Durango Has Work Ahead as International Mountain-Bike Championships Host

In 1990, Durango hosted the first ever union cyclist International World Championships. In 20, 30, 40 years later, Durango will welcome the world’s best mountain bike riders as they return to purgatory. You are watching the Local News Network brought to you by Dunkin Donuts and Crystal Mart. I am Sadie Smith. The return of the World Championships will mark the first time the race has ever returned to the same US city.

To bring it back to Durango 40 years later, I, I think, is a testament to our community. The faith that the UCI has, that we can do a good job with it. They have their, they have their choice of a lot of places that they could hold the world championships, but they were also very invested in bringing it back to its roots in Durango, where so many of the Great World Cup athletes live.

In preparation, Durango will host two major events leading up to the championship and international mountain bike race in 2028 in A UCI World Cup in 2029, all three events will be at Purgatory Mountain Resort.

It’s kind of like the Olympics, if you have something to shoot for. You know, LA right now is working on the 2028 Olympics, so all hands are on deck and making sure that it becomes a good show. We feel the same about Durango and it just doesn’t need to be just about the bikes. But how can we enhance the community for everybody?

Organizers are working on what they need to do during the next five years, from venue layout to TV production to deliver a world class event. The 2030 World Championships are expected to generate $30 million for the local economy and to bring 800 athletes from 55 countries, 20,000 spectators, and reach millions of TV viewers around the world.

We will have approximately 50 million TV viewers for the World Championships in 2030. The World Cup the year before will probably have a very similar number. So a lot of what, what you’re working on in those years leading up to the finale is perfecting your course, your TV production, your operations of the event, and making sure that when you get to your 2030 event, you are as polished as you possibly can be.

The 1990 World Championships ignited a cycling boom in Durango. During that event, a group of Fort Lewis College students competed in later in 1994 established the FLC cycling team. Since then, the college team has claimed 25 national titles and sent riders to every Olympic game since 1996. Two former Skyhawks launched Durango Devo, a youth development program that continues to shape the next generation of cyclists. The 1990 championships also inspired the creation of Durango’s, world renowned mountain bike trail system.

The idea of Durango Trails or Trails 2000 was born out of the 1990 World Championships. So they had a land summit at the World Championships in 1990. ’cause this mountain bike thing was new and they were concerned that these mountain bikes were going to take over the forest, so they had a land summit. And out of that, the decision became Durango needs to set up a trail organization and start managing mountain bikes and building trails and things of that.

This event is not only expected to benefit this generation of Durango cyclists, but also generations to come as the 1990 Worlds Championship did. Championship details may be found on uci.org and the City of Durango website. For more information about this and other stories, visit Durango local.news. Thank you for watching this edition of The Local News Network. I’m Sadie Smith.