Follow Danielle Musto race her FAT BIKE!

Friday (day before the race): I was up at 5 a.m. and out the door by 6. After a quick stop for coffee I drove 2.5 hours North to pick up Jorden. He was literally waiting for me right off an exit ramp! We threw his Mukluk and bags in the truck (Big Red) and were on our way.

The 12 hour drive to Cable, Wisconsin went by much quicker then I thought that it would. Maybe I'm becoming immune to long trips in the car??? Anyways, it seemed like we were pulling into the Telemark lodge in no time. After picking up our registration packets we ate a quick (and not very good dinner), and then ate a second dinner of food we had brought with us. Jorden had peanut butter and bread and I had trail mix plus some cold, hard mac&cheese. Dinner of champions :-)

I was in bed and sleeping by 9 a.m. I think it was the most sleep I've ever gotten before a race.

Saturday (race day): When my alarm went off at 5:45 a.m. I was awake and ready to go. The Fat Bike Birkie started and ended at Telemark lodge and I have to say it was a great feeling knowing that we didn't have to load up our gear and rush to a different venue. The race started at 8 a.m. and all I had to do was roll my bike out the front door to the starting line.

Lots and lots of fat bikes were rolling around. The Fat Bike Birkie had a cap of 300 racers and filled up long before race day. It was by far the biggest fat bike race in the United States. Normally the Birkie trail is closed off to bikes in the winter, so it was a really great experience to be able to race fat bikes on it.

I had no clue who I was racing against, and quite frankly it's kind of hard to tell racers apart in the winter. With so many layers, goggles and more layers everyone looks the same :-)

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