Rode hard

While half of town was in Telluride last weekend, the other half apparently went south of the border. The 36^th annual Road Apple Rally took place in Farmington on Saturday, with local riders leading the charge.

Under stellar, tacky conditions, Durango’s Nick Gould and Quinn Simmons battled it out for top honors in the mens pro 30-mile race.

In the end, experience won out over youth as Gould, who at 38 is more than twice Simmons’ age (15), muscled his way over the finish line a mere four seconds ahead of his pursuer.

The win is credited to Gould being not just longer in tooth, but more plentiful. Apparently, Gould opted for the larger 34-tooth chainring while Simmons went for the more svelte 30.

“There’s a couple of corners here at the end that are a little bit loose, and he braked a little bit, and I saw that he wasn’t going as fast as me, so I just put the hammer down and got a couple of seconds on him,” Gould told the Farmington Daily Times.

Santa Fe’s Randy Flores came in third for the pros, followed by last year’s winner, Brent Winebarger (also of Durango, who incidentally finished three second ahead of Simmons last year.)

Durangoans also represented in other categories, with Gaige Sippy taking first in the mens’ expert class and Mr. Simmons Sr. taking first in the sport division. In the masochist, er, singlespeed, category, Durango’s DJ Claassen also rolled across the finish line first.

Will next year be Simmons’ year? Guess we’ll have to tune in Oct. 7, 2017 – but it’s obvious he’s got a long, illustrious Road Apple ahead of him.