Submit your race reports for guest posts on RideFatbikes.com

Photo credit: RideFatbikes.com

It’s awesome to see the amazing races and fatbike-focused winter events occurring throughout Minnesota and around the country.  We’ve spent so much time and energy focused on building and reporting the success of last weekend’s Fatbike Frozen Forty (a first year event organized by Ride Enterprises / Brad Boyd and sponsored supported by headline sponsor Twenty2 Cycles), that it’s been hard to find time to report on the many other fabulous races.

For those of you who regularly follow RideFatbikes.com, and who attend some of these races in Minnesota or in your own state, we’d appreciate having your race reports submitted to us for guest posts!  Would you like to see your name connected with a great race report that’s visible to over 5000 visitors a month?   After you attend or participate in a great fatbike race, write up a race report (with photos from the event of course) and submit it to us for review and possible posting at RideFatbikes.com.

We’d love to circulate more fatbike news, fatbike race reports and reader write-ups, Contact Us with your ideas.

Great weekend for fatbike events this weekend!

Minnesota finally has a bit of snow cover, and it’s cold.  It’s almost like winter around here, just in time for some great fatbike events.  I’m aware of at least three fatbike / winter bike races this weekend.  In the event you can’t make it to all three, you should try to check out at least one.  They include:

• Penn Cycle’s Get Fat with Pat event – Penn Cycle in Eagan, MN; Saturday January 28th; 12pm start; details here

• Freewheel Frozen Frolic at Murphy Hanrehan January 29th – Three-race series + Lake Minnetonka Ice Race, hosted by Freewheel Bike (another great local shop, with a strong fatbike selection and knowledge).  The Murphy races will be mass start events that will include the normal Murphy loop plus a half mile roll out for the start. Studded tires are allowed and encouraged when frequent freeze-thaw temps proceed race day.  Men’s / Women’s open class race.  Registration opens at 10am; Race starts at 11am. Info here.

• Carver Lake Cold Catfish Cup in Woodbury – This should be a terrific race, put together by the fine folks at Angry Catfish (which is an awesome local bike shop) and the City of Woodbury.  Reed Smidt is the organizer, and information can be found at their facebook page, here.  Here are some details:
  • Location = Carver Lake Park (3175 Century Ave. S., Woodbury, MN 55125); Course = mix of single track and frozen lake (multiple lap options depending on class); Dates = January 29, February 5, and February 19, Classes include men & women, advanced & recreational; Awards for 1st – 3rd place & series champ
  • Online Registration:
    https://secure.ci.woodbury.mn.us/cgi-bin/webtrac.sh/wbsearch.html?xxmod=AR&wbsi=ac9c3d03-1d43-5ea2-e111-c41a8cda8968&xxtype=BIKE
    Day-of registration will also be available.
  • Please direct all questions to Reed Smidt @ 651-714-3588 or rsmidt@ci.woodbury.mn.us

A good word for the Triple D and Hillside Cold Bear Challenge

Photo submitted by Andy W (RideFatbikes.com reader)

Fatbike events are fairly easy to find this year, if you live in or near Minnesota, Iowa, or Wisconsin particularly.  The best fatbike calendar out there (in my opinion) is the fatbike event calendar from Twenty2 Cycles, found here.

Outside of the Fatbike Frozen 40 (brought to you by RideFatbikes.com with lots of help from our primary sponsor and collaborator Twenty2 Cycles) there are two great events that deserve extra attention – Triple D (in Dubuque, IA) and the Hillside Cold Bear Challenge (Elk River, Minnesota).

Cold Bear Challenge – Elk River, MN

First, the Cold Bear Challenge racing series is in its sixth year, so this is one of the most established long-standing events around.  This year’s Cold Bear Challenge is a three-race series, with the first race in the series on January 8, 2012.  You can get more details at the MORC site, here, or at the Twenty2 Cycles event calendar, here.  Although I haven’t been to these races before, I’d like to make it happen this year.  With a 7.5 mile loop on groomed trail, this should be an awesome time.  Make sure to put one or all of the races in this series on your calendar and support local MN fatbike events!

Triple D – Dubuque/Dyersville, IA

Second, the Triple D (in Iowa) is one of the first fatbike events I’d heard of, other than the incredibly well respected and somewhat daunting Arrowhead 135.  The Triple D proves that Iowa knows how to make fatbikes feel welcome.  Lance Andre, the Triple D event organizer, is one of the nicest and most helpful folks I’ve run into in the fatbike community (and that is in a group of a ton of helpful and friendly folks).   The event date (January 15th) and a quick summary can be found at the Twenty2 Cycles calendar, here.  For the full story, check out the Triple D website.

A quick visit to the Triple D website (http://tripledrace.blogspot.com/) will show you this event has its act together.  They have lodging options, ideas for family fun for those who aren’t riding in the event, photos, race information, links and more).

Triple D is a very established event as well, drawing approximately 100 racers a year (in biking, running and skiing disciplines) with a following from all over the country.  This is not a race for the casual or unmotivated rider – it’s a 65-mile self-supported ultra endurance race in frigid tundra in January.  If you’re up for a challenging and well-organized fatbike race to test your endurance (and don’t want the 135 miles of the Arrowhead 135) – this might be the race for you.  It’s coming up in a few short weeks (January 15, 2012) so get it on your calendar now!

Bottom line

The organizers of both of these events (Cold Bear Challenge and Triple D) have been extremely helpful and supportive of the Fatbike Frozen 40.  Whether or not you’ll be riding the Fatbike Frozen 40, please be sure to give some thought to signing up for the Cold Bear Challenge and the Triple D.