2023 Fat Bike Worlds Race Report

The first race in the Fat Bike Triple Crown just went off like a shot that was heard around the world! With excellent snow conditions and single-digit temps the Borealis Fat Bike World Championships presented by Pure Fuel was quite a show! There’s a great history to this race. Born in Crested Butte Colorado, moved to Wyoming, and now at the New Richmond Golf Club in New Richmond, Wisconsin for its sophomore dance. I’ve been lucky enough to attend a few of the races. I went to the first one in Crested Butte and last year’s edition in the Big Whiskey. Looking back, I should have made it out to Wyoming. I have incredibly great memories from the Crested Butte Worlds and we’ve got the scoop on where it’s going next. So before we get into all of that, let’s take a look at some pixels from this year’s race in Westconsin.

New this year, the race featured a separate Elite Women’s wave that started just before the mass neutral prologue lap for the rest of the field.

I got to watch (and record) the start of the main field from the back of the pace car which took the form of a tracked UTV. After the start, I hiked around the course and tried to keep track of the race leaders.

Previous to this year’s race the FBW had only been won by one man, Josiah Middaugh. With Josiah absent from this year’s rally, the men’s race was open to the taking.

It was a bitterly cold day and I saw lots of folks just suffering like nobody’s business. I managed to stay warm and even managed to capture a shot of both winners out there making it look easy.

I managed to time my hike back to the finish line to catch the Women’s finish. I missed Chris crossing the finish line but I saw that he had built a pretty good gap late in the race.

They wisely held the awards a little bit later in the afternoon at 45th Parallel Distillery. That’s where I learned that next year’s race is going to be held in Leadville Colorado, hosted by the Cloud City Wheelers! Dave Ochs also shared that the 10th Anniversary Fat Bike Worlds will be back in Crested Butte in ’25!

The Borealis Fat Bike World Championships presented by Pure Fuel turned out to be a great event. Congratulations to the winners and thanks to the folks that organized the event for everything.