2009 Cheq Fat Tire - DONE!

2009 Chequamegon Fat Tire Festival
September 19, 2009
Hayward to Telemark Lodge

by Stuart Schurtz

There’s really only one way to describe the 2009 Chequamegon Fat Tire Festival: PRs all around. Thanks to the course being in great shape, absolutely perfect weather, and some healthy competitive juices between the North Iowa Spin members, previous personal records were smoked.

The 3-mile roll out towards Rosie’s Field was a bit slower in 2009 than previous years, but with over 1700 riders packed together, it still made for interesting maneuvering. The course rides along sections of the Birkie trail, which is grassy and filled with rollers, hard packed gravel fire roads, smooth single track, several rocky descents, and the infamous Fire Tower climb around mile 30. It’s certainly not an easy ride even in the best of conditions.

The race took off once we hit Rosie’s field and the start of the Birkie trail. Todd Juhlin, as usual, went fast. He had a prime 2nd row starting position thanks to his 4:30 AM bike placement in the starting chute. We were lined up about 1,000 riders back and we thought we got there early. Juhlin kept pace the entire race and finished with an impressive 2:29. Dave Delperdang, Tim Putnam, Eric Rust, Steve Younker, and Martin Izakovic got off on a quick pace as well. Luckily, I didn’t break my chain right off the start, so I wasn’t DFL leaving Rosie’s like I was in 2008.

Martin was ripping through the course until he blew his first flat with 4 miles left. After fixing it, he rode again until it blew up again. Like the competitor he is, he said, “Screw it, I’m going to run the last 4 miles just to make it interesting!” His race is now officially called the 36/4. He still finished with a time of 3:07, but not enough to beat Eric Rust. Eric calls bragging rights for the next year, since it’s only the finish that matters, right Martin?

A special congratulation’s goes to Dwight Beavers who posted a huge time at 3:12! He still puts people who are 30 years younger than he is to shame. Nice work! Robert Polking and Trumper both posted personal bests on the course. As Barry put it, his best time on his new knee. Mike Hummel took apart the Short and Fat race.

Delper-dog and Younk both posted their first sub three hour times!

The team had a great post race recap under the 312 tent at Telemark and then finished it with a round of NY Strips, plenty of wine and celebratory cigars at Camp Twennipaw outside of Minong, WI
Thanks to Joe Creedon, Maplewood, MN, who provided Sherpa support, and to Dave Fredrick who let us take his pontoon out for a Friday afternoon NI Spin ‘Strategy Meeting’ on Lake Nancy and gave us a great cabin to stay in. A special thanks goes to Goose Island’s 312 for providing extra fuel for the NI Spin Team. The only thing missing was my dad, Steve Schurtz, who was putting in some extra recovery time with his broken leg.

Now bring on the Snow and be ready for 2010.

Results:
Overall - Division - Age Group - Gender - Finish Time
Juhlin, Todd 207 182 30 200 02:29:49.1
Putnam, Tim 438 382 49 415 02:42:35.3
Delperdang, David 581 502 15 550 02:49:18.1
Younker, Steve 781 666 151 734 02:59:15.7
Rust, Eric 943 799 64 881 03:07:32.8
Izakovic, Martin 949 804 177 886 03:07:44.9
Beavers, Dwight 1050 889 1 977 03:12:49.8
Schurtz, Stuart 1095 924 67 1015 03:15:42.9
Polking, Robert 1222 1030 46 1129 03:23:04.6
Trump, Barry 1451 1229 31 1330 03:42:45.2

Chunks of Metal: Iowa Gravel Road Championships

by Dave Delperdang

Tim and I headed over to New Hartford for the Iowa Gravel Road Championships. This was my first gravel road race and my sixth race for the year. This would be only the second race this year that I didn’t start with arm warmers on. For those of you that know me, I define cool as anything under 70 degrees.

