The Alaska Grinder - 27th May 2017 - Report by Alex

Fresh from the Alaska Grinder 2017, our teammate Alex took the time to write a little report.

Head over to the link to read all about it. Congratulations Alex, the ride sounds epic.

Report from Alex


First road events of the season - Late April 2017

Randonneuring 100/200K in Talkeetna - 22nd April 2017

The road riding season kicked off at 9am in Talkeetna with the 100K and 200K Brevets. The riders were treated to swept roads and a blue sky day to enjoy their rides.

Riders at the event 

Mike - 100k
Alex - 200k
Brant - 200k
Nick - 200k
Oscar - 200k
Tim - 200k

Team mates Brant, Tim, Nick and Oscar. At Denali South View
other ride is Mark

Moose Run TT - 22nd April 2017

Moose Run TT is the classic opener for the Arctic Bike Road Racing division. This year didn't disappoint with some fast times being put down by our team members. 

Intermediate Women 

Kelsey - 3rd Place

Intermediate Men 

Tom - 6th Place

James - 7th Place

Master Men (45+) 

Pete - 5th Place

Full results

Potter Hill Climb - 25th April 2017

Potter Hill Climb is another classic ride to open up the hill climb series. Due to conditions riders were treated to the full monty event and got to partake in all 3miles of SUPER POTTER! The climb has an average gradient of 8% and climbs to roughly 1200ft.

James

Brant

Tom

Kelsey

Our team mates did great and put in some great baseline times for the start of the season.

Intermediate Men

James - 4th 

Brant - 8th

Tom - 10th 

Intermediate Women

Kelsey - 3rd

Full results 

Winter Race reports from team members

These are the winter races that didn't get their own blog page.

Iditarod Trail Invitational 

Our fearless team leader Clint, once again rode an awesome race at the Iditarod Trail Invitational.  

Clint finished in 4th place.
full results here

Clint at 2017 ITI start - Photo Credit Laura Fox

From Clint

ITI part 1

ITI part 2

White Mountains 100

Both Tim and Oscar were up riding the WM100 this year.

Tim at WM100 - Photo Credit Ryan Greeff

Oscar at WM100 - Photo Credit Laura Fox

Results - WM100

Tim 19th Place 11:49

Oscar 26th Place 12:23 

Full results here

From Oscar

White Mountains 100 report 

Trio in Talkeetna - 11th March 2017 - Fun in the sun

11th March 2017 saw the 5th edition of the Trio Fatbike World Championships put on by one of our sponsors Speedway Cycles in conjunction with Backcountry Bike and Ski.

The race takes place in Talkeetna and consists of a 20 mile lap format. There are three race distances 60 mile, 40 mile and 20 mile. The 40 and 60 mile racers start at 9am, the 20mile racers start at midday. Around 1/2 way through the lap there is an aid station aka party station with refreshments.
For the 60/40 mile racers the first lap the course was in pretty good shape though a little soft in places, it deteriorated a little by lap two and was completely decimated in places after the 20mile racers headed out onto the course. This made for some tough racing for everyone out on the course.
This year the race was held in very pleasant temperatures which ensured lots of people hung out at the aid station.

Snapshots from the race



60/40 mile start line - Photo Credit George Stransky

Nick with Laura following early on lap 2 - PC Tim Berntson

Nico Lap two - PC Ryan Greeff

Laura enjoying a downhill lap 2 - PC Ryan Greeff

Oscar fighting the fish at the aid station - Photo Credit Ryan Greeff

Clint heading to aid station - PC Ryan Greeff

Oliver winning the 20 mile event - Photo Credit George Stransky

Brant finishing - PC George Stransky

Stew end of lap two - PC Rob Cushman

Results 

Revolution did great, we had a great combination of people racing and people supporting.   

Full results can be found here
20 mile event 

Oliver - 1st place 

40 mile event

Brant - 10th place

60 mile event 

Nico - 4th place

Laura - 6th place (1st women)

Nick - 8th place

Oscar - 12th place

Stew -  15th place

A huge thanks must go out to all the family and friends of the team who made the trip up to Talkeetna to give their support, we riders really appreciate it.

Finally this event really does rock! It wouldn't be what is is without the local support of Speedway Cycles and Backcountry bike and ski. Thanks to local bike shops for putting on such a great event.

Until next time all, keep it rubber side down. 

