Fat Bikes, Snowy Rides

When you think about the last big bike ride of the season around these parts, you don’t picture it happening in March. But that’s exactly what’s taking place at the Fat Bike Birkie in Cable on the 8th.

The annual race is the one time each year when bikes are allowed to ride on the course at the American Birkebeiner Ski Trails. As you may have deduced by the name, priority is given to skiers on the groomed trails during the winter. But Spring Fever does strange things to a recreation facility management board, and winter cyclists get to reap the benefits of their seasonal madness.

If you hung up your 10-speed around the time you got your driver’s license, fat bikes are the ones that look like mountain bikes with comically large tires. They’re made to ride on soft terrain, like sand and snow.

There are three different rides competitors can choose from during the Fat Bike Berkie, the Big Fat 47K Race, the Half Fat 21K Race and the Fun Fat 10K Tour.

The phone was off the hook at the Drink Wisconsinbly Department Snow Depth Monitoring Department when we called regarding the current accumulations, so we’re just going to go ahead and assume the conditions are ideal for a bike race on snow.

If you didn’t spend the winter growing a big fat tire around your midsection and want to participate, there’s still time to sign up. Registration closes the day before the race. Just don’t get any funny ideas about joining in on your mountain bike because this is a fat bike-only race.

We’re not sure what they’re serving in terms of refreshments, but they’re sponsored by Earth Rider Brewery and cyclists are usually pretty fun when the pedaling and shouting “On your left!” stops, so it’s also worth checking out if you’re not the competitive type.

You can learn more about the race at the event’s website. Good luck to all the participants. And have a nice time, all of you spectators.