Copper Harbor Fat Tire

Copper Harbor, MI
Copper Harbor Fat Tire Festival Sunday September 04, 2011
by: Kit Cischke

It's been a while since I wrote, because it's been a while since I raced. That's not strictly true, since I rode the bike leg of a triathlon on a team with some friends from church. I set the best time of all the teams there, even though I was riding a cyclocross bike set up with road tires.

Part of my hiatus from racing was not having a mountain bike to ride. Trek eventually replaced my broken HiFi, but they took more than a month to do it. I sold the replacement and picked up a Kona Big Kahuna, drinking the 29" Kool-Aid. The Copper Harbor Fat Tire Festival would be its inaugural race. Copper Harbor's trails are normally considered full-suspension territory, so it was odd to line up with a hardtail. The other reason I hadn't raced much was to rest up and train for cyclocross season (which starts in just two weeks!).

As an aside, if you ever have the time, a drive up to the top of Michigan to ride the trails up there would be worth it. There's a reason IMBA bestowed "Epic" status on them.

The basic thing to know about the Copper Harbor race is that there are equal parts climbing and descending. You climb up the side of a hill with 700 feet of elevation change, then cruise back down. Then you climb up it again, go halfway down, back up to the top and then down to the bottom. The crazies do it all again. I, on the other hand, thought that once was more than enough.

The climbing was brutal, but I felt better doing it than I have in any other year I've done this race. That was clearly where I made time on my competitors. I am still trying to get used to handling a hardtail 29er going downhill and riders I dropped on the climbs would start breathing down my neck. The good thing is that I'll have lots of time to learn and that it really does feel like the big wheels take some of the drama out of the smaller bumps.

I rolled across the line 32nd out of 252, which was good for 11th in the gigantic 50-person 30-39 class. Considering the complete lack of training as I build up for 'cross season and the fact that a whole bunch of the fast locals were riding the short race, I'm completely pleased.

Lots of T6 out on the trail, including one gal I passed on the grueling Brockway Mountain climb in full METAL.

But now, the CX tubulars are glued and Wednesday Night Worlds have started anew. Time to get muddy!