Fat Bike State Champs - 4th March 2017 - Fast, firm and fun at Kincaid

Saturday the 4th March 2017 was the Abominable Snow Series Fatbike State Championship.
It was the final round of the series for winter 2016/17 and we were treated to a fast, firm and fun course.
The course consisted of 1.4 miles of mulituse trail followed by 3.4 miles of sweet singletrack before rejoining the multiuse to either complete the race or continue for a second or third lap.
Beginners raced 1 lap, sport 2 laps and experts 3 laps.
Revolution racing was fielding riders in both sport and expert categories, congratulations team mates you all did great.
Thanks to the organisers for putting on a fun series, it must be tough getting permits and worrying about the snow conditions when you plan these events months in advance. We all appreciate all that goes into these events.

Team Results

Sport Men

Bruce - 5th Place

Alex - 7th Place

Sport Women

Mara - 1st Place

Expert Men

Nick - 3rd Place

Oliver - 9th Place

Photos

Here are a few snapshots of the team, all take by Nathaniel Bannish.

Nick lap 1 - PC Nathaniel Bannish

Oliver lap 1 - PC Nathaniel Bannish

Bruce lap 1 singletrack - PC Nathaniel Bannish

Mara finishing singletrack end lap 2 - PC Nathaniel Bannish

Alex finishing singletrack end lap 2 - PC Nathaniel Bannish

Team photo post race. 

Mara Podium shot - PC Nathaniel Bannish

Nick Podium shot - PC Nathaniel Bannish

2017 Susitna 100 -18th February 2017 - Soft trail edition

The Susitna 100 and Little Susitna 50K didn't disappoint this year. With warmer temps, soft conditions and recent snowfall the course really kicked our butts. But that didn't stop Nico, Laura and Stew from heading out onto the lakes, swamps and river beds of the Susitna valley for the Susitna 100.
Alex, Brant, Mike, Oliver, Danielle and Clinton all put in a hard afternoon ride in the Little Su 50k.

The Su100 and Little Su50k start from Martin Buser's Happy Trails Kennel where you even get to meet the legend Buser himself!
For the Su100 you head out to Pt. McKenzie road, over to Flathorn Lake via the Gasline trail. After Flathorn you cross the Dismal Swamp and drop on down to the river. Up, up, up the river until you get to Corral Hill near Deshka Landing. From there you drop down the east leg of the Willow Swamp Loop to Old Hunter Trail. After that, the Big Swamp to Cow Lake, across the many Butterfly Lakes and cross the Little Susitna River one final time to Hunter Camp tent. Then it's a solid 9-11 miles to the finish back at the Kennel around 100 miles later.
The Little Su50k starts at the same location two hours after the Su100 and heads out along the same route to start before turning right instead of left to complete a roughly 30mile loop hitting the far side of Cow Lake before heading back to the start via the hunter camp tent. 

Check out this article. Our teammate Laura Fox and some of our favorite cyclists Christina Grande and Superal Mitchell were featured.

ADN Article: Susitna 100 delivers major winter challenge for cyclists, skiers, runners

ADN Article: After 31 miles of tough pedaling, a fierce finishing sprint settles Little Su 50

Little Su 50km Results

Clinton Hodges:  3rd Place

Danielle Dalton:  10th Place (Second Place Women)

Oliver Sternicki:  22nd Place

Brant Grifka: 25th Place
Alex Ippoliti:  36th Place

Mike Schechter:  Participant

Su 100 Results 

Nico Baudin:  4th Place

Laura Fox:  5th Place (First Place Woman)

Mark Stewart:  46th Place

Nico, Stew and Laura all look happy to be lining up for the start.

Look at all those crazies. Little did they know they were riding off into a big fluffy pile of snow!

Danielle really enjoys soft snow!

Oliver is asking himself why he keeps doing this to himself. 

Brant looked happy to finish up!

Alex at the finish of the 50k

Nico and Laura close in on Eagle Quest Lodge which is approx. 60 miles into the race looking fresh!

These two really don't like riding in the snow. After 14 some hours they decided they had enough and finished in 4th and 5th place overall. Laura was the first woman to finish.

Super D - Duze Downhill - 11th February 2017 - Soft and unconsolidated when off line.

