Peloton Star: 2011 Iceman Cometh Pump Up

Thursday, September 29, 2011

2011 Iceman Cometh Pump Up

Brian Matter & Amanda Carey celebrate their 2010 victories

MICHIGAN: Traverse City - Iceman Cometh Challenge - With the weather about to change for the worse this afternoon, it's probably a good time to take a quick look at this race. The description on their site reads: "The Iceman Cometh Challenge is a 27 mile point-to-point mountain bike race from Kalkaska to Traverse City, Michigan. Held traditionally on the first Saturday of November (except for years when the first Saturday of November is the 1st), the 22nd annual Iceman will be held on Saturday, November 5, 2011. Over $54,000 in cash prizes and $10,000 in merchandise prizes will be awarded."

With victories in the 2011 Ore-2-Shore and the Chequamegon Fat Tire 40, last year's Iceman champion Brian Matter is the favorite to win and duplicate the 'Triple Crown' of MTB racing that he won last year. Brain Matter has been racing this race since 1993 and has won it three times: 2004, 2007, and 2010. Last year Cyclingnews wrote: Tristan and I asked each other, 'how are we going to win this thing?'. We're Midwest guys, and we couldn't let these guys come and take our big prize money." US$10,000 was on the line for both the men's and women's races, with $3,500 going to the winner of each race.
Matter and Schouten did manage to snag the top prize money. After a series of counterattacks by the top racers in the lead group, Matter launched his own effort. The others, marking each other, let him get a gap and it was just enough. "I knew Tristan wouldn't chase me down," said Matter. The others waited a little too long and Matter's move, with four miles remaining, stuck until the end. "For the first three minutes (of my attack), I was seeing stars," said Matter. " After that, I took a few deep breaths and I followed the lead moto and pedalled as hard as I could."

In only 6 weeks, we will find out who is the 2011 Iceman.