Winter Iowa Games: Winter Bike Race Recap

Many of my readers may not know this, but the Cedar Valley (specifically the Waterloo/Cedar Falls area, where I currently reside) has been a booming location for cycling for some time now. Thanks to forward-thinking citizens, politicians, non-profits, and of course independently owned bike shops, the interest in cycling only seems to be increasing with each new year. In 2009, Cedar Falls was the first city in Iowa to be recognized by the American League of Bicyclists as a Bicycle Friendly Community, and in 2013, their BFC bronze-level status was renewed for another 4 years. A combination of these items and the fact that Waterloo/Cedar Falls is conveniently located in central, northeast Iowa are most-likely some of the reasons why the Iowa Games Foundation decided to host their first ever "Winter Bike Race" event right here in Waterloo, Iowa. Under the director of Brent Johnson (of CVAST and Bike Tech), the event went off without a hitch.

A coworker and I were lucky enough to both have the day off from the shop and so we decided to attend the event. The initial plan was to ride and race my tried-and-true Surly Karate Monkey 29er mountain bike (shown below), equipped with wide, 2.35" studded tires, however, with the area receiving a decent amount of snow in the hours leading up to the event, a monkey wrench was thrown into the mix.

The Karate Monkey, stripped of its fenders on the eve of the event

Not fully taking into the account the reality of the recent snow accumulation, my coworker and I naively headed to the event by bike. It was when we arrived just outside of George Wyth State Park that we realized our mistake. I had not fully thought out our mode of transportation. In the non-winter months, the trail we planned on taking is a paved trail and allows for quick and easy access to part of the park that we were headed to. In the winter months, however, these trails are usually covered with many inches of snow where they are groomed for cross-country ski and snowshoe use. Because of this and the recent snow accumulation, the trails were basically not rideable on a traditional mountain bike.

Our journey started at the left arrow. Satellite imagery courtesy of Google 

We wanted to be respectful of the established XC ski and snowshoe trails, so we decided to hop off and walk along side our bikes in order to do as little harm to the groomed trails as possible. Luckily for us, a nice view accompanied us on our walk.

A beautiful winter day in Iowa, not too cold and hardly any wind.

Once we arrived at the event, we did a quick inspection of the course to be ridden for the race. Within minutes, my coworker, James, and I agreed that there was no way we were going to be able to participate on the bikes we rode. But fortunately, there is a type of bicycle that is intended for these types of conditions, and the kind folks from Quality Bicycle Products / Surly Bikes were on-site allowing participants to demo some of their bikes. With them they brought their venerable Pugsley model in a variety of sizes and spec. configurations. And as luck would have it, James, and I arrived just in-time to scoop up the last remaining Pugsleys in our respective sizes.

The steed that I had the privilege of riding in Saturday's event 

Shortly after securing our rides for the race, we headed to the shelter where registration was taking place. After filling out the appropriate waivers and handing over our entrance fees, we rushed to the starting line where the first group was about to take off.

The first group of riders taking off. Photo courtesy of Dale Waack

Immediately after the race had started, I could tell that the Pugsley was a much more appropriate tool for the job. The larger footprint that you put on the ground with a bicycle like this makes a world a difference when riding on snow. Traction and grip become much more of a reality, and once you select the appropriate low gear, you feel like you can ride through just about anything. But this type of riding does not come without a little bit of a learning curve. There is a great deal of skill involved in order to successfully ride through mixed, snowy conditions. The rider may have to adopt a different riding style. This type of riding relies heavily on a low-gear, high-cadence type of riding. In addition, the rider must remain seated for a majority of the ride, as shifting your weight even slightly in sketchy conditions, could result in a loss of traction and kill your momentum. I also found that despite the massive width of the tires on a bicycle like this, the bike still prefers to be ridden on somewhat of a packed-down line and most of the riders agreed that the course seemed to get better as the event went on because it meant more and more riders were packing-down the snow.

At the end of the event, there was a small awards ceremony, where James and I were both surprised to receive medals for 1st and 2nd place in our age-group (20-29), within our category (Citizen's race). This was mostly due to the low participation rate in our category/age-group but it was still a pleasant surprise.

Following the awards ceremony, James and I began looking for the possibility of hitching a ride home with one of the other attendees. We were getting quite cold from being outside a good chunk of the day and with the sun setting in just a couple of hours, we weren't looking to walk our bikes most of the way home. Quick to our feet, we decided to mix it up and take a detour on our way home. We decided on taking Airline Highway, a road just north of town, which added a considerable amount of distance to the route, but allowed for us to ride, rather than walk along side our bikes.

James and I riding back on Airline Highway

Once we arrived back into town, James suggested that we stop by Pablo's, which I felt was an excellent idea since we were both famished. We both consumed arguably some of the largest burritos that can be had in the Cedar Valley and then continued on our separate ways to our homes.

Pablo's is known in the area for their burritos of massive proportions

With 35 registered riders, I'd consider the first annual Winter Iowa Games "Winter Bike Race" a huge success. Smiles were everywhere at the event and there were many generous comments directed to the crew that put the event on. I, myself, am very happy that I was able to participate in the event and I look forward to what next year has to bring!

For a massive album of photos of the event by local photographer, Dale Waack, be sure to join the CVAST group on Facebook.

If you have any comments, questions, or corrections, please feel free to leave them in the comments section below!

-Jonathan, PedalBound