Saturday saw the running of the Super D - Duze Downhill put on by Chain Reaction Cycles. This year the course started at Prospect heights and ended at the Ball Fields at Elmore, taking in regularly used singletrack like the hive and baseball boogie and some not so used trails like Gas line as well as the multiuse trails in between.

The course was around 5.7 miles long and lost roughly 1000ft of elevation, some of which was fairly gentle and other parts were steep and loose. The whole course punished you if you made a slightly off line choice. 

I was out supporting for this race and watched a number of riders wipe out on the first descent towards me. 

Revolution racing had one team member racing and he did great.

Congratulations Oliver on your 5th place finish on what was a tough course. You looked fast, smooth and in control when you passed me.

Oliver at the first corner

Full results

Icy River Rampage - 4th February 2017 - Some Icy sections on the river and a very bumpy return.

Saturday the 4th February 2017 was the 5th edition of the Icy River Rampage held at Eagle River Nature Centre. This year we were back at the ERNC again due to favourable conditions on the river after a year absence. This years event was also a sell out for the first time with 100 riders turning up for the event.
The course started at the nature centre and works its way downhill to the river via the nature center trails, we are not allowed to ride on these trails outside of this race so its a real treat to ride them. Once on the river we were on a meandering snow machine track which had a couple of two way sections. The course had a couple of icy spots on the river and although rideable without studs having them was a real advantage.
After around 7 miles on the river headed up a steep incline back onto the ERNC trails before turning right and hitting the moose (single) track section of the course which provided both a technical climb and a rough descent.
At around 10.4 miles we hit the smoother ERNC trails again and cruised along before either finishing the lap around 11 miles or heading out for another lap.

Once again the ERNC team had put together an interesting and challenging course for all the racers.
A huge thanks to the organisers for putting on a great event, the BBQ post race is a really great way to end the ride.

Results

11 mile

John - 14th Place

22 mile 

Nico - 5th Place

Clint - 7th Place

Nick - 8th  Place

Laura - 11th Place (2nd Women)
Oliver - 12th Place
Stew - 18th Place
Bob - 29th Place
Brant - 30th Place

Oscar - 32nd Place

Full results can be found at the following link

Photographs

Colin was out taking photos of the racers. 

From his facebook post "If you comment or message me your bib # I will see if I have any photos of you. I will also set up a link on my site to purchase a full-res digital copy or print."

Cheers,

Colin

www.colintyler.com

http://www.colintyler.com/news/2017/2/4/icy-river-rampage-2017

Here is a great one of Bob to tempt you to get in touch with him.

Frosty Bottom - 14th January 2017 - Riding the rail edition

Saturday the 14th January 2017 was the 11th edition of the Frosty Bottom For this years race there were a couple of minor changes. Gone was the one way version of the Frosty 25 being replaced with an out and back to goose lake from the chalet. The event was also a bike only event rather than a bike, ski or run event as it has been in previous editions. Finally we had short uphill start which ensured open racing down the final climb on the coastal trail rather than a neutral start. 

The Frosty has become a very fast race for many riders with hard packed conditions the previous couple of years a pace line forms and it is effectively a road race on snow bikes. This year there was a different kind of pace line.... With 4" to 8" of fresh snow falling the night before the event conditions were soft to say the least. How soft? Well for the 50 event the lead pack reached the 1/2 way point around the same time that they had completed the course last year. Many riders had to walk/run sections which they previously roll through at high speed. 

To say it was a race of attrition would be an understatement with many riders cramping up or struggling to get the correct nutrition down whilst riding a rut for the whole 26/43 miles. 

Congratulations to all the riders who even started the event with the fresh snow on the ground. You all rock!

Thanks to the organisers for putting on a great event and the addition of the aid station at goose lake was very beneficial for this rider on the return :-)

Results

Full results can be found here

Frosty 25 Men 

Oliver - 3rd Place

Frosty 25 Women

Mara - 3rd Place

Frosty 50 Men

Nico - 7th Place

Clint - 13th Place

Brad - 15th Place

Nick - 21st  Place

Brant - 29th  Place

Frosty 50 Women

Laura - 2nd Place

Frosty Sweep

Bruce

Awards Photos 

Photo credit Janus Reyes

Frosty 25 Men
1st James, 2nd David, 3rd Oliver

Frosty 25 Women
1st Amber, 2nd Shannon, 3rd Mara

Frosty 50 Women
1st Megan, 2nd Laura, 3rd Jill