Minnesota Mountain Bike Series

MONT DU LAC – There was no dirt spanking at the annual Mont Du Lac Dirt Spanker south of Duluth on Sunday.

This year, it was just mud.

All mud.

Mud so thick that it choked derailleurs, cranks, wheels and chains to points that they could no longer turn.

Mud so thick that some 20 Comp and Expert riders logged DNFs, because they literally had to walk more than 70 percent of their first lap.

Mud so thick that organizers shortened races by up to 2 laps to ensure all the racing got done. It was taking Expert riders more than an hour to complete just one 5-mile loop.

“It was unfathomably bad,” said Race Director Adam Sundberg. “It was worse than we could ever have imagined.”

It wasn’t just that rain poured on Duluth the entire day before the race. It was that Duluth had been without sun — or temperatures above 60 — for almost a week leading up.

Still, conditions were rideable Saturday night, Sundberg said.

“We thought it would be just some puddles and a little mud at the top,” Sundberg said. “But the trail deteriorated so fast. It just got progressively worse. Mother Nature really pulled a fast one on us.”

Sundberg said he actually had looked early in the week into whether to cancel the race, but weather forecasts had been calling for sun.

“Today was supposed to be sunny,” Sundberg said. “And the race always goes on unless there’s lightning.”

Freewheel Bike Shop racer Bruce Parker waited almost an hour in line to wash his bike after the Citizen race. He finished second in his age group — but not before crashing twice and cracking his helmet in several places.

“It was a mudfest out there,” said Parker, who himself was covered in it. “It was sloppy.”

Ironically, Mont Du Lac’s notorious climbs were the easiest part of the race. The ski area’s new ownership recently retooled the gravel road climbs, so they were essentially mud-free.

Not so with the race course’s infamous roller coaster compressions. The typical thrill-ride twists and turns quickly devolved into greasy death traps, bruising shins and egos alike.

Remarkably, injuries were kept to a minimum, Sundberg said — perhaps by the lack of any real speed.

“Nobody was seriously hurt, but everybody was seriously miserable,” Sundberg said.

For Lisa Heyesen, it was all a big welcome to mountain bike racing: Saturday marked her first-ever mountain bike Race. The Duluth racer had only competed in road events until Sunday.

“It was crazy — like cake batter out there,” Heyesen said. “My friends all told me if you can ride this, you can ride anything.”
 

Troy Melhus is a Saint Paul writer and an expert racer for the Peace Coffee Racing Team. He can be reached at tmelhus@mac.com.