Race Report: Nordic Trail Festival 2014 By Brian Fiske

 This isn’t really a typical race report: My wife and I brought our kids to the Nordic Trail Fest in Presque Isle for a couple of days of fun and camping in the County with like-minded, bike-minded people. We were there to explore the trails together more than race, but DH, biathlon, and a 6-hour event can be hard to pass up….

 

The kids stole the show

Friday’s fun started with the DH at Quoggy Jo (just around the corner from the Nordic Heritage Center), on trails newly built by Rose Bike Racing’s own Eli Shank. Two trails, lowest combined time wins. Times were fast (hey, Quoggy Jo’s not a huge hill) but each trail had a good flow and at least one unique feature to think through. Kudos to Eli for a job well done—and for winning the event, too. Other Rosers include Matt Scott, who overshot a jump and still managed 4^th place, and yours truly who endoed on trail 2 (don’t ask) and got 7^th.

 

Me having a blast on the downhill course

Early Saturday morning was family ride time, at least for us. We cruised a number of green and blue trails; the Enchanted Forest section was a real favorite, with garden sculptures, dangling gnomes, and the pig on a tree. Really, a perfect start to the day. The trails at the Nordic Center are very well done. 

We finished in time for me to jump on the tail end of the shooting practice for the biathlon—so why not? There weren’t many competitors, which was surprising because it sure sounded fun: Three fast loops, with a five-target shoot at the end of the first two loops and a short penalty loop for each missed target. It reminded me of a short track race—one big sprint—but with shooting. I was second into the woods and managed to keep that position to the finish, despite missing 4 out of five targets on the first round. Hey, I hit four out of five on lap two!

Next up was the kids race, and my kids bailed on it! They were too busy having fun at the campsite, riding around the biathlon track, checking out the demo fat bike, playing games, and generally having their own fun (including a custom face painting of an orange monkey for my daughter).

 

And that brings us to the main event: The 6-hour race. Fun to watch, and based on what I was hearing, even more fun to ride. The roughly 8-mile loop was a good mix of technical climbing/downhill and fast flowing trail. Rose Bike racers excelled—Corey Odermann rocketed from the start, pulling down the fastest lap time of the entire event and setting he and teammate Jeremy Porter up for a Duo Men victory. Here’s how the Rose crew did (and my apologies if I missed anyone):



Eli nuff said

 

Jeremy Porter and Corey Odermann (1^st, Duo Men)

Eliza Cronkite (2^nd, Solo Women)

Abe Furth (3^rd, Solo)

Matt Scott and Cory Adams (4^th, Duo Men)

Craig MacDonald (6^th, Solo)

Scott Johnson (11^th, Solo)

Eli Shank (12^th, Solo)

 

Tyler Peabody (20th, Solo)

Jeremy Bousquet (26^th, Solo)

 

After the race, there were campfires, beverages supplied by Tumbledown Brewing, live music by Muddy Ruckus, more beverages, and lots of talk: about the race, high and low points, what might have been, and what the strategy might be for next year. Hopefully we’ll see you there!