Join Lola’s Place and Pedal Durango in celebrating Durango’s Cycling Stars for a Meet and Greet and autograph signing at Lola’s Place on Saturday October 26 from 4-6pm. The first 50 to show get a limited edition poster. Here is a list of Stars that have confirmed:
2024 has been a great year for Durango bike racers on the national and world stage. Riding on the back of riders who set the stage like Ned Overend, Juli Furtado, Greg Herbold, Elke Brutsaert, Chris Wherry, Kristin McGrath, Carmen Small, Todd Wells, Howard Grotts, etc, Durango racers filled podiums all around the world in a variety of disciplines.
It all started with Ned in the XC and Greg in the DH, winning 1990 worlds at Purgatory which led to an impressive streak of Olympians since MTB became an Olympic sport with Juli Furtado in 1996, Travis Brown in 2000, Todd Wells 2004-2012, Howard Grotts in 2016 and Chris Blevins in 2020.
The remarkable thing about 2024 is that, while Durango has a long legacy of Olympians and World Champions, this year Durango had three Olympians and three that donned the rainbow stripes of World Champion. Savilia Blunk, Riley Amos and Christopher Blevins represented the USA at the Paris Olympics with Riley nabbing Durango’s top performance ever in the competition with 6th place.
These Durango riders, plus a few more, represented the USA at the 2024 World MTB Championships and three of them brought earned the rainbow stripes. Asa Vermette won the Junior Men’s Downhill with a time close to the podium for the Elite Men, Christopher Blevins earned his in a dramatic Team Relay event and Riley Amos won the U23 Short Track Cross Country.
Durango riders are also frequent visitors to the podium in the LifeTime Grand Prix Series races that have both Gravel and MTB competitions, with a few becoming household names in the cycling world. Sarah Sturm, Payson McElveen, Michaela Thompson, Cole Paton, Ellen Campbell and Howard Grotts all compete in this prestigious series. Sarah Sturm won the Migration Gravel race in Kenya earlier in the year and earned a 2nd place overall in the Gravel Earth Series.
We would be remiss for not mentioning the Durango riders competing on World Tour road teams, Sepp Kuss, Natalie Quinn and Quinn Simmons.
A shout out also needs to go to the many Durango riders who have won National and State titles in 2024 for Durango Devo, FLC Cycling, Durango and Animas High School, Team Segment 28 and Durango BMX. It would take quite a while to name them all.
All this stems from the great support and resources that Durango has; from the perfect elevation and great weather, amazing events like the IHBC, the best trail system in the world through Durango Trails and the programs that foster the youth, Durango Devo, FLC Cycling and Durango BMX.
It is guaranteed that no town/city ever has had this kind of success on the national and world stage – thanks Durango!