The excitement, anticipation and trepidation are building as we, Joe Rosenhauer, Craig Drozd and I rode our last training ride this past weekend! Mike Kurpinski and Doug Jones were out of town and Alex Zawinsky had alarm clock problems, so they didn’t ride with us, but hopefully they were able to ride on their own. Bill Carroll is always out of town, but that is another story.
Joe a.k.a. “The Rocket”, “Lojack” or “Big Ring” Rosenhauer is currently the favorite to finish first given his first place finish at this year’s Chequamegon Fat Tire 40 race and the blistering pace he has put on during this year’s training rides!!!!
Craig a.k.a. “Chief” Drozd can’t be ruled out to finish first given his heavy training schedule, vast racing experience and many years of good finishes at both the Iceman (first last year) and Chequamegon Fat Tire races (second this year)!!!
Mike a.k.a. “I Love My Bike”, “Retired and Loving It” Kurpinski is a dark horse to be reckoned with given his competitive nature and he kept up with Joe and Craig during one of our 26 mile training rides, that and we think he has been training with Lance Armstrong for Lance’s return to professional racing! ! Given that this is Mike’s first time riding the Iceman it is questionable whether he can overtake Joe and Craig though.
Bill a.k.a. “Billy Goat” Carroll is right in the middle of the mix given his youth, previous racing experiences and last year’s second place finish in the Iceman. Because Bill is located in Atlanta Georgia we really have no idea how the rest of us stack up against him since he isn’t training with us, so he is a little bit unknown but will give Joe, Craig and Mike a run for their money!
Doug a.k.a. “Rhino” Jones has had a rough year this year with a pinched nerve in his neck that has him basically riding with only one good eye and one good arm and only occasionally at that. I say one eye because he can only raise his head up so far and so often which limits his ability to see the trail ahead and anticipate the terrain and one arm because he has no strength and feeling in one arm!!! That forced Doug out of the Chequamegon Fat Tire 40 this year but he is a gamer and will be riding in the Iceman anyway!! Doug is riding his upgraded trusty Barracuda hard tail bike which I firmly believe will cut 5 to 15 minutes off his time from last year’s Iceman when he rode his Giant full suspension bike and could well be enough to offset his medical problem and lack of training and bump me, Dan “Krash” Kiplinger into last place!
Dennis a.k.a. “Chicago”, “Chicago Squared” Kennedy bowed out of the Iceman for the second year in a row. Dennis’ presence will be sorely missed yet again this year as he was one of the most feared “corner” racers around as he was unafraid to mix it up with elbows and the occasional “nudge” to another rider in order to bump them off the trail into the bushes going into hard corners!!
Alex “Race Boy” Zawinsky is a new rider to the group this year and is only riding due to Dennis “Chicago Squared” Kennedy making a huge personal sacrifice to transfer his registration to Alex “Race Boy” Zawinsky who didn’t quite fill out his application correctly and therefore missed getting selected for the race with the rest of us. Alex is a former racer, younger than the rest of us and has been secretly training by pulling a bike trailer with his two kids in it, so he is definitely a threat to win all if he has the stamina to finish and doesn’t crash while trying to keep up a 14 MPH pace!!!
I, Dan “Krash” Kiplinger, will simply be trying to reduce my time from last year and hope that I can finish without crashing and injuring myself (I’d really like to stay married to my wonderful wife, Maureen, and to do that I need to not crash, again). Based on the training rides this year I simply don’t seem to have the horsepower to keep up with my fellow riders, but that is okay, any finish is a good finish and they only get better with (reduced) time. That is a “take off” from my Air Force fighter pilot Dad who says that “any landing you can walk any from is a good landing, some are just better than others”.
And finally, we have an “outsider”, you know, the guy who has never ridden with any of us, doesn’t share any information about his experience, his times, heck not even his bike specifications, the guy who swoops in at the last second and outbids you on eBay, the guy who steals the “bait, food, gold, reward, girl” while everyone else is concentrating on each other and don’t even know he is there, the guy who is many times a “geek” (given that this guy is a former UNIX system administrator and runs the model office and certification lab-he fits that stereotype), the guy WHO—COULD—GO—ALL--THE—WAY, Mike “The Invisible Man” Luibrand. Mike is a complete unknown and, if he isn’t lying and this is in fact his first race, is the guy who could come from out of nowhere and becomes the MVP while winning it all and shocks the rest of us die hard riders!!!
The preliminary weather forecast for the race from Kalkaska to Traverse City is for a 50-60% chance of rain or snow and temperatures only reaching the low forties which means it might be in the thirties at the beginning of the race!!!
I bet you can hardly wait for the Official Mountain Bike Ride Report to come out after the Iceman 28 Mile Mountain Bike Race, now can you?
Sincerely,
Dan “Krash” Kiplinger
“Embedded” in-the-field Correspondent and Editor-in-chief for the “Official Mountain Bike Ride Report”.
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