Category: Training Tips

How long is long?

Chances are good this event is longer than you normally race. If you commonly do 2-3 (or 4?) hour training rides, then you’re probably fine. But if that’s more than you’re used to, you might consider adding some longer rides to your calendar – especially later in the summer and into the fall. Keep in mind that the conditions in November might be a bit harsher as well, which will only add to your fatigue. Having a solid aerobic base is one of the best keys to cycling success – both in this event and in general!

About the author: Kurt Schaldenbrand has been racing bicycles since 1983. He’s been a licensed coach working with competitive and developmental cyclists since 1990 and has been head coach for the University of Michigan Cycling team since 2012.

Is this your first time? Learn ALL the things!

If this will be your first time doing Iceman, you’re in good company; it was EVERYONE’s first time at some point! It was MY first time just this past November. This is a BIG event (in every way possible) and if that feels a bit intimidating – or even if it doesn’t – it’s highly recommended that you go in knowing as much as you can about it as you can. Your experience will be MUCH better if you do! The good news? There is plenty of fantastic resources available on the site to educate you now, before they say, “Riders ready… Go!” 

About the author: Kurt Schaldenbrand has been racing bicycles since 1983. He’s been a licensed coach working with competitive and developmental cyclists since 1990 and has been head coach for the University of Michigan Cycling team since 2012.

Set a goal and PLAN to succeed!

As you prepare for warmer weather and the fact that November and the Iceman Commeth Challenge are approaching, we asked Kurt to provide some inspiration for your preparation.

Since you will be hearing Kurt’s words for the next several weeks, here is a little more about him:

Kurt Schaldenbrand has been racing bicycles since 1983. He’s been a licensed coach working with competitive and developmental cyclists since 1990 and has been head coach for the University of Michigan Cycling team since 2012.

Do you have a goal for this year’s event? Do you want to achieve something specific, or do you just want to ride for the fun of it? Both answers are great – but if it’s the former, it’s important to write that goal down and think about how to achieve them. If the goal is big, break it down and work on the smaller ones throughout the year! It may sound corny but it’s true: you can be successful without goals and a plan, but it’s often accidental and rarely repeatable.

Iceman Cometh – 30th annual event Photography by John L. Russell Great Lakes Images

Friday Pre-Ride Info

This year, pre-riding the finish is going to be a little different. If you’ve been by Timber Ridge the day before the race in years past, you know there is a lot of action. To make it safer and less chaotic, Timber Ridge is limiting Friday parking. To park at Timber Ridge to pre-ride on November 5, you will need to call ahead and buy a pass. 


Iceman Pre-Ride Parking Option

If that’s not in your wheelhouse this year, consider parking somewhere else and hopping on the course. We strongly recommend parking at the Vasa Pathway Bartlett Trailhead, which is just a quarter-mile from hopping onto the course. 

From here, you can ride up the finish, then leave through Timber to avoid going head-on into traffic. At Land’s End, you can hop back on the course for another loop, or head back to the Bartlett Parking lot. 

More Parking Ideas


Einstein Cycles
Mt. Holiday
Meijer
Vasa Pathway Strombolis Lot
Sand Lakes Quiet Area, Broomhead Rd, Williamsburg, MI 49690

School is in session Friday, November 5. NO PARKING is allowed at Courtade Elementary School and you CANNOT access the school. You may park south of Courtade at Rasho Farms. There are NO shuttles on Friday, November 5. Please use the port-a-johns to take care of any necessary business

Get Signed Up, Then Get Riding

Step one, sign up. Step two, get riding. Registration for the 2021 Bell’s Iceman Cometh Challenge opens up on March 5, and while we can’t get together for our traditional in-person events, we’re meeting up on Watopia for a ride. 

Normally, we’d be hanging with dedicated riders at 7 Monks and Bell’s Eccentric Cafe to kick off the season. That may not be happening, but we’re really looking forward to helping the thousands of generous riders who donate or deferred their entries from 2020 to this season get locked in to race on November 6. If you are one of those kind-hearted riders, thank you! Make sure you’re furiously hitting refresh on your inbox for information on how to use your code to claim your spot in this year’s race! 

This year, we’re also offering a year-long Virtual Training Challenge through Strava. By committing to hit 500, 1,500, or 3,000 miles, you’ll be setting yourself up for your best Iceman ever, plus a chance to win monthly prizes from sponsors like Bell’s, Meijer, Trek, and more. 

