SingleTrack Sisters Fat Bike Racing Team on a roll
BICYCLING
BY DAVE FOLEY
The Wexford County Transit bus brings seven girls. Two others drive in, and a parent brings another. After putting their school gear in lockers in the pole building, the girls grab their riding clothes, and head for Coach Kamie Wade’s house. Practice is about to start for the SingleTrack Sisters Fat Bike Team, but it’s not like your typical practice. For the first 10 minutes, there’s a lot of laughing and kidding around.
As Kamie explained, “They’ve been in high school all day … they need a few minutes to unwind.”
After that, Kamie gets their attention and gives them the workout plan.
Three inches of fresh snow had fallen in the night so today would be their first run over powder.
“Stay in the lower gears,” Kamie said to the girls. “Going uphill, don’t try to push it or you’ll slip. Just pedal easily.”
Heading to the pole building, the girls retrieve their bikes from the rack and regroup at the start of the trail. It’s about a mile and a half of cut pathways through a field, woodland and orchard.
Kamie’s husband, Dave, has run a snowmobile with a drag apparatus over the flat parts of the trail to pack it.
He tells me, “The hills are too much for my snowmobile so the girls will have to break trail there.”
After months of riding on dirt trails, the loose snow provides a challenge. Bikes slip and riders tumble into the snow. When these mishaps occur, there’s laughter. At one point, several girls pull off the trail and pelt the rest of us with snowballs as we approach. Kamie, who is out riding with them, shouts encouragement, offers tips and laughs along with them. Everyone’s working hard, but they are having fun. I have never seen a happier group of athletes.
The following week, an ice storm nixes outdoor practice so the team meets at the “Y” where Kamie had them do a workout in the gym involving machines and free weights. Then it was into the pool to swim laps. After the laps, there was some spontaneous play at the shallow end. The scene reminded me of a kid’s pool party.
For Kamie, however, sports weren’t always that fun.
“In high school, I desperately wanted to succeed as an athlete, but I didn’t fit in,” she said. “I wish I would have had a mentor.”
Reflecting back on those difficult years, she decided she wanted to create a positive experience to encourage female athletes.
That there was a need for more opportunities for women athletes became clear when Kamie began to enter fat-bike races in Michigan.
Kamie, a veteran triathlete, who is a former overall winner of the Montreal Ironman, was dismayed that women usually made up only 10 percent of the field in fat-bike races. On one occasion where a competition offered options for doing two or five laps, women were not allowed to compete in the five-lap race. Situations like this strengthened Kamie’s resolve to create an experience that would get more women involved in fat biking.
In the fall of 2017, four girls joined her for a ride. The SingleTrack Sisters Fat Bike Team was now a reality. As interest grew and more girls joined, team membership exceeded the number of bikes. Kamie reached out for help and the local communities responded. Private donors provided several 11 fat bikes. Business and service clubs came through with funds to buy more bikes, a trailer and jerseys. Cadillac’s (Michigan) Labor Day weekend “Festival of Races” donated $4,000. Community service is a vital part of the program.
“It made me really proud to be from the Cadillac area,” said Kamie. “Cadillac has done so much for us, so we want to show our appreciation.”
The girls have worked as volunteers at the Festival of Races Adventure Triathlon and the North Country Trail Marathon, did trail clearing at the Cadillac Pathway and helped out at the Cadillac Project Christmas charity event. The team has also done some fundraising that enabled them to buy clip pedals, helmets and jerseys.
The SingleTrack Sisters Fat Bike Team membership is now at 11. Last year, they competed in a half-dozen races. The team plans to participate in about 10 races this year. Yet in talking with members of the team, the topic of races rarely came up.
Hanisi Smith noted, “It’s a fun group. We support each other. I think of us kind of like a family.”
A sentiment echoed by Karsyn Rogers who told me that, “The team – that’s the most fun part. I have made great friends and we have so much in common.”
Karsyn, incidentally, is quite a racer. Last year in six races, she led her age group in four of the competitions.
This is a year-round program. With a goal of meeting three times a week, keeping it interesting is a challenge.
“I’ve tried to come up with ‘seasons’ so the girls don’t burn out,” Kamie said.
While they try to get weekly doses of cycling, when the weather is bad, they might opt to do bike maintenance – changing tires, chain lubing and bike cleaning. Each girl is responsible for taking care of her bike.
Some team meetings have nothing to do with biking. They have gone to the beach, baked Christmas cookies, explored a corn maze, gone to a roller derby and roasted marshmallows over campfires.
Two days after the ice storm, a fresh layer of snow blankets the ground. Once again, I’m about to ride with the SingleTrack Sisters. For today’s plan, Kamie shows them techniques for riding on ungroomed snow. The girls kid each other about who is going to be the workhorse that breaks trail.
As I watch them pedal away, working hard to gain momentum in the loose snow, I can see why Kamie is so proud of her team. Kids, many of whom might not have become involved in sports, now are athletes and have built strong friendships. The SingleTrack Sisters is, indeed, the right name for this team.