When the city of Durango was looking for an event to kick-start the summer season with an event called Narrow Gauge Days, Zink knew Mayer’s idea of a race between bike and train could be the special attraction to make it a lasting tradition.
Zink, the longtime IHBC race director, organized the first official race that was inspired by Tom Mayer’s bet to brother Jim that he could beat the train from Durango to Silverton. Mayer wanted to rally more cyclists to ride to Silverton, but in a town that had yet to become the cycling hub it is today, few were interested.įrom left, Ed Zink, Tom Mayer and Jim Mayer came together for a special celebration of the 40th Iron Horse Bicycle Classic in 2011. The shop was run by a young Zink, who later went on to own and operate Mountain Bike Specialists. That day, Tom was the proud winner of a candy bar.Īfter his feat, Tom was in the Outdoorsman shop in Durango where he purchased his bicycle parts. Tom bet Jim he could ride his bike to Silverton faster than the train arrived. It was in 1971 when Tom Mayer famously challenged his brother, Jim, a brakeman on the steam-powered locomotive running on the Denver & Rio Grande Western Railroad line from Durango to Silverton, to a race. On the other end for a lot of people who do the tour ride, some sedentary people have seen that challenge of riding to Silverton and take it on, and it helps them become healthier people and lifelong cyclists.
Iron horse bike classic pro#
On one end of the spectrum, he helped a guy like me become a pro racer. “He created an event that has thrived for so long, and it has changed people’s lives, including mine. You can’t help but do an Iron Horse without thinking about Ed,” said Durango’s Ned Overend, a five-time IHBC road race winner and former mountain bike world champion.
“When I’m up there riding the passes, I think about him a lot. Zink, a lifelong Durango resident, died in 2019 after suffering a heart attack. Still, when about 1,000 cyclists depart Durango on their way to Silverton on Saturday morning, it will still be because of Zink.Įd Zink, owner of Mountain Bike Specialists and co-founder of the Iron Horse Bicycle Classic, at his shop on Main Avenue in May 2012. And with a scaled-back event scheduled this year because of the ongoing pandemic, IHBC organizers will look to the 50th event in 2022 as a chance to celebrate the man who made an idea into a cycling legend. When the 2020 edition was canceled because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the opportunity to honor Zink’s memory was put on hold. The 49th edition of the IHBC this weekend will be the first without Zink, a lifelong Durango resident who died in October 2019 at the age of 71. And there wouldn’t be an Iron Horse Bicycle Classic without Ed Zink.
There wouldn’t be an annual race between bike and train each spring in Durango without an idea born from brothers Tom and Jim Mayer. Zink died in 2019, and this will be the first IHBC weekend without him. Zink was a founder of the Iron Horse Bicycle Classic and the chairman of the organizing committee for decades. Ed Zink before the start of the 2005 Iron Horse Bicycle Classic pro road race.
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