Is Canada ready for a national fat bike championships?

by Peter Hein

Jack Sasseville, race director of the Milky Way Intergalactic Fat Bike Championships and former cross-country ski national coach, was thrilled with the turn out for this first fat tire championship on March 8. It is his goal to make this event a national championship event sanctioned by Cycling Canada and the Ontario Cycling Association.

Fat bike racing is the new kid on the block gaining recognition and a dedicated following. Fat bikes have been around for about a decade and, in the last two years, have captured the imagination of the cycling mainstream because of their versatility in winter snow conditions.

The fat bike was born in the extreme northern wilderness trails of Anchorage, Alaska. These trails needed a bike with a wide tire contact patch in order to travel over the snow that covered them. It was the Iditarod Trail Invitational in Alaska that brought awareness to the hard-core adventurers and athletes looking for an all-terrain bike that they could ride during the long, drawn-out winter.

During the past two years, fat tire race series have made there presence well-known in Idaho, Michigan,Wisconsin, Colorado and Utah. As a result of this blossoming interest for fat bike racing, the inaugural U.S.A. fat bike championships (which are unsanctioned) was born in Ogden, Utah, in 2014. Legendary pro mountain biker Ned Overend won on the snow-covered 30-km course at Powder Mountain Resort, That same day, Amanda Miller of Pepper Place Pro Cycling defeated Rebecca Rusch in the first-ever women’s competition. Due to the success of the inaugural race, this years U.S.A. fat bike championships was sanctioned by the USA Cycling as a national event.

The one of the first grassroots fat bike championships in Canada is Sasseville’s playfully named Milky Way Intergalactic Fat Bike Championships, which was held at Hardwood Bike and Ski just north of Barrie, Ont. More than 60 riders came to the line with pumped tires and pumped-up attitudes to contest the 15-km and 30-km courses, which featured hard-packed snow, hills and singletrack. After a gruelling two-hour ride in the 30-km event, the winners were declared. Richard Pady, a former pro triathlete, won the men’s race with a time of 1:44:09. Winner of the women’s 15-km race with a time of 1:26:41 was Holly McLean a Hardwood ski instructor.

While fat bike events are still a grassroots event, they may have the traction to go all the way to the Olympic Games as a winter event.