You can get your training kickstarted with us on Saturday, March 6 Zwift. First up, join Race Director Cody Sovis 75 minute, no-drop ride at 8 am EST. Can’t quite get out of bed for that? Join 2019 Iceman winner Alexey Vermeulen for a 75 minute ride at 11am EST! 

For both events, make sure you sign up at the correct link and follow the leader on Zwift for an invite. Meet-ups are limited to 100 riders, so get locked in. 

Cody’s Ride
8am EST
Sign up here: https://forms.gle/qJfcGRcKDbxLvBzbA

Alexey’s Ride
11am EST (9am MST)
Sign up here: https://forms.gle/UozwZttiXZUZ8jSU8 

2021 Is Here…and November Is Coming!

Oh, hello there strangers. 

 

We’re finally through 2020 and things are slowly looking brighter, happier, and healthier. We have a long way to go, but thanks to the hard-working medical professionals, essential workers, and everyone who has done their part to stay safe, we can start to look at getting together in November! 

 

Every single edition of the Bell’s Iceman Cometh Challenge is special for its own reason, but we understand that this one, well, this one is going to be different. We’re hoping that November 6, 2021 serves as the family reunion we all didn’t get in 2020 and the one we’re all desperately hoping to bring our mountain bike community together. 

 

We wouldn’t even be talking about a 31st edition of the race without the thousands of riders who chose to defer or donate last year’s entry, so when you line up this November, make sure you say thank you to the guy or gal next to you; odds are, they helped to make this year’s event possible. 

 

Those same folks will get the first crack at registration. If you donated your entry, you’ll receive a link in your inbox that will allow you to get signed up. You can start feverishly hitting ‘refresh’ on your email account the week of February 15. 

 

If you deferred your entry to 2021, you’ll get a link that will allow you to register for the Bell’s Iceman Cometh Challenge or Meijer Slush Cup. We were hoping that we’d be able to just squeeze everyone in automatically, but our legal team reminded us that waivers are kind of a big deal. 

 

If you’re waiting to see what the COVID-19 situation looks like over the next few months, don’t worry; the link for your deferred or donated entry won’t expire until September 1. 

 

There will be questions. Jessica will have all the answers at icemaninfo@iceman.com so don’t hesitate to reach out! 

 

Unfortunately, we won’t be able to host our traditional in-person registration parties at 7 Monks in Traverse City and the Bell’s Eccentric Café. However, you can have a party all your own at 9 am on March 5, when all available spots are open to new Iceman riders! It’ll feel like the good ol’ days of hopping on right at 9 and registering because there aren’t many spots available!

 

Since we’ve had an awful lot of time to come up with some cool things to do, make sure you’re checking out a few neat things we’ve added to registration this year. 

 

Iceman Registration Donation. Last year, generous Iceman racers raised over $16,000 for Michigan Mountain Bike Association by adding just a few dollars to their registration. This year, we’re hoping to raise just as much for the Grand Traverse Regional Land Conservancy. GTRLC protects and preserves natural areas all over northern Michigan including Arcadia Dunes, Bullhead Lake Natural Area, and Glacial Hills Pathway. They also helped to save the Sand Lakes 160, a 160-acre parcel of the Pere Marquette forest that serves as a critical point of intersection for dozens of Traverse City trails, including the heart of the Iceman course itself! 

 

Virtual Training Challenge. One of the toughest aspects of the past several months has been finding the motivation to get up and get moving without some of our favorite rides, races, and events. We’re hoping to recreate your riding community and help you nail your best Iceman Training Challenge. Join the 500, 1,000, or 3,000 mile Challenge groups and rack up the miles from March 5 to October 30. Along the way, you’ll earn milestones, get coaching tips from your favorite Iceman pros, and have a chance to win prizes from Iceman, Bell’s, Trek, Clif, and more. Each challenge group will have its own club on Strava, and if you hit your challenge goal, we’ll move you up to keep you riding! Watch for more on this next week! 

 

Donate A Sno Cone Entry. Every kid deserves a chance to shred. This year, we’re making it easy to donate a free spot to the Sno Cone race at checkout. We’ll give the spot you donate to any kid who wants to race but whose parents can’t swing it. No stress, no questions asked. Let’s build the next generation of mountain bikers today. 

 

We’ve also been working on an Iceman Zwift Meet-Up to give riders from across the country a chance to ride together, get in a tough workout, and connect! Watch for a Meet-Up calendar, instructions on how to join, plus links to the official, always-updated Iceman playlist and workouts for each ride!

