A MTB season almost isn’t complete (some would say it’s definitely not complete) without a trip to Copper Harbor for their Fat Tire Festival. I heard about it for the first time probably in 2008(?) after some local guys had repeated mentioned it. I thought what the heck – it’s about the same distance as going to any WORS race and it’s someplace I’d never been before. I was racing my Trek full suspension Top Fuel 69er, at the time & thought it was the perfect bike for the course, in many ways it still is. I was just turning the corner in reaching the Expert/Elite field of racing (now called Category 1, or Cat 1 for short) that year. Was having a great race, stuck with one of the best all around endurance athletes I’ve known in Scott Chapin. Chris Peariso had flatted out and Darrin Braun was leading. Had third place sown up when the never fun tire failure materialized. Hence has been my constant love/hate relationship with that race. Scott Cole took third followed by Matt Zak. In ‘09 – I was cooked from already long the racing season or just having an off day, maybe started too fast but faded & ended up in 10th. 2010 – things went close to perfect that day. Chris Peariso took off in the lead, but Tom Carpenter & myself grabbed a decent lead early on and worked well together. I nearly witnessed his untimely demise in the form of a damn forest goat crossing his path down the Whoop De Woo trail – a couple seconds or feet different & Tom would have been taking the express way down the mountain… gravity style. Tom eventually broke free as I missed a water bottle handoff & was bonking with 5 miles to go. Just enough for Todd McFadden & Chris Schotz to catch me on the final Red Trail downhill. Todd got a good gap but Chris had to stay behind me. I managed to pass Chris again about 1/2 mile before the finish but ran 50 yards short of catching Todd which would be reminiscent of all my races with Todd that year… finishing one place behind him, ugh.
2011 they changed up the course, for good or bad. I think all the riding is pretty descent so nothing to be critical about, just happened to like the previous years better as it favored my strengths just alittle more.
The race started out biking through the middle of town, where there’s is a controlled rollout, Scott Cole & myself wound up on the front of that following the pace truck out of town. At the first climb (which I mentioned in previous posts) I wasn’t sure who was going to get the party started. No one initially really went hard. So I ended up being at the front, & focused on keeping my heart rate in check. It’s a race you can’t win in the first climb but I find you can put yourself in big hole the rest of the race if you go too hard. Eventually 3 or 4 guys went by and still later the guys who would lead most of the race caught up. As a group the first 6 of us entered the single track together, Chris Peariso, Brian Matter, Tyler Gauthier, Todd McFadden, myself & Pete Karinen. Though I was able to climb the hill at a good clip without a problem, once I got into the single track my game was off. Again I don’t know if it was the tires or me playing defensively due to my ribs. All I know is I was descending slow & like shit holding up Pete. Eventually Tom Carpenter & Mike Burnet caught up and I gave them all a pass. They left me in the dust, so I figured I’d quite taking chances and just concentrate catching up on the uphills. Easier said than done. By the time I got to the bottom they had 30 seconds on me. I’d hate to say the rest of the race was a bit frustrating but it was sorta. I noticed racers behind me that I figured I’d be able to drop & get some distance on the climb, but it really wasn’t happening. Once getting to the second descent, they caught me by the time I was at the bottom and so I figured I’d again climb away… not to be. They hung like glue, Justin Weber & Jan Roubal. That was my first clue this wasn’t going to be one of my stronger days on the trails. I eventually let them pass and followed them to Red Trail, only to pass Mike Burnet. My descending sucked again and apologies to Mike for having to sit behind it – which he did with such grace & poise (as he was the downhill race champ the day before). He claimed not having his regular glasses and that I drop him on the climbs - whatever… Well, actually riding and chatting with Mike was probably the highlight of my race. We did almost the entire next lap together. He’d patiently wait behind me on the downhills & do his best to cling on when climbing. On the 2nd to last descent of the day I told him he had to go out front as a couple of racers were now catching us Scott Cole & Matthew Colligan. If he was going to hold his place he’d have to put those downhill skills to work now. Mike quickly disappeared and I was able to hold off the other two until close to the top of the final climbing portion of the race.
It’s was at that point my rear tire started to feel more squishy than it should have. Sure enough, tire was going flat. I got out my pump but the tire would seem to hold air yet I could see where it was leaking. Finally it was clear that the valve stem was losing the air. So I screwed that in as best as possible. Fortunately Kate & the kids for some reason were at the top of this hill. She got me another pump and I was able to partially inflate so it held air better. That 10 minute fiasco, dropped me from 10th place to 25th which out of 150 racers isn’t too bad for that long of a delay.
I managed to ease the partially inflated tired down the final descent called Red Trail and took it easy on the way into the finish. Would have loved to have a better day, but would have required different tires and healthy ribs. I felt nauseous after the race and my kidneys hurt, something that doesn’t normally happen. So I’m guessing whatever was going on with my injury was really stressing my body in some manner.
But once done it’s time to party, visit & catch up with friends and hear their race stories and what’s going with them. I hung out for while & had little Aaron with me but eventually I had to put things on hold & rest up at the hotel in hopes I’d feel better.
The ribs got worse as the night went on, even so I headed back after the awards & enjoyed a few cold beverages and began to catch up with the many people I’ve gotten to know over the past several years racing in the U.P. as well as WI & MN racers that drive over. Makes you wish more races were like this and that the season went on a whole lot longer…
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