I got tired riding the train from Durango to Silverton.  Good luck.

looks sweet man. takes a break sometimes to see what's fun about racing, you'll have a blast i'm sure.

Rocked the crap out of the race.  The weather was great, just a bit on the cooler side.  Came in about 5 lbs more than I wanted to be, but I had been riding strong and sorta keeping up w/the Lunch Time World Championship group (aka work lunch ride) and doing 4+ hour MTB rides so I knew my fitness was doing well.  Wore a long sleeve jersey and some knickers and occasionally pulled out a vest for the downhills.

Rolled off w/the whistle of the train at 8:15am from downtown Durango with 2000+ other cyclists.  The pack was rolling along at 25-27mph out of town, but I could tell a lot of them had never been in close quarters with other riders at this speed before so I stuck to the side of the road and watched out for gomers.  I put my nose in the wind more than I wanted, but when I watched a sweet 20 person pile up happen just a few riders in front of me about 10 miles out of town I knew I was doing the right thing.  Ouch that would have sucked.  Once the climbing started seperating people I didn't have to worry about being crashed out.

Felt real good on the first few climbs where I was holding back a bit to ensure I didn't go into death march mode late in the race.  At mile 30 I hit the bottom of Coal Bank Pass, the steepest/longest one of the race, and decided to open it up a bit.  Locals passed the advise along to treat the summit of Coal Bank as the finish and burn your matches there just saving a bit for the shorter, easier roll over Molas Pass.  Followed their advice and turned the throttle up and ended up passing over 100+ riders on Coal Bank and was only passed by two.  Felt great watching all these low elevation super hero's pop around me as I kept within myself, kept the cadence up, and rolled on by ticking over the 39/26.  After summiting I sucked down the rest of my Accelerade and had a GU and rocked the descent into the valley and then right back into the climbing of Molas Pass.  The grade was not as bad (4-6% vs 7-10% of Coal Bank) so I was able to keep a good pace going but the legs were starting to get a bit tired and I wasn't able to keep the cadence up as high as I'd like.  Passed another 40 or so riders, but had about 10 guys come by me in a freigh train.  I saw them sitting at the aid station recovering/eating at the top of Coal Bank relaxing as I rolled straight through so I didn't feel too bad about that.  I was racing the train, not just doing the ride to do it.

Summited Molas Pass and started the final descent into Silverton at just under three hours.  I was originally hoping to finish under three hours but after talking to a few locals before the event I revised my goal to 3-3:15.  Hit the downhill hard as I knew I still had some time to go before crossing the finish line at the far end of town in Silverton.  The road was closed in both directions to cars so I could really use it in it's entirety without worrying, which was neat.  Put it in full 50mph "Il Falco" mode and passed people using my superior terminal velocity. ;)  Hit the flat into town and wouldn't you know it, it's a false flat all the way across town to the finish line.  Tons of spectators lined the streets cheering everone on which helped the empty legs keep on turning over.  Crossed the line at 3:17 and even had my buddy and big time race announcer Dave Towle give me a shout-out as I crossed the finish, well ahead of the ol' coal train. 

Turns out this was the 2nd slowest Iron Horse in history due to headwinds that are normally tail winds, so the word around the finish was take 8-10 minutes off your time to compare to previous finishes.  I still feel good about my time even though I was a touch slower than I wanted.  I also beat all my buddies who raced. hehe.  I'll probably do it again next year and really try to break the 3 hour barrier.  Anyone feel like joining me?

Nice work Alex, sounds like a blast...