Durango Dirty Century

Wow, the DDC was a great route and very tough. My legs were super flat with no spunk as we hit the climb up to the Hermosa Trail head. It took me approximately 3.5 hours to travel the 30 miles from Durango to the upper trail head of Hermosa. The next section to tackle was to climb up to Bolam Pass to Celebration Lake. This 10 miles felt like an eternity. I had to walk a majority of the last mile to Bolam Pass even with my 32x21 gearing. The legs were not there at all. I was miserable at this point. My goal was to try to eat some food and get some kind of rhythm going. I was starting to question if I was going to be able to ride the total route. It felt like I was in survival mode and it was too early to be feeling like this. After clambering up to Bolam it was time for a quick break and scarf some food down. At this point Doug Byerly, Scott Broome were together and we would stay together for the next 50 plus miles until the last few miles of the route where Doug found some super powers and rode off into the forest. After ascending Blackhawk and descending down to Hotel Draw the time was looking pretty good thus far. My legs were feeling a bit better but not much. It was 1pm and we still had about 30 miles plus to the finish with some tough climbs headed our way. The weather was looking iffy but we pushed on to get some ground covered. Indian Ridge was a tough climb, with lots of hike-a-bike. Once over Kennebec it was downhill for awhile and than a big climb from the creek to another high point in the last 10 miles and finally some more down hill before the run into Durango. The last 10 miles seemed like an eternity to finish. It was well after 8pm when we hit the Durango Brewing CO. for the finish. Epic trails and great riding company. Looking forward to do this one again and knock some time off.


My total time was 14 hours and 19 minutes. 97 miles and 13,700 feet of climbing. Highest elevation we hit was on Indian Ridge at 12,300 feet.

Pictures to come soon.

Below is a write up with finish times from Matt Turgeon on the Colorado Endurance Series Website........

Congrats to everyone who made it out. Awesome time and one heck of an adventure. Amazing food and beer afterward at Durango Brewing Company, and Kip got the honors of free beer and a growler to go!
Timers started at Bread and ended at Durango Brewing Company. Final miles were 97 for the Full DDC with 13,700-ft of climbing. Some mud, some rain, some snow, a few fallen trees did slow things down a bit, but it did not stop these folks from giving it a try!

Full DDC
Kip Biese 11:34
Ryan Douglas 12:24 (Single Speed)
Steve Reiter 12:53
Matt Turgeon 12:53 (Single Speed)
Doug Byerly 14:11
Jeff Hemperley 14:19 (Single Speed)
Scott Broome 14:19
DDC – Plan B
Andrew Black 11:50
Danny Powers 12:49