Chequamegon Fat Tire 40

Do you want the long story or the short story?

Short story:

I raced hard and placed 58th out of 1759 finishers.

Long story:

Friday after work, I traveled down to Hayward, WI with Dave Grant, hereafter referred to as "DG". After picking up our race packets we stopped in to KFC for the obligatory greasedown. We were greeted at the drive-thru by Susan who was eager satisfy our every culinary desire. Although she forgot DG's coleslaw, we continue to recommend the Hayward KFC.

Lodging was dicey in Hayward, so we settled into a quaint motel room in Spooner. The motel's proprietor was perplexed when we asked what the main attraction was in Spooner. She mentioned that some people come to fish, and others shoot bears.

We retired to our respective beds after last minute bike tune-ups, number plate placements, secret energy drink prep and Ambien only to rise again at 4 am. There was a hint of rain in the air as we drove 30 minutes to the start of the race where we left our bikes in the middle of the street to secure our start position. We were 7 rows back when we arrived at 5 am and heard that to get a front row placement you had to arrive at 4 am.

We caught a couple more hours of sleep back at the hotel and returned to the race start for 8:30. 1800 is a lot of people, and a lot of bikes, as you can here.



You may be able to spot me at about 25 seconds into the video. Consider that my start position is considered very good and that I had to get up at 4 am to secure it!

Anywho, the rain cleared out and made way for blue skies. The temps were high and rising, a drastic change from the 30's and rain racers experienced last year. The rollout was pretty well controlled and not too fast. There was a lot of accelerating and braking, but that's the norm. I saw one dude lock 'em up and fishtail on the pavement. Not good. I pulled a little chicanery myself and bunny hopped up onto the median putting the hammer down and passing at least 100 people in the process. It felt like the right thing to do, but in retrospect, I wouldn't do it again.

The lead group immediately got a gap on the rest of us and was probably a quarter of a mile up the road by the time they reached the dirt. I wasn't going to blow myself up chasing them alone, so I just sat on a tandem and cruised. I tried to keep the pace steady throughout the race, avoided going anaerobic, stayed seated on almost all the climbs and just hung on. Normally I blow up and end up riding most of these races by myself after getting shelled from a group. Not this time. About 1/2 way through the race I put in an effort to pull my group up to a group ahead of us. This group included ladies winner Jenna Rinehart (who beat the tar out of me in the Ore to Shore). I figured if I stayed with her group I'd do alright, so that's what I did. I ended up dropping all but two of our 20+ group on the Firetower Hill climb. From there I rode as hard as I could trying to maintain my position.

Another smaller group came together and we rode it out to the last section of Birkie Trail. I don't remember much of what happened the last few miles, except that as I crested a little hill someone shouted, "it's all downhill from here". I put it in my big gear and ripped it to the finish. I was very pleased with 58th place in my first Chequamegon and hope I earned a preferred start for the next time. The course is very fast and enjoyable to ride, and I think suits my strengths (not climbing).

DG finished 2 minutes behind me and beat his time from last year by 15 minutes! We partook in a beer and kraut-covered brat at the finish line, then jumped in the truck, still covered in dust, to make the 4 hour drive home.

In 10 hours of driving between Marquette and Spooner we didn't see a single deer. This does not bode well for the hunters this season.

UPCROSS Race #1

Four SISU Cycles racers made an appearance at the season's cyclocross opener. Danny, Jesse, Matt and Tyler all entered the "Eh" race, which drew 20 competitors. The weather was atypically hot, with temps approaching 80. The sandy course combined with hot, dry conditions resulted in some dirty bodies by race's end.

The pace of the first lap was smokin' as everyone vied for the prime... a growler of KBC brew. Team Priority Health rockstar Tyler Jenema set the tempo for the first lap, but was temporarily distracted by some curvaceous spectators and piled up in a narrow, sandy section. He brought Jesse down with him and they were passed by a few contenders, including Chocolay Ace phenom Jeff Juntti.


