Dressed in full winter gear, 65 bikers took to the Mill Creek Nature Park Trail in Riverview, N.B., Sunday afternoon for the inaugural Fatbike Race and Poker Run.
One competitor, Eric MacKenzie said he’ll be keeping his eye on his time, but his main goal is to have fun.
“Fatbiking is kind of a science of riding on the snow,” MacKenzie said. “You have to ride like a butterfly sometimes and you have to fly like a bee.”
Adam Douthwright is one of the organizers of the Fatbike Race and Poker Run. He said they’ve been planning the event for a year.
“We tried to get a race going last year but it was too short notice,” said Douthwright. “We were expecting like 35 [competitors]. We would have been super happy with 35 and so yea, 65 not expected at all and we’re very happy with it.”
Thanks to the high turnout, Douthwright said they were able to give almost everyone a prize and increase the podium prizes for the winners.
“Everybody is racing, but we’re also handing out poker cards the first lap so racers will keep them in their pocket and then best hand wins,” Douthwright said.
An eight-kilometre trail was mapped through the park for the event. Competitors had a chance to do one, two or three laps during the race. Douthwright said the goal was to showcase the local trails and grow the fatbike community.
“All these racers, a lot of them have never even ridden here, so they get to see the trail and maybe they’ll come back and word spreads maybe next year we’ll get 100 people,” said Douthwright.
Greg Scott drove in from Petitcodiac, N.B., to compete on Sunday. He said he’s too old to win, but that won’t stop him from participating.
“Mountain biking is in my blood,” Scott said. “It’s in my culture. It saved my life basically. I’m a two-time cancer survivor so when I get on a bike I don’t think about anything but the trail, the comradery, the fun.”
Adam Cook took up fatbiking during the COVID-19 pandemic. The fatbike race, which was designed for riders of all levels, was his first.
“I spend a lot of time in the park so I figured why not give it a try and see how it goes,” said Cook.
MacKenzie has been fatbiking for six years. He said he remembers making mountain bike trails at Mill Creek Nature Park in Riverview, N.B., before it became a popular recreation spot.
“I mean six, seven, eight years ago there wasn’t too many people here,” MacKenzie said. “It was just a hangout for a bunch of people having fun and now you look at it and we have parking, there’s availability, there’s grooming, there’s snowshoeing and it’s going to be a good time.”
Douthwright said a lot of the competitors ride mountain bikes or road bikes during the other three seasons. Fatbiking gives them a chance to stay on two-wheels year-round and enjoy trails in their own backyard.
“I mean if it’s going to be cold and miserable, you might as well make the best of it.” he said.
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