she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s always fun to do a home race,\u201d Sturm said. \u201cI race all over the country and the world, but this is the reason I do it \u2013 to be around these people, my friends and the community. It\u2019s just a special day.\u201d<\/p>\n

For complete results, visit https:\/\/my.raceresult.com\/203806\/<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"Kira
Kira Payer descends a mountain pass on her way to winning the 50th annual Iron Horse Bicycle Classic women's pro road race on Saturday from Durango to Silverton. Photo by Nathan Van Arsdale\/Ballantine Communications<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u2018It\u2019s fun. I\u2019ve been trying since I\u2019ve lived here’<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":40311,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[28,2111],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-40310","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-headlines","tag-iron-horse-bicycle-classic"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40310","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=40310"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40310\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":84617,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40310\/revisions\/84617"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/40311"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40310"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40310"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40310"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=40310"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}