| Frozen Hog 2009 Once again,
the unpredictable weather made this a memorable Frozen Hog. The
UtahMountainBiking crew had the trail marked five weeks before the race,
but storms, rain, smoggy inversion, and sunny (muddy and slushy)
afternoons all conspired to keep riders from testing the course. 48 hours
before the race, the temperature crossed over to above the freezing mark,
and the rain started. The rain stopped just in time for the race to begin.
Principle sponsors of this event are UtahMountainBiking.com and Racers
Cycle Service. We appreciate the kindness of Alpine City in providing the
facilities and trails. Steve Argyle did the t-shirt art.
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115 riders registered for the 2009 Frozen Hog. 6 couldn't
make it to the race. 13 gave it a shot, but weren't able to finish due to
mechanical stuff or exhaustion. A total of 96 riders finished their laps
and crossed the finish line for an official time. Racers
begin the staging process, ready to head uphill into the shakeout loop.
Racers were started in 4 groups, two minutes apart. |
| The warm weather during the days leading up to the race
melted the snow on the trails of the southern end of Lambert Park. With
the rain preventing an overnight freeze, Bruce Argyle and Ryan Allred
scrambled to re-route the southern half of the course. The new loop used
the High Bench doubletrack southbound, then joined White Dog to Ziggy to
avoid the sensitive portions of Zag and lower Ziggy. Upper Ziggy had to be
dug out of the snow, but the re-marking was complete 20 minutes before
race time. |
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Greg Meyers zooms down the Spring Trail
as he finishes the
doubletrack shakeout loop and heads for the main race loop.
Greg took 2nd place in the Sport Men 30-39 division. |
Sam Moore, winner of the Expert Men
40-plus division,
carefully leans the corner as he heads toward the main loop.
Sam rides for Canyon Bicycles. |
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The temperature was warming quickly as the race began. What
had been hard snow at 6 a.m. became loose traction-stealing grains at the
9 a.m. race start
The doubletrack of the half-mile shakeout loop had been cleared down to
dirt, eight feet wide to allow passing. Lots of work for the race prep
crew...
Once the Expert and Sport classes were on the main race loop, 5 tough
youngsters competed in the 12-and-under class. They rode the shakeout
loop, continued down to Box Elder, then finished with a slushy ride up the
Bowery Road to the finish line.
Hunter Ransom heads down the Spring Trail to grab 2nd
place. Brayden Nielsen, also of the UtahMountainBiking team, took the 1st
place. |
| Most of the trail was good riding. There were some sections
-- formerly nice hardpack -- on the Middle Trail that turned into deep
churn. So you got to enjoy running alongside your bike.
The mud puddles on the High Bench doubletrack created many wet butts
and splattered faces. And the ice ruts sent more than one rider to the
ground. It was, again, a challenging race.
Daniel Nielsen (we think) of the Racers Cycle Service
team finishes the rough Lambert Luge section and cranks toward the
Lap/Finish point on the Spring Trail. Love the Argyle socks. |
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Racer Gibson of Racers Cycle
Service flies over the hardpack
northbound as he finishes a lap. Three long trips around the
bigger tougher Expert loop for 3rd in Expert Men 30-39. |
Heather Gilbert heads into the
Middle Trail with Lone
Peak in the background. Heather took 1st place in
Expert Women, doing the same distance as the guys. |
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The "rain-emergency" course re-route cut some
distance off the Sport race, but it was still a brutal workout. The
fastest time for Sport distance was our Singlespeed winner, Brad Keyes
with a blazing time of 47:28 for two laps.
Experts faced a steep doubletrack up to the wilderness boundary, then
combined Corkscrew and White Dog before rejoining the main loop. The
fastest Expert finisher, the official race winner and recipient of a
2-night stay in Moab, was Adam Heckman riding for Racers Cycle Service
team 2.
Jason Sparks from Brigham City heads over the hump at
the Laps/Finish junction. Jason rides for the Frozen Hog's third-place
team UtahMountainBiking.com. |
| One of the meanest spots on the entire race was the slushy
climb up the road to the Bowery and the finish line. Yeah, it's a paved
road, so what's the big deal? Amazingly, many riders made the climb with
their feet on the pedals.
At the finish line, volunteers from the
UtahMountainBiking race team pulled tags, called the rider numbers and
times, and recorded the race results. The Frozen Hog banner and goalposts
have seen a few years of action. |
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| First-place winners got merchandise certificates from Racers Cycle
Service. 2nd and 3rd place finishers got certificates to Crystal Hot
Springs. Everybody got a quick-patch kit, as well as a loot bag that
included some new nutrition products and, of course, the official Frozen
Hog t-shirt. Racers Cycle Service gets to put the big ugly Frozen Hog team
trophy in their shop with their winning team of Kenny Jones, Chucky
Gibson, Dan Nelson, and Brad Keyes. |
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Kenny Jones crosses the finish
line in 2nd place for
Expert Men 40-plus, riding it on a singlespeed.
There's a little dirty water on that Racers Cycle jacket. |
Racers Cycle fielded two
separate 4-man teams, finishing
first and second in the team competition. They get the
trophy for the next year, for their 4th team victory. |
| This year's Frozen Hog also featured a raffle to benefit the
American Fork Cancer Center in the name of Ryan Winters, who is now out of
the hospital after a bone marrow transplant to treat Hodgkin's Lymphoma.
Steve Winters gave an update on his son's condition, and said the money
would be used for a blanket-warmer to take the chill of patients as they
receive their outpatient chemotherapy infusions.
Jolene Nosack won the K2 Attack mountain bike, and has a teen daughter
who can use it. We raffled off a ton of swag from Lizard Skins, Bike Peddler,
Timpanogos Cyclery, Grand Targee, Al's Cycles in Logan, plus three additional motel stays in Moab. |
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| Volunteer |
Organization |
Role |
| Ryan Allred |
UMB race team |
Trail routing, digging, and marking. Finish line
recorder. |
| Bruce Argyle |
UtahMountainBiking.com |
Trail layout, trail marking, trail preparation
(shovel), race site prep, starter, medical standby, finish line caller, award announcer,
cleanup, video editor, web page assembler. |
| Kristen Argyle |
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Video recording |
| Steve Argyle |
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Frozen Hog t-shirt design. |
| Mike Both |
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Swag bags, finish line racer time documentation, cleanup. |
| Dominic Bria |
UtahMountainBiking.com |
Site prep, course marshal, awards, cleanup. |
| Mike Engberson |
UtahMountainBiking.com |
Race coordinator, t-shirt sponsor logos,
on-line registration, race site prep, trail preparation (shovel and
snowblower), check-in, racer times, head
judge, awards, final race results, cleanup. |
| Jay Griffin |
UMB race team |
Trail prep, photography, cleanup. |
| Dale Hutchings |
UMB race team |
Trail prep, swag bags, course marshal, cleanup. |
| Ben Hutchings |
UMB race team |
Checkin, racer time transcription. |
| Sally Hutchings |
UMB race team |
Swag bags, finish-line recorder, cleanup. |
| Ryan Nielsen |
UMB race team |
Video recording |
| Kris Nosack |
UMB race team |
Trail prep, race direction, photos,
cleanup. |
| Derek Ransom |
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Trail prep |
| Richard Williams |
UMB race team |
Heater for pavilion, racer check-in, finish line, cleanup. |
| Steve Winters |
UMB race team |
Check-in, finish line tag puller. |
| MORE PEOPLE... |
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Who did stuff... If we
missed you, drop me a line! |
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