Iceman doesn't Cometh?

Ok, at least seemingly for me this year. Checked my email for several days after the "random" picks were completed and with nothing coming in I went to the Iceman website and checked by typing in my name... results... Not Selected.
This got me interested in typing in all sorts of racers names of whom I'm familar with that have in the past and could be expected to race the Iceman. Lots of them didn't show up either. Be interested in seeing what "A" list racers get in despite the lottery system. If you think about it, go to the website and start typing in names of racers you know, make a mental note and then in November see how many people didn't show up as being selected -- but still get in.

But the best and worst thing about the Iceman is the transferability of registrations. It's great because if you can't make it you're not stuck with the race fee, but it's not so great because you can register everyone you know and their kid sister and someone is bound to get in. If it's not you, just use one of the other names that's not really going to be racing and ebay off the others if you got too lucky and ended up with more registrations than desired.

What backs up this idea is the fact that some 3900 lottery entries went in and only 2500 were selected if I remember the numbers correctly. No offense to the Iceman, it's a super race and it's a personal favorite of the three Midwest biggies, but the Cheq Fat Tire 40 is arguably the grand daddy of Midwest MTB racing and probably the crown jewel of the triple crown and it doesn't get that many lottery entries. So come on folks,.... with the electronic lottery system (& policy of transferable registrations) of the Iceman it better enables a rider to stack the deck in there favor.

Despite the rather cynical aspect of this post, I certainly hope I'm wrong. Loads of cyclists wanting to get into a race that is held at a god-awful time of year. That spells excellent health for the MTB scene and you gotta love that.

And at the end of the day if you really want to get into any of these races and you know the insides of how the system works, odds are if you're average to above average as a racer you should be able to get in.

Up next..... waiting on snail mail and the Cheq 40 lottery results. Hope they come soon.