As I sit here watching our mountain bike season come to a close I realize that things are going to get tougher and tougher as the winter goes on. Days are going to get shorter and riding a couple of hours a day on the trainer is not my idea of a fun filled afternoon. I understand that training all winter indoors is a major part of the sport, I’m just saying that I’m not looking forward to it.

Sure, there’s still skiing and all other winter sports to keep me in prime fighting conditioning, but the truth is, nothing really gets my heart pounding like mountain biking does. So as our last race of the season approaches I start to think about how quickly the season has passed us by and how we need to ride as much as we can until the weather hits the fan.

The fact is that I have only raced in three races this season and am very much looking forward the our next and final race of the season. The race is called “The Iceman Cometh Challenge” and as just as the name alleges, “The Iceman” is raced under any weather condition. Being that we are in Northern Michigan, any condition means just that. “The Iceman” has been raced in weather from 60 degrees to 6″ of snow on the ground. This legendary 28 mile point to point race has been noted as a road race on dirt. The start is fast and the pace stays fast.  Many of my mountain biking friends have raced in it in past years, but this is my first attempt at it.  According the the “Iceman” website, this race attract racers from all over North America, including Canada and ages of up to 82 years old. The race supposedly has 4500 registrants enrolled in the race and I speculate that all of them are ready to race. Racing on two tracks, singletracks and abandoned fire roads is going to be a change from all of the mountain riding we have been doing most of the season and I’m looking forward to it. My training for next two weeks is going to include a mixture of road riding, mountain training and unfortunately due to the weather, indoor training, just to assure that I am as ready to race as all the other racers coming to the party.

By the way, speaking of parties, the after party for this race is purportedly one of the biggest parties of the season, especially in our mountain biking circle. Hopefully you all can come and either race, cheers us on, or just party your tails off.

T.Stone