By Sean Salazar
The 2016 Eureka Springs Fat Tire Festival was a blast. It was my first year competing in the cross country event and only the second time riding the Lake Leatherwood trail system. I went to pre-ride the course the day before and trail conditions were close to prime. Recent rain had neutralized the dust giving most of the dirt corners a bit of stick (however, a few spots along the trail were comprised of extremely loose gravel or slick rocks). Temperatures promised to soar into the 90s and the dew point was unhealthy.
Skip forward to race day: The Men’s Cat 1 field had 48 starters (the largest in Arkansas). The starting line was in downtown Eureka Springs in front of the Basin Park Hotel. You can imagine that there’s only one way out of there, and that’s up! I started in the first row, but had a less than ideal start due to jostling bars with a rider next to me and not clipping in fast enough. I quickly worked my way up the steep roads of Eureka Springs to put myself in a better position for when we would enter the trail head. I managed to get up to the tail end of the front group of 5 riders by the time we dropped into the trail that would lead us to the Lake Leatherwood trail system. Several downhill switchbacks later and I was getting spit out the back of the group, but I tried to settle into a rhythm that I knew I could maintain safely. I looked down at one point to discover that one of my two bottles must have gone overboard in the hectic start of the race. Oh boy. I was looking at a hard 2-hour race in mid-July heat with three quarters of a bottle of water. At least I hadn’t dropped any gels, so I would just ignore the sure-to-come cotton mouth, I told myself (the saving grace ended up being the tree cover). The trail had been very well-marked, but I was still glad that I pre-rode the course the day before so that I knew what to expect. There was a plethora of switchbacks (downhill and uphill) and you had to approach them with confidence to stay upright and not lose time. I could hear a couple of riders approaching from behind on one of the fast downhills and in my attempt to stay ahead of them until the climbing started, I missed a left-hand turn onto the trail. Three riders passed me. A frustrated uphill sprint to get back on the right track saw me get close to the riders, but I didn’t make contact.
Before the start of the two Cat 1 laps on the north end of the course where most of the major climbs were, I was caught by a few riders; Ben Craig (Walmart) and Will Frank (Tyson Foods) among them. I was able to make up time on the first of the big climbs. Over the next several miles, I started to get some flow and I was feeling good. There were no riders breathing down my neck for the time being. The nice thing about mountain bike racing is that it is like a time trial. There is no strategy or psychological warfare like in road races. Just you against the trail. In the latter portion of the race, I managed to wash out in one gravelly corner and trip carrying my bike up a rock ledge (really the only part of the course where it was faster to hike than ride, in my opinion). Near the end of the race, I rallied back and forth with Caleb Pierce (CARVE), but managed to drop him on the last of the climbs and stay ahead of him on the downhill run into the finish. I broke the 2-hr mark, placing 5th in my age group and 9th overall in the Cat 1 field. Jake Schneidewind (Tyson Foods) finished 4th and 5th, age group and overall, respectively, 5 minutes under the 2-hr mark.
DLT Events took over the promotion of this year’s race and from what I saw from our event, things went very smoothly, giving the event a professional feel. We are very fortunate to have great trail systems like these in Northwest Arkansas. Kudos to folks like the Ozark Off-Road Cyclists (OORC) and Progressive Trail Design for putting in the hours to maintain these trails for all of us.
Thanks for reading and a shout-out to our team sponsors (Tyson Foods, Shoulder Center of Arkansas, The Bike Route, Creative Awards, CLIF BAR) who make it possible for us to compete in these epic races.
The numbers:
Distance: 21.5 miles
Time: 1hr 59min 40sec
Speed: 10.8mph
Avg. Heart Rate: 174bpm
Elevation Gain: 2,625 feet
STRAVA data: https://www.strava.com/
Race results: http://phattirebikeshop.com/page.cfm?pageid=268
Fat Tire Festival website: http://www.fattirefestival.
Thanks for the summary Sean! It sounded like an challenging race. Congrats on your placements!