Chequamegon Fat Tire Festival 2009

Made our way to Hayward, WI this past weekend for the 27th Annual Chequamegon Fat Tire Festival! I rode this race in 2007, applied last year, was denied but was lucky enough to get Matt and I a golden ticket for 2009. Considering that both the Leadville 100 and Chequamegon are lottery entries I feel fortunate to score both in one year.Weather was perfect! Serious string of nice days since and before the Labor Day holiday. Kriston and Ben were in Hayward and took this photo of the controlled rollout at the start. I have not heard the totals, but believe there were over 1800 riders for the 40 mile point to point race. The Short Fat race that Matt did started north up in Cable, WI and was just under 16 miles. You have to be 18 years old to race the long event so Matt has a couple of years to hone his skills. After the start, Kriston and Ben had to haul it up to the Telemark Resort in Cable to watch Matt finish and then hang around till I cross the line.
Photo above is courtesy of Bruce Adelsman at Skinnyski. I am climbing the Firetower Hill which is about 27 miles into the race and the toughest climb of the whole deal. The climb is a series of three "steps" - lots of rocks and other riders that are walking that get in your way making it tough to hold your line. The flatter areas in between the steep stuff help you get your heart rate down a bit which help get you to the top. Fortunately I have cleaned the section both times. I met up with Matt Engen right before the climb, he is right behind me. Not sure how Bruce shoots all these photos but he always does a really good job catching the action.
My family right after Matt finished his race.
800 racers in the Short Fat event. Matt dropped over 18 minutes from 2007 and rolled in under 1 hour! 47th place overall, 9th in his age class!
Jake Richard's from Maplelag won the Short for the second year in a row! His Dad Jay said that he was super nervous for Jake before the start of the race but Jake pulled it off beating the second place guy by only 6 seconds. Way to go Jake!
I rolled through in 2:43 and change. As you can see by the photo, dry/dusty conditions out on the course. Like the Leadville, I ate right, drank right and overall felt good throughout the race. I was stronger towards the end but that is typical for me. I thought that riding my full suspension would have helped this year but I was a couple of minutes slower then when I rode my rigid Gunnar in 07. I gave it all that I had and am happy with the results. Again, check all the results on Skinnyski.
Linda Cooper and John Struchy post race. Both Linda and Struch rode very well. Linda was the 9th woman overall!
Went to a barbecue out at the Hayward KOA camp on Saturday evening. Jon Darling and crew threw a great party, lots of food, race recap stories and good people. Thought this brave little bird was cool drinking water right from the spout amongst all of the people.
Sunday at the Cheq. Festival is labeled as Sunday Funday. All kinds of crazy bike stuff going on. We mainly show up for the short track racing in the bowl area of the Telemark resort.
Photo above is of me attempting the Lumber Jack log pull. I pulled the log 112 feet which was good for 2nd place for a little while. Some big guy almost pulled the log up and over the hill which put me out of contention, crazy fun time. Matt participated in the fastest hill climb, slow race, rail race, bike toss and everything else you could do. Ben tried the bike toss and almost tossed himself farther then the bike.
This year the organizers tried something different and mixed short track racing with cyclocross racing. In short, a short loop with some barriers, single track, some steps and short climbs mixed in. All entrants did a time trial in which they take the top 15 finishers to the final event.

The photo above is another Skinnyski photo of Matt heading over the barriers - thanks Bruce.

The top 15 riders go to the final and race 6 laps total, no clock. Kind of cool how they start the race. I was the slowest of 15 riders, the 14th place guy was 4 seconds faster. So, I started the race, 4 seconds later the 14th place guy took off all the way back to the fastest qualifier who started 55 seconds after I did. Matt advanced too starting 5 guys and 11 seconds after me.

Overall, great Sunday events. In my opinion, Sunday is a great way to get in another day of racing and not take it too serious.

Of course Kriston was there to support us every minute of the weekend. Ben hung around with Jens Richard's and we were able to spend time with a lot of people that we see at every race.

Cyclocross racing kicks into full swing next weekend. Not sure how many we will attend this year with the other plans on the schedule but you can bet we will race when we can.