\u201cI don\u2019t know how many participants we are going to ultimately end up with,\u201d Sippy said. \u201cThe COVID dial will be a factor. The biggest concern will be how we get people started and how we manage them at the finish line so there is not a big congregation. We are going back to the 1980s a bit. It will be an event much more similar in size to what we did back then than what we have done in the last 10 to 15 years. It will be cycling-only events with no festivals, no ancillary events and much more scaled back in terms of number of participants in the road events.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s making a hard-to-plan event harder. We are going to come up with types of money-back guarantees based on how close to the event we are if we have to cancel for any reason. It will satisfy most but never all.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sippy said the start line for the road events will be moved out of downtown Durango and onto 33rd Street and spread across eight to nine blocks to allow for social distancing. There will be no party in Silverton at the finish line. There also will not be a veterans train this year going from Durango to Silverton, and cyclists will have to arrange for their own return transportation, as the IHBC will not provide buses or an option to ride the train back from Silverton to Durango.<\/p>\n
U.S. Highway 550 from Durango to Silverton still will be closed by Colorado State Patrol from Purgatory Resort to Silverton on the day of the road races.<\/p>\n
May 30 racing will see the mountain bike races and gravel ride. Because of public health guidelines, this year\u2019s pro mountain bikers will not get to ride through Steamworks Brewing Co. and will be moved away from downtown.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have spent the last 15 years trying to make the Iron Horse a visible event in town. Now, we have to try to hide it for a year,\u201d Sippy said, noting the exact trails to be used for the mountain bike race have not yet been determined.<\/p>\n There will be no packet pickup party in downtown the Friday night before the races. The kids race also will not be held this year, nor will the Cruiser Criterium. The IHBC has also temporarily postponed a plan to host a professional fat-tire mountain bike criterium on the Friday night before the road races.<\/p>\n While it won\u2019t be the full weekend of racing at the size the IHBC had hoped for, the ability to host an event at all in 2021 is pivotal for the race organization to stay in business and gear up for a highly-anticipated 50th anniversary celebration in 2022. Event organizers have big plans to honor their history for the 50th edition while also working to be at the forefront of cycling events when it comes to the latest trends in the industry.<\/p>\n The return of the IHBC is also expected to be a boost for the economies of Durango and Silverton, as small businesses have been hit hard during the pandemic. All of those considerations were a big driving force in the IHBC pushing ahead with plans to race in 2021.<\/p>\n \u201cWe needed to have an event, and we are committed to doing it safely,\u201d Sippy said. \u201cWe need to get back on track. The community needs us to get going again, and not just us. The community needs to get lots of things going again, and we\u2019re just one of those. We need to get this one done to, hopefully, celebrate 50 years of Iron Horse next year and really feel like we\u2019re back in the game. That\u2019s been paramount in our thinking.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a hard time for anybody to plan anything. We have a quite large special event, and the questions of how to scale back have been hard. The hand-wringing is not done yet. We are going to get more curveballs between now and Memorial Day weekend. But we want to be clear, there will not be the crush and crowd of people there has been in the past. We are sensitive to the fact we have to scale it down, work closely with SJBPH and the town of Silverton to make sure we can do this when the time comes.\u201d<\/p>\n