The Story
As near as anyone can recall 2023 was the 9 th annual BAB . The idea of a race started back in 2014
although people have always been taking there bike out on the big lake for adventures, the rise of the
fat bike has made a race on ice a little better than just a clown show. Studded tires sealed the deal.
Early races were started by a local group of bikers, not NCCA, who exactly I am a little foggy on, but I do
remember the first race I witnessed from Maslowski Beach which was in a zero-visibility gale with wind
chills that had to be below minus 20. The race was on the Saturday of the Book Across The Bay and I
recall there were six riders.
Every ride since has been characterized by a different type of wind snow or ice condition. The routes
have changed locations, sometimes Washburn and sometimes on the beaches in Ashland. Recently we
limited the race to Fat bike tires only but have never required studs until 2023.. On a beautiful sunny
day with no wind and temps near 5 degrees F. with glare ice and patchy snow I was passed by a big guy
riding a nearly flat 3 inch tire mountain bike. He was plowing through with what he had and having
good time. One year I walked through 6 inches of slush on the Book Across the Bay course. . It got cold
that night and by our Sunday BikeACB race we had new thick and completely smooth ice. The riders
who participated in that event looked like ballet dancers on ice.
2023 Race
The insane and the wonderful about this race is the risk that it will occur at all. Will we have a course,
will we have ridable weather? This year was no different with a warming week in a warming winter that
even discouraged all but the most intrepid ice fisherman . Conditions looked ok on Monday prior and
we had a plan in place to pay Bayfield Nordic to groom the course if necessary on Saturday. Two days
before the race we had a rain event that eliminated about a five inch base of snow and subsequent low
temps for three days converted the entire bay to ice. No one remembers anything like it in February.
By Raceday, no snow, so we regrettably had to limit the race to studded tires. I rode without studs for
several years and took many falls, I can attest to the absolute hardness value of bare ice. We had to
disqualify about five riders. We gave a strong caution to the remaining riders to slow down and ride to
the conditions. Apparently, the advice was not heeded, and we saw some of the fastest times in the
history of the race.