Hall of Fame for the King of Fat
Gary Crandall picked for mountain bike honor By Mark Parman It's a Thursday evening a few weeks before the Chequamegon Fat Tire Festival, and
the Chequama Mamas both men and women have gathered in Baby King Haakon's Bar at Telemark Resort for some après ride refreshment. On the TV above the bar, the Minnesota Vikings play a soundless pre season game, but nobody's watching. Earlier, the local bicycle club had sampled both old and new CAMBA (Chequamegon Area Mountain Bike Association) singletrack at the resort. Gary Crandall,
longtime director of the Chequamegon Fat Tire Festival, is there as usual, even after a 10 hour day marking the 40 mile course 
| Crandall watches over Greg LeMond at the 1990 Chequamegon Fat Tire Festival. |
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for the upcoming event. He sits at a table, eating bicycle bedecked birthday cake for one of the Mama's who's turned another year older. Or younger the Mamas can't decide. Crandall is still flying the colors, wearing the
purple and gold Chequama Mamas jersey. For nearly two decades, Crandall has been the glue that's held together the mountain biking community of northwestern Wisconsin. He's been flying the colors all those years directing the festival, working on the CAMBA trail, organizing rides, in general promoting the sport of mountain biking, flying the colors,
particularly in Cable's Fourth of July parade. And for this, Crandall will be inducted into the Mountain Bike Hall of Fame on Oct. 13, 2003. He joins three other inductees Cindy Devine, Dan Koeppel and Ashley Korenblat in the 16th annual Hall of Fame induction ceremony in Las Vegas, Nevada. Crandall will take his place alongside the sport's most influential riders, designers, advocates, journalists and promoters. Previous inductees include many mountain bike household names: Gary Fisher, Keith Bontrager, Juliana Furtado, Jacquie Phelan, Hans Rey, Paola Pezzo, Keizo Shimano and Ignaz and Frank Schwinn. Incidentally, two other Hall of Famers rode in the 2003 Fat Tire Festival three time winner
Steve Tilford and his former teammate and world champion, Ned Overend.
The recognition came as a surprise to Crandall.
"To say it is an honor is a huge understatement. Looking at the (Hall of Fame) inductees is a review of the who's who of the sport."
Crandall admitted that he felt a bit unworthy.
"I can't imagine a greater tribute to the past 20 years of my life's work than to be included in that revered club of fat tire people."
The news came at time when Crandall was weary from logging long hours preparing for the 21st Chequamegon Fat Tire Festival, which starts Sept. 12. "It feels like a triple shot of espresso," he said. The award had literally invigorated the race organizer when he needed it most.
Crandall hasn't always directed one of the country's most popular mountain bike events; in 1983 he rode in the inaugural Chequamegon
Fat Tire Festival, finishing mid pack. He's visible in the historical photo of the field rolling down Main Street in Hayward, his red helmet obvious.
In 1984, he assumed the position of festival director, a position he's held since. Under his leadership, the festival grew into one of the most popular and longest running events in the country. In the 20 years of the King of Fat's benevolent reign, over 35,000 riders have participated in
the festival, sampling the trails of glaciated Bayfield and Sawyer counties and taking in all the fat tire fun. Because the event's popularity threatened the sustainability of the trails, Crandall imposed a 2,500 rider field limit in the early '90s, and over 10 years later he still, unfortunately, turns riders away.
In 1990, Crandall, with other members of the mountain bike community, also helped form CAMBA, which turned a maze of fire roads and
logging trails into a 300 mile system of well marked and mapped mountain bike trails. Thousands of riders have ridden and enjoyed the trails at Rock Lake, Telemark, Drummond, Seeley and Hayward. These trails have spawned other races: the Cable Classic, the Seeley Pre Fat, the Chequamegon Fat Tire Triathlon and the now defunct Black Bear Biathlon. Recently, CAMBA has responded to the need for more singletrack and has built and is building miles of new serpentine trail.
Crandall believes his local trail work is every bit as important as promoting and organizing the Chequamegon Fat Tire Festival.
"The other side of the coin is the volunteer time and financial contribution to trail advocacy, whether it be IMBA, CAMBA, WORBA or any other of the various advocacy groups. You have to be involved in the groundwork of developing and maintaining trails while continuing to educate about responsible and sustainable riding."
Never one to take all of the glory, Crandall is quick to point out those who have helped along the way, like Tom Kelly, Mike Cooper, Phil Van Valkenberg, Dan Hunt and Phil Rasmussen, the ones who planted the first Chequamegon Fat Tire Festival seeds in 1983.
According to Crandall, the Chequama Mamas Bicycle Club was instrumental as well in his getting this prestigious award. Crandall would like to thank "every single one of them. They are a helpful bunch when it
comes to trail clearing, entry processing, bucket filling, trash pickup, fence post slamming and all the other countless jobs that make up an event."
Crandall has a knack for organizing and working with his volunteers, many of them from the Mamas club, whether it's building trail or stuffing race packets. A few weeks before last month's Fat Tire Festival, I, along with 25 or so other volunteers, helped remove from storage and
over to Telemark bike racks, shower stalls, mile markers, feed zone 5 gallon buckets and numerous other paraphernalia that make a race run smoothly. Everyone worked together efficiently with Crandall orchestrating, and we finished in less than two hours. Afterwards, he rewarded us with refreshments and bike swag. All of us wore smiles, like we were at a picnic rather than volunteering our time on Labor Day weekend.
Things usually run well because people like to help Crandall.
"My key race staff members have been with me for many years. I have a very low turnover on my key staff some have 15 or 20 years of experience in the (Chequamegon Fat Tire Festival). They get the job done, and when problems arise, they can brainstorm a solution before anyone knows that things are going south," he said.
Crandall has been a mainstay in the Midwestern mountain bike scene for over two decades, whether he's organizing his race helpers, building trail
or just giving riders directions to a CAMBA trailhead.
"Twenty one years in the dirt, and I look forward to 21 more," he said. We can only hope.
For more information on the Mountain Bike Hall of Fame, go to www.mtnbikehalloffame.com
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