Well, hear is a picture of the prized trophy; The Ice Sculpture for the Champion (both Mens and Womens Pro Winners receive one). JHK pretty much carried this with him throughout the evening as we witnessed the slow melting of this great hunk of ice. Pretty cool, hey?
Maybe the 2009 Iceman event will be referred to as the "Nice-man 2009", since the race went off under blue skies and temperatures in the mid 50's for most of the day. Matter of fact, this race has had great weather the past few years, but along with great weather it also brought fast times. The race was lengthened a bit from the 26 miles to something like 29 miles, with the start being moved down near "Main Street" in the city of Kalkaska, Michigan.
Ryan O'Dell (Promoter/Director of the OMBC Series) sent approximately 32 riders to this years Iceman in which several came home with podium spots. Our OMBC group competes in a multi state points contest, and I believe the OMBC group may have finished with top honors (I'm not 100% certain, but I think this to be true). This is a long trip from Ohio, so I thinks its fantastic to see this many riders venturing north to participate in the season finale mountain bike race.
This years Iceman race that had over 4,000 participants as they celebrated the "20th" year of Iceman!!!
Even our own (Area 106) local Gary Fisher rider "Lindsey Prososki" took the top podium spot in her age class and also beating her time from last year (even with the added 3 miles).
I couldn't believe all the hardware this young lady brought home! Well deserved, and her support crew (mom, dad and sister) all shared in the excitement during the awards ceremony. Lindsey has definitely gotten faster this season, and I noticed her talking with Heather Irmiger (Fisher/Subaru) several times, so I think we might see Lindsey sporting a Fisher 29er for the 2010 season.
The sighting of the "finish line" at left usually gets the riders adrenaline going and the feeling of "accomplishment".
My "congrats" to everyone that competed in this years event. I plan on publishing a complete photo album of additional pictures of Iceman soon... stay tuned.
Special thanks to all the volunteers & staff at Iceman for making this event so special.
Bob














