Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties

Copper Peak hosts inaugural mountain bike race

By RICHARD JENKINS

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Ironwood Township - Competition returned to Copper Peak this weekend, as the sky flying hill played host to the inaugural Copper Peak Trails Fest mountain bike races Saturday.

"It was a 110 percent success. The weather was perfect, ... I don't think we had any accidents or injuries, we had one mechanical breakdown and he was able to recover from that," said Paul Anderson, one of the event's organizers. "The course was in perfect condition. It rained Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday and the course was pretty slimy, but we had a beautiful day yesterday and it dried out for us really nice."

The event featured a trio of races - a seven-mile sport race, a 16-mile expert race and a shorter kids race. Around 60 competitors participated in the three races, according to Anderson.

The course stretched from the Copper Peak ski jump down to the Black River.

"To start the race we went up a service road to the very top of the facility and then came back down to the base area, and then they did the five-mile single-track," Anderson said. "The single track; half of it is a nice 'flowy,' fun downhill and then the other half is an up-hill climb. So you go down to the Black River and then you climb 500-and-some feet to the base of the ski jump at the top of the hill."

The sport race was 1.5 laps around the course, the expert race was 3.5 laps and the kid's race cut out the climb up the hill to the ski jump.

Aaron Swanson, of Ashland, Wis .; Casey Lajoie, of Iron River, Wis .; and Scott Chapin, of Hayward, Wis., were the top three finishers for the men's division in the expert race, with times of 1:29:31, 1:34:56 and 1:37:20 respectively. Ronnie Lajoie, of Iron River, Wis .; Andrea Newby, of Hurley; and Candace Jacobs, of Ironwood, were the three fastest women with times of 1:46:42, 1:55:57 and 2:02:55. In the sport race: Gay Gheller, of Bessemer; Kristen Anderson, of Ironwood; and Hannah Panci, of Ironwood had the fastest time in the women's division with times of 55:05, 56:37 and 1:02:44, respectively. For the men, John Macleod, of Bessemer; Cody Pattison, of Mondov, Wis .; and Chuck Hampston, of Bessemer, finished the course the fastest with respective times of 49:49, 51:54 and 1:02:51.

Many competitors were heard complimenting the course, including Swanson.

"I was here Wednesday ... and oh my God, it was just all muddy and slick. So I didn't know what to expect," he told the Daily Globe, complimenting the work done after the rain to prepare the course. "This is fantastic. Really well-designed and put together."

Swanson said he tries to compete in most of the races that take place within a couple hours of driving from Ashland, and that it was nice to have one so close.

"Before you'd have to get all the way over to Marquette, or Copper Harbor, and that's a haul," he said.

The event was also a fundraiser, with the profits - along with up to $10,000 in matching funds from the Gogebic Range Health Foundation - going to the Sisu Dirt Crew.

Along with organizing the races and other events in the area, Anderson - who is the group's secretary - said the Dirt Crew is responsible for "building mountain bike trails in the area."

He said the group hopes to use the money raised to get a Department of Natural Resources grant for additional trail development.

"We made a very nice (amount) of money here to put towards bike trail development, somewhere in the neighborhood ... of $18,000 we were able to raise today," Anderson said.

Overall, Anderson said he and the organizers were pleased with the turnout, but also hope to grow the event next year.

"For a first race like this, it's tough to pull riders from out of the area; but we had a good 20 or so riders from out of the area and they're definitely going to be spreading the word about a great race course, great facility and good prizes," he said. "So I think next year, we hope to grow this and it's going to be awesome."