Friday night before the race, pre-ride...
10 minutes before the race and Jeff wants to check out the Garage Sale. What the??
The front pack at the turn to Rosie's Field. Maxed out at 30+ MPH.
Mile 11, a very large group.
After the Fire Tower Hill, about mile 30. The front pack has splintered at this point. Race On!!
Finish at 2:04, 4 minutes faster than 2008. 9th place, about 19.7 MPH average, race was almost 41 miles this year.
Where the heck was the mud? Flying the Hollywood jersey in the dust.
Son Owen.
Joe and Tim McGrath, Tim and I were teammates back in the 80s. Riding for the Finders, Jeff rode with the Finders jersey for a year.
Jeff, Scott Hebel and Norm (Mike Hall), the Diamond Back / Summit Bike and Sport: Mountain Bike Race Team of the Early 90s.A story from the past...Scott was part of the Diamond Back national level team and Jeff and I each received brand new Diamond Back mountain bikes as part of a regional team. Well in the summer that Jeff turned 16, Scott was living out in Colorado Springs training and racing the National Circuit. He told me, "send Jeff out and I'll show him the mountains". This was in 1992.
Well Jeff would call me every few days and tell me about the racing on the week-ends and the adventures while on training rides in the mountains. One of the training stories that I heard about, was the time they were climbing what must have been a goat trail because it was too steep to ride up. Jeff and Scott were carrying their bikes up and Scott was grabbing for a hand hold and dang near got bit by a rattlesnake. Yeah OK!
His first race was at Monarchs Pass, it was up in the clouds at over 11,000 feet. That was Jeff's first real lesson on racing at altitude, well needless to say he ran out of air that day. Each week became better as he became acclimated to the altitude. Jeff narrowly missed making the USA Jr. National Team that year in Durango, Colorado due to a mechanical misfortune.
Jeff had gone out west for 4 weeks and then I drove out there and trained and raced with those guys for the next 4&1/2 weeks. That was a real lesson on Mountain Biking. We rode on some of those"goat" trails, that I learned a few years later from some locals, they were considered too dangerous for them to ride on. GOOD TIMES!!
That is what the Chequamegon is about, past teammates, buddies, familiar names and faces that over the years have gathered in the north woods surrounding Hayward and Cable, Wisconsin. I raced the Chequamegon in 1985 - 1993. My son Chad raced the Short & Fat 4 times. My wife, Louise has raced 7 times. Jeff has raced the Short and Fat and the 40 mile, 21 times now, so you might say it has been a way of life...each fall. Crazy!!
Congrats to Jake Richards on the Short & Fat men's win. The Halls and Richards racing go back a long ways. Congrats to all the winners and competitors that accomplished their goals. Thanks Chris for your hospitality and a great place to work on Jeff's bike until the wee hours of the morning. Way to beat your goals Chris, in the Short & Fat...
Posted by MJ Hall