For The Fun Of It: The 2020 Course

Last week, we made the call. No doubt the announcement that this year’s Bell’s Iceman Cometh Challenge wouldn’t happen disappointed a lot of people, but we’ve been overwhelmed by the positive calls, emails, and text messages in the days since our racers heard the news. Your support has made a very tough time so much better, and we can’t thank you enough for the donations and kind words.  Continue reading “For The Fun Of It: The 2020 Course”

Heart & Heat of Summer

     We’re getting in the heart and the heat of summer! As the weather improves and the miles rack up, we’re deep in the woods looking at ways to create a unique, challenging course that will keep you on your toes.

     So, how does a course come together? One of the biggest pieces of the puzzle comes from working with Northern Michigan Mountain Biking Association and the Michigan Department of Natural Resources to learn more about logging plans. Each year, the DNR harvests timber from state land, and there are times that their planes involves sections of the Iceman course.

     We try to forecast those plans and establish new ways around logging forests, or anticipate clean-up efforts in the event that the logging in finished before race day. One of the important elements of refreshing logged sections of trails is to keep them open not just for the first Saturday in November, but to ensure marked and unmarked trails remain accessible year-round for riders.

    There is one section scheduled to log this year, but no date has been set to work on the Make It Stick area we’ve used the past few editions. On the bright side, we can open up the ‘old’ route in no time, and that flexibility gives us time to work on Make It Stick if logging operations are finished with a few weeks before November 7.

     We are also looking at last year’s wave times, average speeds, and other information to inform where and how we can reduce back-ups and open racing. After a tough 30th edition made even more difficult with rain, snow, and mud, 2020 was always planned to be a world apart. Instead of one for the climbers, we’re working on a route suited to the rouleurs, the strong riders who put out a lot of power on the flats and can really put the hurt on other riders when the race hits the Vasa.

     At this stage in the season, we have a few ideas in mind and have given the proposed, top secret route to just a few locals who will be riding the course to establish some baseline times and give their impressions. With group riding slowly coming back, we will also be able to get a better idea of how the new course breaks up slightly larger groups of, say, ten to fifteen.

    Once the DNR is open and taking permits, we’ll finalize the route and create some high-quality maps to submit for their approval as a part of our event permit. Once those receive the green light, we’ve got a course!

    Want to be ready? Get riding. Plan on faster, flatter, and a shorter course that puts the emphasis on horsepower over climbing.

Excuses for Why Your Iceman Didn’t Go to Plan: A Free List

Preparation for a race like the Bell’s Iceman Cometh is extensive. Our racers ride up to a few hundred miles per week, putting in endless hours of physical exertion in the hopes of a fast ride on one special Saturday in November. They open their wallets to make sure they have the best equipment, the lightest parts, and the most aerodynamic gear to ensure they’re leaving no watt unused. Months of preparation all boil down to how two hours unfold with 4,000 of your friends.

But sometimes, it’s all for naught and the race doesn’t go quite to plan. In this scenario, it’s just as crucial to be prepared for all of the uncomfortable questions post-race; mostly, “How’d your race go?”

To help you prepare for that question in the event of an off day, here are some free excuses to keep in your back pocket. For added effect, we’ve translated these excuses into their actual meaning for bystanders so they know what really caused you to finish 168th place ride in the men’s 56-57 year old class. 

  • Oh man, I was flying until Headwaters, and then the lights just went out and I bonked hard.

Translation: “I sucked wheel all the way to Headwaters and then got dropped like a sack of potatoes.”

  • My race went ok, but I got stuck behind people on a singletrack section and lost a ton of time.

Translation: “I sat-in and refused to take a pull on the front of the group on the fast flat sections, then complained people in front of me were going too slow in the singletrack.”

  • Legs just didn’t have it today.

Translation: “I drank way too much beer last night.”

  • My stomach didn’t like that new energy mix I tried.

Translation: “I drank way too much beer last night.”

  • I don’t really care where I finished. I was just out there to have fun, man.

Translation: “Maybe I should have done the Zwift races on the trainer instead of watching Golden Girls on Netflix all October.”

  • I didn’t do great, but it’s just because I haven’t had much time to train.

Translation: “I’ve been drinking way too much beer.”

Boom. You’re now completely prepared for the race and we can’t wait to see you in Kalkaska on November 2nd. At the end of the day, we just hope everyone makes it to Timber Ridge safely and has one heck of a good time. Whether you’re out there to take on Geoff Kabush or if you’re wearing a tutu and rocking a unicorn costume, we want you to make your Iceman Cometh experience your own. We’ll keep the fires roaring and the Bell’s beer cold for you.