According to the Colorado Department of Transportation, 22 bicyclists were killed in 2018 and another 19 in 2019<\/a>. Colorado has seen double-digit fatalities to cyclists every year since 2011. In 2003, there were only three.<\/p>\n\u201cWhat\u2019s crazy about that is Lance (Armstrong) was winning the (Tour de France) in \u201903 and tons of people were out riding their bikes,\u201d McElveen said. \u201cThe number of cyclists isn\u2019t the variable, it\u2019s the number of people looking at their phones. We know the impact cellphones have on driving and car wrecks. Blinking lights don\u2019t help if a driver is not looking at the road.\u201d<\/p>\n
While Sonntag\u2019s death was shocking, what concerned many was the location the incident occurred. It was on a gravel county road cyclists said they rarely see a motorist driving when they ride.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve ridden that section of Cherry Creek road and that dirt road and haven\u2019t seen any cars,\u201d said Durango\u2019s Todd Wells, a three-time mountain bike Olympian. \u201cA busy ride, you would see maybe four or five cars. I can think of probably 1,000 places I\u2019d guess someone would get hit riding a bike around here, and that wouldn\u2019t even come into the circle of possibilities.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhere he was riding and got struck, just to access that dirt road you have to ride U.S. Highway 160, Wildcat Canyon and La Plata Highway. All of these places with narrow roads. There is a shoulder, and people give you room, but it just takes a moment, one second. I imagine that was the only car he had come in contact with that day on the particular road. He probably didn\u2019t even see another rider. It\u2019s just sad.\u201d<\/p>\n
It was a wakeup call for cyclists who have pushed further out onto county roads and pursued gravel cycling. It gets riders further away from high-traffic areas. After Sonnntag\u2019s accident, McElveen said he wondered where he can ride. The lone answer he has come up with is mountain bike trails.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re all seeking more dirt. We call it gravel, but it\u2019s basically dirt roads,\u201d said Durango cycling icon Ned Overend. \u201cWe go because of the dangers of riding with cars, and there\u2019s less traffic on roads further out in the county,\u201d<\/span>Courtesy of Iron Horse Bicycle Classic<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\u201cWe\u2019re all seeking more dirt. We call it gravel, but it\u2019s basically dirt roads. We go because of the dangers of riding with cars, and there\u2019s less traffic on roads further out in the county,\u201d said 1990 mountain bike world champion and Durango cycling icon Ned Overend. \u201cIt\u2019s unusual to have an accident like that without traffic. And a head-on accident, that\u2019s kind of odd, obviously. Something like this you expect on a crowded road with no shoulder.\u201d<\/p>\n
McElveen met with several prominent Durango cyclists at Bread bakery in Durango on Thursday. It wasn\u2019t organized, but several had arrived to a place Sonntag had often held court over the years. As the group talked, it became clear there was a very real fear amongst them. Pro mountain biker Stephan Davoust was set to leave his house that morning for a ride but stopped at the door. He called teammate Cole Paton to see if he would ride with him because he didn\u2019t want to be on the road alone.<\/p>\n
Professional cyclist and FLC alumna Sarah Sturm has seen Durango grow in the last 12 years. With that comes more traffic. She remembered driving up to Edgemont Ranch on County Road 240 while on a visit to FLC while still in high school and seeing the road loaded with cyclists.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt felt very much like the bikers\u2019 road,\u201d she said. \u201cNow, it\u2019s very much more of a commuting road. It\u2019s really scary. It\u2019s why I lean more toward mountain biking trails and gravel. That\u2019s what makes this such an unsettling accident because it wasn\u2019t the normal road accident. It\u2019s unsettling to me and a lot of people in Durango. It will absolutely have an effect.\u201d<\/p>\n
Part of what has made the IHBC road race successful for so long is the fact U.S. Highway 550 is closed to vehicles when the roads get narrow on Coal Bank and Molas passes. Still, race director Gaige Sippy worries about driver-versus-cyclist conflicts each year for the 26 miles of road to Purgatory Resort in which motorists share the road with the event.<\/p>\n
With two cycling children, Sippy also considers the safety of his children when they leave home with their bicycles.<\/p>\n
\u201cI worry every year in the spring when it\u2019s Iron Horse training season and more people are out riding,\u201d Sippy said. \u201cIf you\u2019ve never been a cyclist and been buzzed by a car, you don\u2019t understand what that whole thing is like. A situation like (Sonntag) drives home the point that you are so vulnerable. There\u2019s no room for error. I breathe a sigh of relief every time my kids get back from a ride. This is a sobering reminder for the cycling community.\u201d<\/p>\n
