This weekend Marquette Trails Fest went down as the rain came down. Even though the weather wasn’t the best, the racing was fantastic! (Photos by Dylan Juchemich. Words by Alex Anderson)
Dual Slalom winner Ryan Zinzow in the zone!
The weekend started strong with Dual Slalom on Friday.
It rained some in the middle of the day, but by the time racing began, the rain had stopped. Leaving perfect conditions on the track for the riders!
Transition and Quick Stop Bike Shop were on site cooking hot dogs for the hungry racers and spectators!
A big crowd showed up to cheer on the racers and there was some amazing competition throughout the evening. Youth racers started off the event with Kaden McKeown coming away with the win!
The women’s field saw some amazing racing. Tight racing all night lead to the final heat between Lexi Curran and Sam Paternoster. Both racers were pushing it to the limit, and unfortunately Lexi found that limit. Hitting the ground, allowing Sam to cruise to the win for the night.
The men’s field was no different. 26 men started the evening, but only one could walk away victor. Ryan Zinzow showed off them BMX skills all night. Coming out the start gate hot every lap and didn’t cool down till after the finish line. Fueled by Hams and Goldfish from the Transition food tent, he came away the winner on the night.
More Dual Slalom Action!
Saturday, or should we say Saturated Day! I don’t recall the rain letting up at any point during the day. But that didn’t deter racers from taking on the trails for the Enduro!
Volunteers stood in the rain all dang day for racers to be able to race. Thank you volunteers!
Six stages awaited the Expert racers, while four stages lay ahead for the Sport group! The morning stages were Jawbone, Easy Rider and Combo Platter. The afternoon saw Flow, Southern Cross and Chunder Muffin.
Wet roots kept things… interesting…
With all the rain, the trails were extra slippery! If you kept it on 2 wheels all day, you should get an award! Many racers struggled with vision, as you were either looking through muddy, wet goggles. Or you were playing the safety squint game with all your might!
Yet again, we see Ryan Zinzow come away with an event win in the Expert Ment category. While Abby Strigel claims victory in Expert Women!
How long do you think it took Mason to get the mud out of his eyes?
Sunday, the driest day of the weekend! We see racers line up for some high speed, downhill action!
As the mud on Landin’s bike would tell you, it wasn’t a dry track!
It may not have been raining, but the track certainly wasn’t dry. An upper section had water running through it, there was a two foot deep puddle, and plenty of other miscellaneous moisture to keep things, spicy!
This year was the first year of doing seeding runs, and all the racers were happy to see the integration. It kept race runs clean from needing to pass and kept it exciting at the bottom.
Spectators lined up to watch the rock garden and were met with some great racing!
Ryan Zinzow cleaned up again, with his 3rd victory of the weekend!
Mara Breeuwer was the fastest female of the day!
Some more great photos from Dylan!
This year was again the biggest Marquette Trails Fest to date! Thank you so much to all the volunteers and people who put on this great event! We hope to see you out there next year and hopefully we break that record again!