Racing on a tank of a bike (a mid-priced hybrid frame and a hodge-podge of old parts, Bio-pace chain ring, friction shifter, etc.), I still felt good about a chance at medaling. The Masters 50+ was part of wave that included Cat 4 and 40+ riders. Tim was only one of two people on MTBs, and several were racing their road bikes straight up. So Tim and I got to start together. We had the hope of being able to help one another at some point. The first long grade up was very fast, and I saw all the 50+ riders get dropped. Tim was holding about 5^th wheel. I lost a little ground to the lead group by the top of hill (tank of a bike) but easily caught back the group on the way down. I felt comfortable on the flats - too bad there wasn’t much of that. Finishing the first lap, I couldn’t see anyone behind us. On the second time up the long climb, I lost the lead group and couldn’t chase them back this time. Tim was just OTB of the lead group of 4 (3 Cat 2s and a Cat 4). A Cat 4 rider and I started working together until about 2 ½ miles into the second lap when I flatted. I forgot to put my flat kit in my back pocket like I always do. It was lying in the back of Tim’s van. Thinking that my race was over, I started to walk back to the finish line. I walked for about a mile when “Blue Colnago” stopped and gave me his tube and mini pump. I quickly got the tube changed and started riding with John Adamson and two Cat 5 riders racing for first and second. They finished after four laps; I still had two to go. In the next two laps I caught and passed a few riders, and on the last time up the long grade to the finish line I was able to ride down and pass two more riders.

I finished fourth in the 50+, but to my surprise, I won the Bronze for the Iowa Gravel Road Championship. There must have been someone from out of state. Tim raced solo after the second lap, finishing 5^th over all and 2^nd Place Cat 4, but he won the Gold as the Cat 4 winner was from Minnesota. When I got home and was about to throw out the inner tube, I found a big chunk of metal sticking out of it. Darn that flat, as NISPIN could have had two Golds for the day.

While we missed the camaraderie of doing the Tour of the Rocks, it was a great day! Also a big thank you to Blue Colnago with Bike Tech who gave me his tube and pump. I was able to keep riding on such a beautiful day.

Now on to Chequamegon and hopefully a few PRs!

My Golden, Scout, did not win this medal.

Tim did, for 1st Place, Cat 4, in the Iowa State Gravel Championships on Saturday, 9/12. I'm sure he'll post a race report.

Garmin announces Tom Zirbel for 2010 -

Garmin announces new signings for 2010 - VeloNews

The 2nd Step...

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East Village Crit

The final crit race and Iowa Cup series event was held this past Sunday in the East Village of Des Moines, with the finish line located on top of the hill in front of the steps of the Capital building. Dave Delperdang, newly upgraded Cat 4 racer John Johnson, and I were all trying to determine what level of pain we were about to inflict upon ourselves. Standing at the finish, you looked back down a pretty long and step hill. Those that competed in the first Hy-Vee tri will understand this. The only difference was that we were about to ride up the hill just short of 30 times.

After we arrived at the race, the clouds rolled in, and the temperatures stayed on the cooler side. I did not take to heart any of John's recently learned lessons of always being prepared and did not bring any addition layers or gloves. I was thinking it was going to be "one of those days". With any crit race, it is very wise to wear a pair of gloves just in case you go down; you do not want your hands to be totally shredded. After I asked around, Pete Basso loaned me his nicely greased up gloves from the Cat 3 race that were two sizes too big, but I was grateful. Thanks, Pete!
The five corner race started out fast, like all the Cat 4 races have this year, and after the first corner was the downhill. One strong rider from Bike Tech blew or broke something on the manhole, and someone said a rider missed the second corner and went through the barricades. I had problems clicking in and went from the front row to the back of the peloton before the first corner. I knew this was not good and worked hard for the next two laps getting back into the top ten.

The pace slowed down after the first few times up, and I think everyone knew with this being a 45 minute race that we had plenty of time. A few flyers went off the front, and the group was able to pull everything back in less than two laps. I bombed the downhill a few times and had a nice gap (safe gap as well) going into the first uphill. All the times I was in the back on the downhill, I had to scrub speed . After first 8 laps, my legs were feeling pretty good, and I knew I had a chance for a top 5 placing.

About half way through the race, I saw John on the side of the hill working on his chain. John was staying just off the back and then dropped his chain twice. With his recent upgrade, John was hoping to be on the same lap as the finishers, and I know he would have if it weren’t for the ‘double shift’ chain drop. (Ask Evan, or don’t.)

With one lap to go, I was not in proper position to take advantage of my downhill speed and cornering capability. Had I gotten to the hill ahead of the main group, I may have gained a few positions – lesson learned. John finished 26th in his first Cat 4 crit. Dave was 18th in a very strong field of riders. I placed 6th, which gave me 3rd place in the Iowa Cup Series, Cat 4 Men. This had been a great group of Cat 4s with whom to race, and I know several will be upgrading to Cat 3 next year and hoping for more of the same next year!

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Was Curious if anyone got their cars or bikes washed at the car wash over at the Blazing Saddle? Would love to hear about how that went?