This last weekend racers migrated to Greenland Michigan and the Adventure Mine for the third stop of the Lake Superior Gravity Series, Miner’s Revenge!
Miner’s Revenge marks the halfway point of the Lake Superior Gravity Series calendar.
Last year was a wild and wild weekend, this year it was dry and hot conditions! With heat warnings and sunshine galore, racers were battling more than just the trails. Some reports even putting temps on race day touching 100 degrees!!
So if you were out there and thought “gosh it’s hot out here” it’s because it was hot!!!
The weekend kicked off Friday night with a new event this year, the Dumpster Downhill! Riders came down the ski run portion of the Scenic Piste on bikes that were literally pulled from the dumpster! Many of the bikes were salvaged from the bikes abandoned at Michigan Tech after the school year.
Riders got two runs on their steeds to conquer the piste. They were on everything from old rigid steeds, seized up hardtails, mini bikes and even a unicycle! Specators and riders alike had a hoot at this inaugural event!
Miner’s Revenge is unique on the LSGS calendar, as both the Enduro and Downhill happen on Saturday!
The day starts out with enduro riders heading out to the trails. Sport racers endured 4 stages and the expert racers tackled 6 stages on the day!
Stages order for the experts looked as follows:
1: Hammer Down (through the mine!)
2: Lions Back
3: Miner’s DH
4: Hunts
5: Scenic Piste
6: Dangerous Curves
Hammer down brings racers through some nice soft corners up top, then right into the mine drift. A long section of trail through the old mine system at the Adventure Mine! Make sure your headlight is charged and that you’re ready to duck! The mine includes a spot that most riders have to dismount their bikes to get under the low roof of the mine! It was wet and cool in the mine, which most riders would have loved to ride through later in the day since it was so dang hot out later! This stage is a very unique experience and something you can’t experience at any other race!
Lions Back is a good mix of old school tech, some punchy climbs and tight sections! Used for during the xc race as a climb, rider came out the bottom of this stage breathing a little extra hard!
Miner’s DH, funnily enough the smoothest and fastest trail of the day. A favorite trail of many racers on the day. There is some fun rocks at the top, some fast flow through the middle and jumps to end the trail!
Racers maybe got a short break as the timing system gets moved between stages. Then right into one of the most technical stages of the day.
Hunts Trail keeps the expert class on their toes! With some technical rocks and rolls at the top of the trail, some loose steeps in the middle, then a FAST section of two track with massive rocks, this may be the scariest trail of the day! This trail is the one that during practice has the most riders looking at lines and contemplating which way they should go!
Scenic Piste is a “trail”, that isn’t normally a trail other than on the race weekend. A rock slab that leads you into the hillside of the ski run. This trail is flat out down the piste! They tape some curves into the grass, and riders have to see how much they trust their side knobs. Many riders found the limits of what their tires would do during this stage!
Dangerous Curves is the final stage of the day. Ending down at the Adventure Mine, riders tackle some very tricky sections of trail to end of their race. Off camber rocks at the top, into some high speed corners and ending with the chunky tight corners. This trails is a challenge to push the pace on!
This year was the first year of having and E-Bike category at Miner’s Revenge. It’s cool to see more races adding this category in. I don’t know about you, but I seem to see a lot of people on E-Bikes these days! For it’s first year, only Steven Carlson and Bryce Rautio entered. It sounded like they both had rough days out there, but Bryce was able to come out victorious!
The series leader, Ryan Zinzow had a mechanical on stage 3, leaving the door open for others to swoop into the podium spots! Kayden McKeown snagged 3rd on the day, Payton McKeown squeaked into 2nd, and Bodee McFadden rallied their way into first!!
For the ladies, it was a tight battle between the top 3 in the series! Kyia Anderson put the fight to the young guns to hold on to 3rd, Lilly Regenold was able to squeeze a second out of the day, and Mara Breeuwer was able to take the win on the day!!
Riders don’t get a long break if they are also doing the downhill! Shuttles started running quickly after enduro racing was over. Many racers didn’t jump on the shuttles right away as they were trying to recover from the heat of the enduro!
The downhill course was running very fast this year with the dry conditions! Sections that, in the wet, were not a problem, became a problem as the dirt broke away to rough rocks! Causing lots of flat tires for riders. Corners were extra dusty and soft, throwing a few riders off their lines and sometimes their bikes!
The best of two runs allows riders to give it their all two times. Many riders pulling back 2-6 seconds faster times on their second runs! Very impressive on such a short course!!
In the end the ladies had an amazing battle. After round 1, Lilly Regenold and Mara Breeuwer were tied!! To the thousandth of a second!! So you know they were both pushing it hard for their second runs! Mara came down first, having gone almost two seconds faster than her first run!! Then Lilli came down with a mechanical… Securing the win for Mara! Lilli still held on to second place with her first run time. And Kyia Anderson was able to get third place. Copying the podium from the enduro!
The men also had a bit of drama for the top crew. Ryan Zinzow dropped his chain in the first round, but was still able to put down the fastest run with a 1:21! But Bodee McFadden was only a second back with a 1:22. It was a tight race, and in the end, both riders went faster on their second laps! But Ryan was able to come out victorious with a 1:19 and Bodee with a 1:20! Kaden McKeown rounded out the podium with a 1:23. He was the top of the 4 riders with a 1:23 time! Racing was tight out there!!
After the downhill racing was over, riders could head over to the Adventure Mine for some Grub thanks to Otter Belly Lodge! Then after awards were handed out, the band Northern Daze rocked the stage for racers!
Another awesome event!
Thank you to the Soke Trails crew for putting on a fun weekend! These trails and events couldn’t happen with out all your hard work!
The next Lake Superior Gravity Series stop is Duluth Trails Festival! We can’t wait to see you there!
Photos by Dylan Juchemich!
Find his photos for sale on Roots and Rain or his SmugMug!
Words by Alex Anderson!
Thanks to all the LSGS sponsors for making this happen!