Jesse fell back to 8th place after dropping his chain three times, while Tyler Gauthier fought to stay in the top 4 for the first half of the race, only to rip off his derailleur hanger, ending his day on the bike. Meanwhile, Jenema broke a chain and DA flatted, forcing both of them into chase mode. Tyler Jenema quickly made his way back to the front; DA got rolling in 8th position behind Jesse, but was unable to match Jesse's enormous ego, I mean power. The two of them yo-yo'd a bit, and picked off a few riders who went out a bit too hard. Danny and Matt beat the crap out of themselves for 60 minutes and finished respectably.

It was great to see Ishpeming native Ron Williams show up at the race! Hope to see you again Ron!

"Eh" race results below, and at www.UPCROSS.net.

1	Tyler Jenema
2	Jeff Juntti
3	Bryan Cook
4	Jesse Bell
5	Derek Anderson
6	Blu Tenbrink
7	Evan Simula
8	Andy Gregg
9	Steve Kuhl
10	Tom Mahaney
11	Joey Graci
12	Matt Palomaki
13	Ron Williams
14	Danny Hill
15	Mike Daggett
16	Toney Lackey
DNF	Tyler Gautier
DNF	Tim Shandonay
DNF	Eric McCoy
DNF	Wanhala

Check out all of Chris's race photos here.

Tour Da Woods Report

Not much to say other than...........SISU SWEEPS THE PODIUM! It was a great race and we had a lot of fun racing together. Tom no doubt ably had the best legs and showed that by pulling away at about 7-8 miles to go. Jesse and I kept pace until Uncle Bills Revenge (2 miles to go) when Jesse slowly pulled away. It was some scene for the spectators to see a wave of blue at every check point. Several times through out the race we heard the chant, SISU SWEEP! Tom at one point was sitting 3rd wheel and noted that it made for nice SISU promo with a wave of blue flying through the single track. Great time. Tom 1st, Jesse 2nd, Tyler 3rd.

Part 3

Part 2

A few pics from this weekends race the Tour Da Woods

The Great Dear Chase

The Dear Chase was on Saturday, August 15th. Tom, Glen and I showed in hopes to show off our single track skills, well that is the skills of Tom and Glen, not so much mine. It started out as a hot humid day and ended with good results race results. Here it is in a nutshell.

A good bunch of racers showed up including Jeff Adamcik, Anikin Nikolai, Aaron Swanson, Paul Belknap, among others. The roll out was a bit different this year with a little more road and up hills to split the field before the dirt track. Tom and I were on geared bikes and Glen was on a single speed. The plan was for me to set the pace as high as possible to the single track and let Tom set tempo through the single track. It worked and split the field to 4 of us. Note: Glen stuck with us to just about the single track which was super impressive being on a SS. We entered the single track with myself, Tom, Aaron, and Nikolai. Although Tom feels he was a bit off on the single track he set an awesome tempo keeping the each of us pounding the pedals. The tempo paced us and we had over a minute on the next guy going into lap two. Then the racing games started. Tom continued tempo in the single track and no one really wanted to keep that going on the two track. It cost us our split and with about 5 miles let Paul caught us on his SS. He knew he could not beat us on his SS letting us set tempo so he got on front and put in a hard effort. That effort struck an attack from Anikin splitting the 5 of us just ever so slightly. With about a mile left Tom and I worked as hard as we could to catch the attack but missed it by 15 or so seconds. Tom placed 4th and I place right behind him 5th. Tom was awesome in the single track and I would of done anything to give him a win that day, he deserved it. So it was a bit disappointing for us considering our team did a lot of the work and didn't get podium but a good race at that. Glen had a good day on the SS holding the lead for a bit but the strong effort in the beginning called the end to him down the finish. He placed 19th overall and 6th in SS.

Pictures by Straight A Photography (Amber Gauthier)