


In the women’s field, Olympic hopeful Erin Huck will butt heads with Evelyn Dong of Utah and Ruth Holcomb of Durango.
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This Sunday, Durangoan Stephan Davoust, the 2019 mountain bike champion, will face off with riders such as Riley Amos and Howard Grotts in the pro men’s race. The IHBC mountain bike race often features fields that are just as competitive as the more lauded road race to Silverton, featuring established professionals along with up-and-comers. The course will also be a new challenge for competitors, many of whom are Durango locals who compete on the world mountain biking stage. The new course, which is nearly all singletrack and features longer climbs and descents, will almost certainly create different racing dynamics than its predecessor. This year, COVID-19 has blocked the novel course popular with both riders and spectators, and a new course was designed using the Horse Gulch trail system. In recent years, the Iron Horse Bicycle Classic mountain bike race has been defined by sending racers through downtown Durango and through the bar at Steamworks Brewing Co. “Had I not been vaccinated, I shudder to think how bad it would have been.New course uses tough trails in Horse Gulch, starts and finishes at Durango Mesa Park “This is the worst I’ve ever been sick in my life,” Taylor said in a Facebook video this week. Corey Taylor, the lead singer of Slipknot who had embarked on a solo tour, told fans he was “very, very sick” from COVID-19, though he did not say where he contracted it. Two bands that performed at the rally have canceled shows after musicians came down with the virus. Bikers bellied up to bars and packed into rock shows. The streets of Sturgis filled with rallygoers drawn to the libertarian rules of South Dakota - motorcycle helmets weren't required, minimal attire and bodypainting were welcome, and masks were often nowhere in sight. More than 500,000 people showed up during the 10-day rally. The city of Sturgis also downplayed the virus numbers, issuing a statement that blamed the increase in positivity rate on a “significant increase in testing performed to proactively reduce the spread of COVID-19" and accusing “individuals in the national media” of mischaracterizing the event.ĭespite the more contagious delta variant, this year's motorcycle rally was even bigger than last year. He also pointed out that Meade County’s vaccination rate of 45% lags behind the statewide rate of 56% eligible people vaccinated. The aftermath of this year's rally looks eerily similar to last year - when the event heralded a wave that did not subside until the winter.īut the pandemic fallout from the rally won’t be seen for weeks and an exact case count will likely remain unknown, Osterholm said.ĭaniel Bucheli, a spokesman for the state Department of Health, said the virus spike is following “a national trend being experienced in every state, not just South Dakota.” Some health officials noted people could have caught the virus elsewhere.Ī team from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention determined last year's rally looked like a “superspreader event." The team said the event offered a lesson: Such large gatherings can result in “widespread transmission” of infections and attendees should follow precautions like getting vaccinated, wearing masks and social distancing.

Health officials in North Dakota, Wyoming, Minnesota and Wisconsin all reported cases among people who attended the rally, with North Dakota also reporting two hospitalizations. “It will find you, and it’s so infectious.” “This coronavirus forest fire will keep burning any human wood it can find,” he said. Michael Osterholm, director of the University of Minnesota’s Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy. However, Meade County could be a harbinger of things to come for the Upper Midwest as infections ripple from those events, said Dr. Virus cases were already on the rise when the rally started, and it's difficult to measure just how much the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally is to blame in a region where local fairs, youth sports leagues and other gatherings have resumed. The hospital was bracing for more COVID-19 patients by converting rooms to intensive care units and reassigning staff. The Black Hills region's largest hospital system, Monument Health, warned Friday that it has seen hospitalizations from the virus rise from five to 78 this month.
