Silent Sports Sounds Off

More than 1,700 mountain bikers line up for the start of the Chequamegon 40 race from Hayward, Wisconsin, to Telemark Resort on Saturday, Sept. 15, at the 25th annual Chequamegon Fat Tire Festival. Photo by Joel Patenaude.

Winning the Chequamegon 40 is no easy task. But winning it on a singlespeed bicycle is unthinkable. That is until Jesse Lalonde (Gary Fisher 29/BKB) powered his way up last hard climbs in the closing miles and descended down into Telemark Resort alone in the lead, holding off former champions Brian Matter (PCW/Trek) and Steve Tilford (HRRC/Trek). And he did it with just one gear.

Lalonde rode a 36-16 gear on a rigid 29er, becoming the first rider to win the Chequamegon Fat Tire Festival on a singlespeed. “It was only a matter of time,” Lalonde said about his singlespeed win.

Marko Lalonde, Jesse’s younger brother and teammate, finished fourth, also on a singlespeed. Their extraordinary rides in the 25th annual Chequamegon Fat Tire Festival illustrate that just one gear is all that’s needed to win a bike race.

In the women’s race, Susan Haywood (Trek/VW) looked set to win her second Chequamegon 40, when she pulled away on the Seeley Firetower Hill, building a gap of 30 seconds. She faded in the closing miles, however, getting caught and passed by Jenna Zander (Cannondale). Lea Davison (Trek/VW) also tagged onto the pair with about 500 meters to go in the race, but ended up in third.

A hard and fast course kept the field bunched together the entire race. “It was a super strategic race,” said Travis Brown (Trek/VW) who rode a cyclocross bike. “It would string out, then regroup, like a road race.”

According to Matter, who won the race in 2004, the course was “really fast”, which allowed a group of a dozen riders to stick together until Lalonde made his decisive move. “I should have been sitting on Jesse’s wheel. He was the guy to beat.”
The women’s race was also close, with the top three finishing within 15 seconds of each other.

See itiming.com for full results.

– Mark Parman

Last January, about 40 ATV users and other motorsports enthusiasts showed up at an organizing meeting of Friends of the Badger State Trail, paid $15 individual membership dues, and elected their own to a majority on the board.

Observers believe the ATV users intended to position themselves to obtain greater access to the trail.

“I wouldn’t say we showed up in overwhelming numbers, but we showed more interest in the trail [than bicyclists],” says Don Noble, a small engine repair shop in Monroe and president of the Green County ATV Club, who was elected to the friends group’s board.

The full story, by Silent Sports editor Joel Patenaude, appears in this week’s Isthmus newspaper.

“Patients exercising in a polluted area might be putting their heart under additional strain,” says Dr. Nicholas Mills of the University of Edinburgh.

His Scottish research team found that during exercise, heart patients who inhaled as much diesel exhaust as is typically found in heavily trafficked cities increased the stress on their hearts by threefold, compared with control patients who exercised in cleaner air.

“We also found that even six hours after the one-hour exposure to air pollution, there are still adverse effects on the way blood vessels respond,” Mills said.

But that shouldn’t stop city dwellers from heading out the door for a run, says Dr. Murray Mittleman of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston.

“If your only choice is exercising in a setting that is not perfectly protected from air quality, then you will probably get more benefit from exercise than risk. On the other hand, if you have a choice, it’s probably better to exercise away from traffic when you can.”

U.S. Forest Service personnel are still busy determining which roads and trails should be open and closed to motorized users. In Wisconsin, the Travel Management Rule process mostly affects the Chequamegon-Nicolet National Forests.

There are 9,000 miles of roads in the 1.5 million-acre Chequamegon-Nicolet NF. The Chequamegon side already includes 284 miles of developed ATV trails. No such trails yet exist on the Nicolet side but, reportedly, there are “plans for construction on the drawing board.”

The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel reported yesterday that the feds are taking public comment on the draft road and trail maps, but then left out how people can view and critique the plans. Also curious is the newspaper’s failure to include in its list of forest users one of the largest groups most dedicated to sustainable trail maintenance: Mountain bikers.

The Chequamegon Area Mountain Biking Association (CAMBA) is rightly concerned about ATV trails that cross or dead end at mountain bike trails, thereby inviting ATV abuse of carefully constructed singletrack.

