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.

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.

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.
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.

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.
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.

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.

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.

The 2009 Frozen Hog is a not-for-profit event. Money raised by this race is donated for improvement of mountain bike trails. Thanks, riders, for your part in improving our bike trails.

Link to:
     Frozen Hog 2009 video (big file, video download page)
     Frozen Hog - crummy YouTube video version
     Lambert Park trail preparation countdown page
     Race course map
     Race results
     Racer Photos (Zazoosh Media LLC)
     Info on Ryan Winters - The raffle
     More photo galleries from the Frozen Hog 2009
         http://picasaweb.google.com/1mtnbiker1/FrozenHog2009#
         http://picasaweb.google.com/KanyonKris/FrozenHog2009# 

Please remember these businesses as friends of mountain biking. 

Thanks to Alpine City for allowing us to use the
Lambert Park Pavilion, rest room, and trail system.
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 Video recording
Steve Argyle Frozen Hog t-shirt design.
Mike Both 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 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... Who did stuff... If we missed you, drop me a line!