Pushing Through: The Durango Dirty Century

100 Miles, 15k feet of Climbing, and Hours of Rain

Words by: Matt Turgeon

Images and Video: Jeff Kerkove

Racers were greeted with a slight drizzle as they rolled out of town for one of the most difficult rides they would do all season. The Durango Dirty Century features breathtaking views, flowy singletrack, and lots of climbing. The ride includes some of the best trails in the state of Colorado all linked together for an epic day in the saddle in Durango's High Country.

A slight drizzle misted riders as they rolled north out of Durango toward the Hermosa Creek trail on what turned out to be the epic ride of the season for many. Crested Butte's Zach Guy gained an early lead and along with a few others was able to out ride most of the rain all day. But the majority of the field was hit with hard downpour at ~11-12k, with many opting to bail out early to avoid hypothermia.

The top of Blackhawk Pass sits at about 12k feet and is the half way point of the race at 50-miles and ~7k climbing. Blackhawk greeted racers with greasy mud and cold temps as riders descended off the massive ridge. Racers caught in a storm at this point in the race suffered dramatically due to the conditions.   Many opted to take the shorter route back to town after the treacherous descent while others waited out the storm and later pressed on.  The weather gods smiled on the elite racers, but beat down the blue collar ones. Later on, all of the people who finished - from Cat Morrison on down - made it through Kennebec pass and into town with no more rain.  But the 2nd storm came in and several others got caught in a second downpour just before Kennebec pass and were forced to DNF near 8-9PM.  

Theunderground event is self-supported with many racers toeing the line with lights, full rain gear and a few even wore their SPOT trackers. It is in my opinion the hardest 100-miler out there and I've done several of them. A lot of the racers use this as a tune up for the CTR. Cat Morrison said it best this year when we were riding together: "you don't race the CTR if you can't handle rain like this."  Being that we hope to emulate the CB Classic, it is only fitting that a CB guy holds the new course record.However, we hope that eventually we will have a Durango Champion.

Racers finished at Steamworks Brewery and were provided free beer for their efforts, Thanks to Steamworks.  Finishes ranged between 4:00-PM to nearly midnight. Results below.

The aid stations manned by Walker, Amanda, Sherry, Carson, Brian and a few others were awesome, and we all owe them a huge THANK YOU for braving the elements to support us.

Here are the Preliminary Results. Please post here if there is incorrect information.

The Big ‘A” Ride – 100-miles

Zach Guy 10:35 (new course record)

Matt Schiff 10:57

Kip Biese 10:58

Jesse Jakomait 11:05

Dave Farmer 11:19

Fred Hankinson 11:35

Jeff Kerkove 11:53

Jason Michalak 12:45

Cat Morrison (W) 13:40

Matt Turgeon (SS) 14:15

Todd Kennedy 14:35

Dwayne Otto 14:40

Dan Holmes 14:40

Ian Altman 14:41

Joeseph Shults 15:22

Chris Parks 15:37

Becky Sears (W) 16:03

Danny Powers DNF

Mike Robinson DNF

Joey Ernst DNF

Dave Timmons DNF

Tony Wilhelms DNF

Brian Sullivan DNF

Greg Lewis DNF

Robbin Guillaume (SS) DNF

Kevin Lutgen DNF

Tim Wilcox DNF

Alex Howard DNF

Tom Purvis DNF

Jens Nielsen DNF

Aaron Kimble DNF

Eric Schweikardt DNF

Steve Chambers DNF

Miles Venzara DNF

Steve Reiter (SS) DNF

The B Ride – 80 miles

Kirby Bryant (SS) 10:35

Billy Schaaphok (SS) 12:16

Walt Brown 14:10

Brad Mattingly 14:45

Brandy Peterson DNF

James Simmons (SS) DNF

Erik Herchmer DNF

William Hobag DNF

Delwyn Werito DNF

C ride is no longer a category due to popularity of a A and B (sorry). B ride will eventually disappear once the A category reaches the full 74 signup. It’s a shame to show DNF by so many names here because there were some who went over 100 miles or came close to it. But it is motivation to come back next year and start anew.

See you in 2013!