Fat Tire 2009

Yeah, drive that cart! Lisa, Wiggidty, Lumberg and I

Let me give a piece of knowledge to you as a reward for reading my blog: Copper Harbor is the next mountain biking Mecca. Don’t believe me? Go and check it out for yourself.
Every year I snub my nose at the elite of Colorado’s races and instead fly back for this race that doesn’t even show up as a blip on the radar of the big name bike community. Why? Because the Keweenaw Fat Tire is hands-down the best race out there. You see, this race is about all the things that make mountain biking great. Not just racing. So, while it starts on a solid foundation of awesome by racing on some of the sickest and most flowing trails out there (and it starts at 2pm so we can all party hard the night before), it only builds from there. Because once the racing is done, there’s jumping off the dock into Lake Superior to clean up, all kinds of yummy food in the park (free!), the awards ceremony (and this year’s overall awards were beautiful – wheels constructed of birdseye maple rims laced with copper spokes and treaded with water rounded stones), and only then does the party just begin to roll. The bluegrass fires up on the awards stage, and beer flows (also free! Thanks Keweenaw Brewing Company!). We dance the night away under the stars and aurora borealis until finally the band collapses and the community slowly drifts to bed, only to wake up the next morning for one last chance to ride the trails.

All props to Sam Raymond, the progenitor of Copper Harbor riding, and all the folks who have taken up the torch throughout the years...Tony....Nels....Aaron...countless others.

Me and the hard working boys of Copper Harbor, Nelson and Tony

Oh yeah, I almost forgot. The woman who always creams me in this race (28 minutes faster than me last year) was there again. But this year I've been stepping it up a notch....and this race was proof positive for me; I finished four minutes and forty seconds behind her this year. And her time was two minutes faster than last year. w00t!