What it Takes
Becoming a World Champion
Bryan cinched down the rubber straps on the bike rack on his Subaru. “Good to go,” he said. We piled into the car and set off towards Talkeetna. We would park at the Whigmi parking lot today. I would find out later that Whigmi is an acronym; What Have I Got Myself Into...interesting.
We were training for the Talkeetna Trio Fat Tire World Championships and we were headed out for our second training run of the season. We knew the trail would be soft today, and that we probably had a hard day of pedalling ahead of us, but we also knew that becoming a champion isn’t always easy; Becoming a world champion, we figured is probably even harder still. We discussed that regular garden-variety champions would probably be content completing just one training session before a race, but for a world champion it should probably be more like two or three. Good talk.
Less than a mile into our ride I got a flat. “Shit.” The slow leak that I’d known about had advanced to a not-so-slow leak and we knew that we shouldn’t proceed. We weighed our options and decided to retreat back to the Subaru, then back to my house to swap out for a new inner tube. I grabbed the small pump out of my bag and pumped up the tire just enough to be able to limp back to the car. This was clearly a non-championship moment. It felt good to get it out of the way before the race.
Sure enough after inspecting the inner tube in my garage Bryan noticed a previous shoddy patch job of mine had busted open causing air to leak out. We installed the new tube, aired it up and headed back down the road again. “This feels like dejavu,” I said as I chewed on a piece of Bryan’s moose jerky.
“It’s a good thing the flat tire happened now and not at the World's,” Bryan said. FYI athletes that compete at the highest level of a sport sometimes refer to world championships simply as the world’s.
Eventually we were able to pick up where we left off and managed to put in a solid 12-mile ride that included a variety of terrain. The best riding on this day was next to the road on packed snow machine trails. What would the trail conditions be for the race? I wondered.
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| A cool app called Relive charted our course. |
Elite athletic competitions from around the globe have a myriad of qualifying standards that determine who is allowed to compete. The Olympics, for example is well known for holding qualifying events leading up to the games. In professional sports, such as basketball and hockey, it’s bracketed tournaments that determine who can play for the final championship game.
It might surprise you to learn that to qualify for the Talkeetna Trio Fat Tire World Championships all we needed was a credit card. Don’t tell anyone but it’s true; We bought our way into the world’s. After we pressed the submit button on the registration page we knew that we were committed. champions are like that; Plus, in fine print at the bottom it said “no refunds.” As I read all of the details about the race I was glad to see that there is no penalty for walking up any of the big hills. Champions will do whatever it takes even if it means getting off the bikes and walking.
I am grateful that a couple of dark horses, like Bryan and myself, can step into the limelight of such a prestigious event as complete underdogs. The stage is now set for (possibly) one of the biggest upsets in international sporting history. It is a world championship after all. I hope the trophies aren’t too big for the bike rack on Bryan’s Subaru.
Okay, back to reality. Truth-be-told, our approach to the race is much different; We plan to tour the course, smell the roses along the way (frozen as they may be) and, by golly, have some fun. We are not very fast (at all) and commonly refer to our combined participation in the race as “Team Tugboat.” Did I mention the free beer at the after party?
This will be the fifth running of the Trio and we are excited to be a part of it. The race itself is dedicated to the memory of local Talkeetnan, Mike Sterling, who was an avid year-round biker and family man. Sadly Mike passed away with liver disease. I was fortunate to have had Mike’s two kids in school at SuValley and I know that he would be very proud of who they have become in adulthood. In addition, his passion for biking lives-on through this race and I’m sure he would be amazed at how much fat tire biking has taken-off in the Talkeetna area. Our local trails are extensive and beautiful. It’s like we have our own Kincaid Park right here in Talkeetna.
The course starts and ends on Main Street in downtown Talkeetna, right in front of Denali Brewing (a major sponsor of the race) . Bryan and I will be competing in the 20 mile race. There is also a 40, and 60 mile division. Maybe one day we will strive to tackle the longer races but for now we will be content competing in the twenty miler at the worlds. God that sounds awesome.
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| Subaru bike rack |
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| Fresh pow is a good kickstand |
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| Team Tugboat taking a small rest |
