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