Leaving tracks
As Iron Horse turns 52, remembering its roots and founder

The Iron Horse is a brutal bike race, pitting cyclists against a narrow gauge train that takes a relatively easy route up a valley. 

Riders, though, must climb a curvy route of 47 miles over two passes, both more than 10,000 feet high, as the road threads its way through the San Juan Mountains. 

Winners finish about two and a half hours, the train chugs in an hour later. 

The race’s enduring legacy belongs to one man, Ed Zink, who died five years ago. From 1972-2019, he ran the race, which is now 52 years old, attracts 3,000 riders and has a big budget and staff, But its beginnings were entirely local.

According to well-known local lore, in 1971, two brothers named Mayer thought it would be fun to pit bicycles against the Durango and Silverton Railroad, where Jim Mayer worked as a brakeman. Jim’s brother, Tom, bet his brother he could beat the train riding his bicycle. He did just that, winning a candy bar.  

The next year, the brothers teamed up with Zink, a born organizer, to start what became an annual event over Memorial Day weekend. 

For the next 30 years, said Patty Zink, Ed’s widow, the race was a bootstrap operation. Her husband and his kids and employees at their Mountain Bike Specialists store led the volunteering, food and cleanup. “It’s fabulous that it’s thrived and now is the second oldest bike race in the United States,” she said.

Zink worked so hard organizing the race, he didn’t get to ride in it until 2006, when he was 59, according to Gaige Sippy, who took over as director from 2007-22.

Sippy said to this day, there has always been at least one Zink family member helping out along the route of the race.

More recently, the race has featured the remarkable Mara Abbott, an Olympian biker who’s also the winningest Iron Horse rider. She’s beaten thousands of men six times. 

In a TEDx Talk, she recounted almost winning an Olympic race until running out of gas with just a few hundred yards to the finish. At that point, she said, three cyclists passed her, leaving her “with the privilege of a broken heart.” 

Sippy credits Abbott and local legend Ned Overend, who owns the second most wins, with inspiring legions of riders to take on the mountain passes every year.

But before Abbott and Overend and the race’s national reputation, there was Zink. He kept the race going until it became an institution that helped define this sports-loving town.

Many recall Zink as a man who loved to get good things going. An example was his founding of the easier Quarter Horse Bike Race, where riders only grind out 25 miles uphill to Purgatory. Once the shorter race was established, Zink let someone else lead the event.

Zink was also early to the idea of mountain biking having its own home. Sippy recalls him saying, “We’re always trying to fit in, riding on trails, sharing with other folks. It would be great if cycling had its own stadium.”

Back in 1990, it was because of Zink’s work that the Mountain Bike World Championships came to Durango. It was early days for mountain biking – just a decade after riders on homemade Klunker bikes started traversing old mining trails.

Marc Katz, founder of Durango Mesa Park, which aspires to eventually become a new training home for mountain bikers, said he deeply feels Zink’s loss. “I had many chats with Ed Zink along the way. I am sad he isn’t around to talk with now that we’re getting this thing done,” he said, referring to the new park, which is under construction.

Dave Marston is the publisher of Writers on the Range, writersontherange.org, an independent nonprofit that seeks to spur lively conversation about the West. He lives in Durango.