As it turns out, a new round of public presentations is tentatively scheduled for Oct. 4-15. Drafts of the road and trail maps for the forests (based on previous meeting input) will be on display and park service employees will answer questions. Exact times and places for the meetings won’t be nailed down until this Friday or Monday, according to a Chequamegon-Nicolet NF spokesman. As soon as that information is available, it will be posted here.

According to Wisconsin Public Radio (scroll down), “Northern Highland-American Legion State Forest Superintendent Steve Petersen is being inundated by letters and e-mails. He says he’s getting several e-mails an hour recently, mostly opposed to the (60 miles of proposed ATV) trail.”

The silent sports majority needs to keep it coming. If Petersen hasn’t heard from you yet, he needs to. Write to:

Steve Petersen, Superintendent
Northern Highland-American Legion State Forest
8770 Highway J
Woodruff, WI 54568
voice 715/358-9225
FAX 715/358-2352
Steven.Petersen@Wisconsin.gov

The DNR is asking folks who are concerned about ATVs in the Northern Highland-American Legion State Forest to fill out the “comment book” available as a pdf download here. A rationale and instructions for use of the comment books can be found here and here.

Questions about the ATV trail plan can be asked of DNR officials at public meetings taking place next week from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m.:

• Sept. 17, Wausau - Best Western Midway Hotel, 2901 Hummingbird Road.

• Sept. 18, St. Germain - St. Germain Community Center, Highways 70 & 155

• Sept. 19, Manitowish Waters - Manitowish Waters Community Ctr., 4 Airport Road at U.S. Hwy. 51.

Jerry Landmark in good spirits en route to finishing his fastest Ironman Wisconsin yet. Photo by Elaine Miller

Jerry Landmark – or “Mr. Landmark” as I used to address my former social studies teacher – was an inspiration to me growing up in Mt. Horeb, Wisconsin.

And he is again.

Landmark was among the more than 2,000 extraordinary athletes to have started the Ironman Wisconsin triathlon yesterday. And today, at age 54, he has now completed three editions of the endurance event (which includes a 2.4-mile swim, 112-mile bike ride and 26.2-mile run) held in Madison.

“Guess that adage about the third time being the charm is true,” Landmark said of his impressive finish in 12 hours and 22 minutes. That time is more than an hour faster than his first and previous best in 2004. “I beat my old swim time by 3 minutes, my old bike time by 30 minutes, and my run time by 40 minutes,” he said.

That extra speed through the bike and run legs of the event allowed Landmark to pass 276 of his competitors. One of them was another former student of his, 20-plus years his junior. The two were almost neck-and-neck through the bike course, but Landmark managed to finish the marathon more than an hour ahead of the rookie Ironman.

“The weather was beautiful and had a lot to do with it,” Landmark said. “But I felt good about my training and was ready for a good race. It may be my last IM, so I wanted to do well. Turned out everything fell into place, and as sore as I am today, it’s a great feeling.”

In the November 2004 issue of Silent Sports, Landmark wrote about his first Ironman and the training leading up to it. Read his article here and just try not to feel inspired.

Wisconsin Public Radio’s regional call-in show Route 51 yesterday featured a debate between opponents and proponents of ATVs in the NH-AL.

Out of seven callers heard live on the air during the hour-long program, five eloquently objected to ATVs being allowed in the state forest.

This was the case despite the Wisconsin ATV Association president issuing a plea to his members to call in to the program and counter critics of the ATV trail plan for the NH-AL. Although the notice mentioned me, the editor of Silent Sports, as a kind of bogeyman, I was not one of those who called in. Apparently, I didn’t have to.

As one of three in-studio guests, Sue Drum of Northwoods Citizens for Responsible Recreation ably defended the current NH-AL prohibition against ATVs.

If WPR posts the program online, I will provide a link.

A proposed residential development in the Cross Plains area could be a setback for Ice Age Trail development and long-held public conservation plans. The would-be developer of two tracts, totaling 339 acres, has so far rejected offers from the U.S. Park Service and DNR, which own adjacent land within the Cross Plains National Scientific Reserve. The additional property is sought by the Park Service for an interpretive center. Developer Janice Faga envisions at least 66 unsewered lots on the Dane County land, however.

Green Bay Press-Gazette writer Pat Durkin previews the Sept. 17-19 public meetings concerning possible ATV trails in the Northern Highland-American Legion State Forest by glibly equating the interests on both sides of the issue.

But at least he says this, with which we agree:

“It’s possible nothing will change, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Sometimes no action makes wise policy. Even so, I hope the (Natural Resources Board) uses this opportunity to craft statewide rules for ATV use on all public lands.”