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Race Report ↔ Winter Color Fest!

 

Last Saturday I attended the Winter Color Fest (WCF) at my home trail system here in South East Wisconsin. The WCF was held at the John Muir Trail System in the Kettle Moraine State Forest and is the second race in the 9:Zero:7 Wisconsin State Fat Bike Race Series. The Southern Kettle IMBA Chapter ran the race and it featured another very unique race format that was divided into 3 classifications. Race director, Andy Bettinger, called it a Poker Race. I’ll try to break it down for you. The Muir Trails have 5 overlapping loops that are designated by colors. Brown, White, Orange Purple, Green and Blue. That’s why the name of the event is the Winter COLOR Fest. Each Team or Solo racer would be required to ride all of the color coded loops. Add up all 5 of the loop’s mileage and you get 33.2 miles. The poker aspect of the race added another layer of fun competition. Each loop had a card station out on the course, where riders needed to stop and grab a card. The first Solo Rider and the first 3 Person Team to complete all 5 loops and return to the finish with 5 cards would be the winners. Prizes were also awarded for best poker hand in both solo and team categories to keep things fun for everyone. In addition to the full color race, there was a short track relay race , where teams rode multiple laps around a 2 mile circuit, trading off riders, every lap. So if you wanted a serious challenge, you could race the 33.2 mile solo category. If you wanted a mid-level 10 mile race you could sign up for the 3 person team category and if you wanted a short 5-ish mile race you had the relay race category. In addition to all of that… there was a raffle for a year’s supply of Capitol Brewing’s craft brewed beer. Which I didn’t win 🙁

 

Solo Rider Meeting

The course was in incredibly great shape, with a nice packed snow base and an inch of fresh fluffy powder. Plus it snowed for the entire duration of the race.

Solo Start

Photo by Marty Tank

 Team Start

 After a Lemans start, racers mounted their bikes and headed out onto the course.

Photo by Marty Tank

 Racers rolling through Downtown

Photo by Marty Tank

 Mi amigo Mark rock’n the aero bars and a bandito mustashe rolls past Katy and Holly at a card station.

 A couple of new amigos (Jeff and Richard) from CamRock Sport enjoying a little hike-a-bike on the Orange Loop (steeper than it looks)

 Smiles for Miles!

 Team Podium

No race post is complete without a couple hot fat-bike shots 

Red White and Blue Pug

Bud and Lou on Andy’s Ti Muk Dinglespeed

The day was a complete blast and the trail organization that builds and maintains the 50+miles of singletrack at the Southern Kettles raised some money that will be used to make a great trail system, even better, because all of the proceeds from the event go directly back into the trails, on which they were held. I hope fat-bike racing in Wisconsin always stays fun! The Winter Color Fest featured a brand new format that struck the perfect balance between hard-core racing and fabulous fun times, for all!

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4 Responses to Race Report ↔ Winter Color Fest!

  1. Eric January 1, 2013 at 3:30 pm #

    Awesome event. Thanks for the write up, Gomez – you captured it well, in words and pics.

  2. rand January 1, 2013 at 5:10 pm #

    John Deere makes a fat bike?

    • Gomez January 2, 2013 at 10:52 am #

      Custom Painted Fatback

  3. Angry Andy January 1, 2013 at 9:40 pm #

    I Second that comment, It was a Blast!!!! and thanks to all the people involved on pulling it off, and Mother nature for coming around and suppling just enough snow to make the coarse slippery fast and fun, can’t wait till the next one!

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