Durango\u2019s Sepp Kuss grew up a mile up the road on Florida Road (County Road 240) from where Sonntag lived. Sonntag would regularly ride the surrounding county roads, which can be quite narrow.<\/p>\n
Kuss went to college in Boulder and sees plenty of similarities between the two communities.<\/p>\n
Cyclists routinely make their way along a busy U.S. Highway 160 between Hesperus and Durango.<\/span>Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald file<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\u201cIt\u2019s a more populated area, but there\u2019s also more rural areas where you think you\u2019re alone. All of a sudden a truck or something may come by, and you\u2019re not so alone anymore,\u201d Kuss said. \u201cEven in Boulder they say, \u2018Oh, it\u2019s a cycling paradise,\u2019 but it doesn\u2019t necessarily apply to drivers there. You always encounter situations on the road where it\u2019s pretty dangerous. For me, I try to take every precaution. I\u2019m always riding with blinking lights, always going as far right of the shoulder as possible and never riding with music. You have to be ready for when people aren\u2019t aware of a cyclist on the road.\u201d<\/p>\n
Now a third-year World Tour pro road cyclist based in Europe, Kuss said he does feel safer on training rides in countries such as his new home in Andorra or in Spain.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn Spain, the drivers are very relaxed,\u201d Kuss said. \u201cThe roads are much smaller, too, but they seem to have a bit more awareness to the fact there might be, and a lot of times are, cyclists on the road. In Andorra, every kilometer there\u2019s a sign that says, \u2018Give two meters to cyclists,\u2019 to bring awareness to drivers, so that helps. Laws with cellphones and everything for drivers in Europe, that certainly helps. It\u2019s hard to say the main difference, but in Europe, drivers are more used to cyclists and maybe aren\u2019t as distracted.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kuss said he feels much more in danger in Italy than at home in Colorado. Rotem Ishay, who came to Durango from Israel, had a similar sentiment about the risks riding a bike in his home country.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you\u2019ve never been a cyclist and been buzzed by a car, you don\u2019t understand what that whole thing is like,\u201d said Durango\u2019s Gaige Sippy.<\/span>Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald file<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\u201cThere\u2019s never been a horrible road culture in Durango,\u201d Ishay said. \u201cIt\u2019s much better than other cities and places around the country. I\u2019ve never felt unsafe, especially moving from Israel where the driving culture there really sucks. I\u2019ve always felt much safer on gravel roads away from any traffic. That makes this such a freak accident. It makes you question your priorities and if you want to be on the road.\u201d<\/p>\n
Despite the news this week, McElveen had two close calls with drivers while riding his bike Friday, one on U.S. Highway 160 when he had to swerve into a vehicle lane to avoid a woman turning into him from the other direction, and once more on County Road 240 after he had signaled and begun to make his turn.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou always hear driving is the most dangerous thing you do every day. I\u2019ve sort of had the realization that what we do for a living, we just take out the protective mechanism of being in a car,\u201d McElveen said. \u201cIt\u2019s pretty messed up when you think of it. I don\u2019t know the number of fatalities per number of cyclists, but it\u2019s gotta be one of the most dangerous things you can do. The number of pro cyclists hit and killed the last two years is ridiculous. Per 100 pros, it\u2019s a crazy high percentage.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t know what to do about it. We all love it so much. It\u2019s all fine and dandy when the wind is in your hair, until it\u2019s not. It\u2019s not going to make me stop riding my bike. It\u2019s what I love. I understand the risks. This awful situation is kind of the ultimate reminder of what can happen.\u201d<\/p>\n
jlivingston@ durangoherald.com<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Cyclists express fears of sharing roads<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":75162,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[657,28,977,29,2180,2343],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-75161","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-cycling","tag-headlines","tag-mountain-biking","tag-newsletter","tag-road-cycling","tag-sports-group"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75161","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=75161"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75161\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/75162"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=75161"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=75161"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=75161"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=75161"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}