2010 Wild Flower Rush - Fat Tire 40 XC

The Fat Tire 40 delivers the goods.

Race report and images by Devon Balet

(June 26, 2010) Crested Butte, Colo- Fat Tire Bike Week of Crested Butte is rumored to be the oldest bike festival on this planet. Seeing it’s 30th year this past weekend, that is not hard to believe knowing that mountain bikes and fat tires are still a young and growing sport. The week included guided bike rides, tech expo area filled with hundreds of bikes for all to demo, a chainless race, free concert, and of course the continued difficult Fat Tire 40 cross country race.

Home turf-or at least mountain turf-seemed a huge advantage in the 40-mile cross country event as Crested Butte’s Travis Scheefer (Alpine Orthopaedics) won for the second year in a row with nearly three minutes over second place rider Nate Bird (Honey Stinger) from Steamboat Springs, Colo, who sprinted it out with Drew Edsall (Yeti/Sunflower Markets) of Durango, Colo. Edsall finished one second behind Bird. Crested Buttes’ Ethan Passant (Alpine Orthopaedics and Rotem Ishay (Jamis) rounded out the top five.

It's been a long time since the Mountain States Cup sent riders out on a legitimate 40-mile backcounty course and rusty map reading skills and a confused course marshal played a roll in the final results. After completing "the Strand-Ferris corkscrew"-a potentially confusing double side loop created to add mileage to the race-a handful of the top contenders were misguided by a course marshal and made a left turn, repeating the corkscrew where they should have exited to the right and continued on to Deer Creek Trail.

The pack of riders behind them, which included Scheefer, Bird, Passant, and Edsall, went the right way and moved into the lead spots.

Always’s a contender in these long cross country races, Gretchen Reeves (Tokyo Joes) took top honors in the pro women’s race with a huge four minute lead over Jennifer Smith (Trek). Kelly Cullen (Honey Stinger/Trek) and-coming out of retirement-Tammy Jacques (Honey Stinger/Eriksen) took the four and five spots.

The Fat Tire 40 features some of the most popular and rugged trails of the legendary mountain bike capital. Some of the best after work trails like Strand and Farris, as well as the always epic Deer Creek trail. The race totaled 40.4 miles with 7.793 feet of climbing and 7,680 feet of descending. Some races claim to have it, but the Fat Tire 40 delivers the goods with 90% of the race being on single track.

Riders took off from Crested Butte Mountain Resort onto the Upper-Upper trail where racers were challenged with a rocky and technical climb. After a ripping curvy section down to Brush Creek Road, racers grunted their way up Strand Hill Road. As the racers ground their way up the races first major climb, it was a painful reminder that this was only a small beginning to the mountains of climbing to come.

After racers complete a clover leaf lap of Farris and Strand trails, then the race truly ripped wide open and the riders clawed their way to the opening climb of Deer Creek. “It would have been cool to be sitting at the top of the climb, looking down on the massive line of riders pushing their bikes up the climb,” says Cat 1 racer Tim Curry.

If you though you have been to some high elevations racing your bike, then you may need to take a look at this race. Riders found themselves at a thin 12,675 feet at it’s high point. One would think after climbing to such an elevation that you would have an epic long downhill to reward you for your efforts. The Deer Creek trail has a very different thing to offer. The 9.7 mile section of single track of the trail has has more climbing the descending.

Once completing the battle of up and down riding of Deer Creek trail, riders were greeted with even more climbing. It may have been good for most riders to not know that they still had an additional 1,000 feet of climbing, even though they could see the ski resort with it’s finish line. Racers hammered their way back up the resort onto the West Side trail. After more than 35 miles and 7,000 feet of climbing, the finish line was the only thing on every racers mind. The rocky technical nature of the trail left many riders cursing in frustration.

This years race was joined in with the Mountain States Cup Wildflower Rush, which made for an exciting weekend. After a long hard day out on the bike, everyone was treated to a free concert from Karl Denson’s Tiny Universe. A nice and relaxing way to end a massive battle of a race.

For complete results, please visit Race MSC

To get a better view of the race course click here

The front of the Pro pack leisurely make their way out Brush Creek Road.	The opening climb up Strand Hill Road was only a small taste of the endless climbing for the day.	The views matched the size of the climbs, BIG!
Brush Creek Road and the surrounding mountains make for a picture perfect landscape for an epic bike race.	Ben Portilla rides with the eye of the tiger- always!	Tim Curry of Crested Butte battles is way up a rocky section of Strand Hill Road.
Riders were challenged by the technical nature of the trails. Even these small rocks on a climb turn into boulders when you are tired.	Riders were greeted with a pleasant view of Teocalli before enjoying the buffed descent of Strand trail.	One racer takes a few mellow pedal strokes through the wildflowers.
The downhill of the Strand trail is one of the Crested Butte classics.	The endless views matched the endless climbing. Here one rider enjoys some buffed curvy downhill.	After killing yourself for hours out in the backcountry, racers climbed their way back onto CMBR to continue their daily dose of climbing.
Even though the race announcer was now within ear shot, racers still had a brutal ride down the West Side trail. It's relentless technical riding made for a hard finish to an even harder race.