Big Fun
Course changes & competitor questions
crank up interest on the 2005 Chequamegon Fat Tire Fest By Mark Parman 
| Chequamegon Fat Tire 40 riders get underway via Main Street, Hayward, Wisconsin. |
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For some time now, things at the Chequamegon Fat Tire Festival have been big. Supersized, if you will. The field of mountain bike racers is big, the course is big, the crowds are big, the waiting list is big even the race director is big.
The Fat Tire Fest continues to be one of the most popular mountain bike events in the country, unfortunately turning away many riders for the main events the Chequamegon 40 and the Short and Fat, both on September 17. For this year's 23rd annual CFTF, officials returned 825 entries after the now annual March lottery, which selects riders for the event. This is a record number of returned entries. Since 1995, nearly 6,000 entries have been returned, according to race director Gary Crandall.
Of those riders not selected in the lottery, 138 submitted something to the annual essay contest, the 50 Ways to Ride Chequamegon. Contestants use their creativity and begging powers to persuade the judges to let them ride the race. The desperation, as well as creativity, grows each passing year. "They're (contestants) doing videos, audios. They're sending X-rays of broken bones, their pregnancies, their medical histories," Crandall said. One of my favorite submissions granted an entry in the race graphed the would-be rider's Chequamegon finishes over the years with his changing lifestyle. This graph done on company time on a company computer, the rider admitted clearly showed that increased beer consumption did contribute directly to higher placings and slower finish times. According to the graph, a receding hairline and a bulging waistline were also negative factors.
Trail erosion prompts course change
For the past decade or so, the Chequamegon 40 course has remained unchanged, with all the familiar landmarks: Rosie's Field, Martel's Pothole, Lake Helene, the Seeley Firetower Climb and those awful climbs on the Birkie Trail in the closing miles.
For the event this year, however, a forest road trail closure to Smith Lake required the subtraction of a half
mile the first tweak of the 40-mile course in many years. At the intersection of Bodecker and Telemark roads, riders will turn right on Telemark and proceed for approximately 100 meters on Telemark before veering left into the woods on an ATV trail. This trail rolls along nicely and dumps riders out by an old hunting shack on a ridge above Lake Helene.
"Unfortunately, the descent to Smith Lake enabled the mountain bikers to separate themselves from the
road riders," Crandall claimed. This rocky descent and the sand traps that follow leading up to Lake Helene did provide some fine places for attacks.
Late last fall after the CFTF, the DNR closed the badly eroding road down to Smith Lake to motorized as well as nonmotorized traffic. Over the years, the descent grew rockier as the soil between the rocks worked downhill to Smith Lake, a spring-fed trout lake.
"The road was never built as a sustainable road," Crandall explained. "It was just an old logging road. As trail users, we have to make the trails sustainable." Thus the reroute.
Mountain biking and heavy traffic from the Chequamegon 40 clearly contributed to the road's deteriorating condition, but the bulk of the deterioration is the result of the growing numbers of ATV'ers on the trail over the past few years.
Furthermore, when someone unofficially graded the downhill, the problem was exacerbated. The grading smoothed the ATV-pounded surface, but it also allowed the silt to easily wash downhill into Smith Lake, negatively affecting the water quality and the fishery. The DNR simply erased the road, placed large boulders at the entrance off Telemark Road and created a new and sustainable access farther to the north.
Crandall requests that all riders stay off the old descent. The course should be marked a couple of weeks before the event, allowing plenty of time for preriding the new section.
Telemark Road, Spider Lake Fire Lane, Boedecker Road and Janet Road will be closed to spectator traffic from 10:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. on Saturday. Those who need access for racer support will need to obtain an pass from the race headquarters.
Survey results bring changes
The rollout survey conducted after last year's race revealed that most Chequamegon 40 riders preferred a slower rollout through Hayward and then a quicker pace on Highway 77 out to Rosie's Field. The start through Hayward and out of town looks remarkably like the mayhem of the running of the bulls in Pamplona, Spain. The planter by the Birkie office and the island for the Wal-Mart/ Highway 77 intersection
only add to the race-day pandemonium. A field of 1,700 riders about the population of the city of Hayward careening toward the funnel into Rosie's does create a problem.
Some riders surveyed suggested a wave start, while others suggested signs urging riders to watch out for the potholes in Rosie's Field. Perhaps the best advice received was to remind competitors to relax and ride within themselves and their skill levels.
After all, Crandall suggested, finding oneself in a multirider pile-up on the pavement of Highway 77 or cartwheeling across Rosie's Field (a gopher-infested hayfield the rest of the year) is not the best way to experience the CFTF.
In response to the concerns about the start, the organizers will try, for the first time, self-seeding starting gates for the Chequamegon 40. Even as an experiment, a bona fide self seed would help lessen the frenzy for the masses of racers.
Five individual start line gates will be designated on the south (primary school/armory) side of the start area. Only those with preferred start numbers will be allowed in the first gate. Four other gates will be identified with suggested finishing times from two and a half hours through four or more hours.
Crandall urges all racers to select the appropriate gate based on their projected finishing time. These
placements are available on a first-come first-served basis so once a section is filled, others must load in the next available section.
Drought leaves course dry & dusty
Like much of Wisconsin, the northwestern part of the state has experienced a drought this summer. As of press time, the course is dry and dusty. Many of the most persistent bogs along the course have dried up,
although the perpetually scum-covered lagoons on the way in Martel's Pothole have survived the dry spell. And logging operations on Randysek Road just after the Seeley Firetower descent have wreaked havoc with the road there.
One good rain could really change the course conditions, however. How many remember the deluge of 1991 the night before the race? So I wouldn't pack away the big knobbies just yet.
Race champions registered
This time of year, rumors begin to circulate about who's coming to the race and who isn't. Officially, in the Chequamegon 40, the last four champions of the race have registered: Brian Matter, Doug Swanson, Steve Tilford and Scott Quiring.
Jeff Hall, 1995 champion and Salsa rider, is also registered and hungry for a win. Matt Kelly, former junior world cyclocross champion, and longtime professional roadie Robbie Ventura have also signed up. Expect
a few late surprise shows as well. On the women's side, only 1999 champion Kyia Malenkovich had committed to the race as of press time.
The Short and Fat looks wide open. Cole House, the 2004 champ, will return to defend his title but he will be chased hard by a posse of young local talent Josh and Jonathon Kay of Shell Lake, Chase Sova of Spooner and Jesrin Gaier of Seeley. In the women's Short and Fat, Anne Grabowski, who's visited the
podium in the Chequamegon 40, looks likely to get to the finish at Telemark Resort first.
The single speed category continues to grow in its second year with 66 riders officially registered in the two big events, including a whopping 48 men in the long race. Jesse LaLonde, riding a huge 44-16 gear and finishing seventh overall in last year's 40, has inspired a maniacal throng of one-gear gonzos.
Although the Chequamegon 40 and the Short and Fat remain the "big" events (the ones that most riders want to do), Crandall continues to remind all those turned away of the other CFTF events. There's the criterium as well as Rough Stuff Rendezvous, an orienteering race, on Sunday. The CAMBA tours of new local singletrack go off on Friday.
Come up to socialize, cheer or help out. Or just come to ride and enjoy the northwoods in September.
Mark Parman lives in Wausau, Wisconsin, where he teaches English and journalism at the University of Wisconsin-Marathon County. He bought his first serious bike, a Raleigh Competition, in 1982 and hasn't stopped riding since.
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