The 41st running of the Iron Horse Bicycle Classic is more than five months away, but several categories closed enrollment within hours, others within five days.

“It’s amazing,” race director Gage Sippy said Wednesday. “We’ve been gaining momentum in recent years, but this is crazy.”

The Iron Horse pits bicycle riders against a Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad train over 50 miles that takes bicyclists across two 10,000-foot mountain passes.

Enrollment for all categories in the McDonald’s Citizens Race – limited to 2,500 riders – opened Dec. 1 and closed Tuesday.

The citizens race didn’t close out until Feb. 15 last year, Sippy said.

In this year’s road race – the competitive division – with 1,000 slots, 70 percent of places are sold out. The three categories in the men’s master division – ages 19-34, 35-44 and 45-54 – sold out in 20 hours.

Enrollment remains open for the other events in the May 26-28 bicycle extravaganza.

The Quarter Horse race, which goes from Durango to Purgatory on May 26, the same day as the citizens race, has no limit on participants.

Slots are still open for the May 27 criterium in downtown Durango and the mountain bike competition, which starts and finishes downtown after a course through Fort Lewis College, and the May 28 time trial along East Animas Road (County Road 250).

The close of enrollment has been getting earlier by a couple weeks since 2007 when the citizens race was limited to 2,500 riders, Sippy said.

“The early sellout this year could be due to several factors,” Sippy said. “We promoted the 40th race strongly and the race is a classic, one that’s been around a long time.

“Also, Durango is a great place for families,” Sippy said. “We hear that all the time, which shows why we have a 50 percent return rate.”

All that’s needed is cooperative weather, which is usually the case, Sippy said. Only twice has snow canceled the show – in 1997 when it was called off at Purgatory and in 2008 when riders never left Durango.

daler@durangoherald.com