LITTLE ROCK — Among Northwest Arkansas’ guilty little pleasures is the Fat Tire Festival’s nickname. How much fun is it to say “Fatty Fest” out loud, over and over, knowing you aren’t being unkind to man or beast?
Fatty Fatty Fatty Fest.
Thirteen years and that never gets old.
The annual mountain bike festival returns to Eureka Springs this weekend with competitive events for those who pedal off-road and delight in racing cross country, downhill, on a short track and in observed trials. Its metacompetition, the Omni Challenge, will hand $200 to an all-around winner who collects the most points in those four disciplines, and it will give gift certificates to two runners-up.
The Omni (aka Big Fatty Omni or BFO) is lorded over by super-fit and fearless elites, so to democratize the available glory, organizer David Renko’s conducting a second, “Little Fatty Omni,” too, for the top three point-takers among Category 2 and 3 racers. Those are racers ranked as very good by USA Cycling standards but not quite so impossible to beat as the big Cat 1 people. Renko calls this $100 prize the “Mini Me Omni.”
Competitive riders know who they are, and they ought to know they can find race fees and start times online at fattirefestival.wordpress.com. But for the restof the planet, know that Fatty Fest includes free casual rides for people with and without a burning desire to prove themselves master of all aspects of trail cycling, including those who just want to puddle along and the children.
The weekend will wheel out more of these fun rides than it has in the past. Some will appeal to racers, too, especially Friday’s and Saturday’s prerides on the race courses.
For instance, at 2 p.m. Friday, they can preview Sunday’s cross country route during a one-to three-hour preride beginning at Basin Park. The course includes bailouts at the four-, eight- and 12-mile points, but those who go all the way will do 19 miles. Those who don’t will either arrange their own shuttles or pedal home alone with their tongues hanging out.
At 4 p.m. Friday, a two-hour, 10-mile trail ride will begin at Black Bass Lake on a course that’s said to be not too hard for “a beginner skilled rider with moderate conditioning.” (Beginner skilled riders have mastered aspects such as shifting their gears before they hit the hill, picking a line and staying with it over some lumps, or encountering a tree root without freaking out. Probably they cannot bunny-hop fallen logs.)
Any and all children are invited to the Lake Leatherwood City Park ball fields for the Children’s Ride at 10 a.m. Saturday. A half-mile,paved loop there is training-wheels friendly, or kids can join a guided tour on the one-mile Leatherwood Trail. Or they might venture even farther for a six-mile out-and-back to a dam.
Think how much fun they’ll have saying, “We’re doing the dam ride.”
At noon Saturday, another free group will travel the trails beginning at Black Bass Lake. Meanwhile, a second cross country preride will begin in Basin Park.
At 1:35 p.m. Saturday, a caravan will gather at Sparky’s Road House and drive 10 miles to Berryville to ride 8 miles of relatively new single-track at the Trimble Ranch, beginning at 2 p.m. The smooth trail traverses rolling hills in forests and pastures.
Afterward, the caravan will travel from Trimble Ranch to Pension Mountain at Johnson Spring Preserve for a two-hour ride there; and a second caravan will also head that way at 3 p.m. from Sparky’s. The Pension Mountain course includes four miles of single-track and seven miles of double-track in a “super scenic area.”
Among Sunday’s races is one for kids. “This is just fun for beginning children,” Renko says. “It’s pretty impromptu. We run them in waves, based on the turnout we have. We might get 10 to 13 kids. We arrange them in waves from tot, which is 6 and under, then 6-8, 8-10.
“And they’re guided races. Wehave leaders and sweeps, but parents are welcome to chaperone their children.”
Other Fatty Fest races do embrace older children and teens in their Junior categories. But some of the adult events, especially Friday’s short track race, will have free kiddie activity on the side. The short track event also includes a cruiser race and a contest for best-decorated bike.
And after Saturday night’s registration, the Inn of the Ozarks will host a child-friendly pool party.
Look for future Fatty Fests to expand children’s options even more as Renko’s two babies grow up and decide to ride.
The 2010 Eureka Springs Fat Tire Festival is sponsored by Adventure Subaru and Progressive Trail Design. If you’d like to volunteer to help conduct events, Renko’s contacts are (479) 422-7654 and [email protected].
Half century
Every summer, Vicki “Miss Vic” Ingram celebrates her birthday with an informal, no-sag, no-water-stops century ride on flat, windy and hot country highways around Scott.
So she’s a little odd.
Anyway, although this is not an insured, supported ride, over the past eight years it has swollen and grown, with any careful cyclist who accepts responsibility for his own safety welcome to pedal with the Cabot Country Cruisers - especially the slower Cruisers, who know the best jokes.
The ride always begins at Willow Beach Park near Scott, and the route passes two country stores where riders can tank up on water and sammiches.
After she announced this year’s plan (7 a.m. Saturday), Ingram learned that one of those stores has closed. “I can not in good judgment ask bikers to ride this route knowing the store is closed,” she says. If a rider passed out from hunger or thirst, his body would be carried off by mosquitoes before the coroner could find it.
So her plan has changed. Instead of a 100-miler, she’ll mark turns for a 50-mile outing.
For this ninth annual Miss Vic’s Ride, participants can bring a donation for the Cabot Animal Shelter - but no dog food. Better ideas include rawhide bones and treats, shampoo, pet toys, retractable or regular leashes, harnesses for larger dogs, brushes, stainless steel bowls or bleach.
More information is at www.cabotcountrycruisers.com.
Kickball
Registration for the fall season of league kickball in Little Rock ends Tuesday. More information is at lrkickball.com.
Organizer Larry Betz will be at The Oyster Bar, 3003 W. Markham St. in Little Rock, from 6 to 8 p.m. today to answer questions.
ActiveStyle, Pages 26 on 07/12/2010