No, not just an ordinary bicycle ride, although that can be pretty sporting too, depending on how you do it. I’m talking about the Kraus-Anderson Bike Duluth Festival, which brings together the upsurging sport of competitive mountain bike racing with the more recreational/sporting enduro bike riding, all enveloped into a family-fun festival surrounding the chalet at the lower level of Spirit Mountain, just off Grand Avenue.
 Those factors came together a year ago, when the powers-that-be at Kraus-Anderson construction decided to try something with the idea of giving back to a community they’ve done so much for. This will only be the “Second Annual” Bike Duluth Festival, but in my humble opinion, it could zoom up to become the next enormous attraction on Duluth’s summertime event schedule.
We already have Grandma’s Marathon, the Inline Marathon, Bayfront Blues Fest, Whatever Airshow Kernz & Co. might come up with, and the new “Can The Balloons Get Off The Ground This Time?” fall extravaganza.
The Kraus-Anderson Bike Duluth Festival, this Saturday at Spirit Mountain’s newly refinanced ski hill, and with a nice Sunday follow-up at Lester Park, could reach the kind of heights Grandma’s Marathon has achieved.
Interested entries can get on the event website: BikeDuluthFestival.com. All registration information and scheduling is there. In addition to the moderate registration fee, anyone can pay $4 and ride the chairlift up and down all day, switching between watching the enduros start at the top, and end at the bottom.

   Jeff Iisakka, who is vice president and director of operations for Kraus-Anderson Construction Company, has worked in Duluth for 16 years, after spending his first 10 years with the company in the Twin Cities. He said he and other officials were putting their heads together to find a likely project that could both promote the company and help out in a public service sort of a way.
He’d been impressed with Duluth Mayor Don Ness and his support of expanding the already impressive regional bike trail system. About the same time, he heard about COGGs -- Cyclists of Gitchi Gummi. But it was Iisakka who put the two together with his Kraus-Anderson idea.
“I gave them a call, and we discussed our idea, and they loved it,” said Iisakka. “We told them 50 percent of the proceeds would go to COGGs, which is always trying to improve the bike trails, and the other 50 percent would go to a deserving beneficiary. This year, that will be the Duluth Area Family YMCA.”
Iisakka said that a number of prominent sponsors have come on board, including St. Luke’s Orthopedics and Sports Medicine, Skihut, Trek bikes, Jamar, Green Mill, and numerous others.
The wholesomeness of the event, as well as how it came about, make it a compelling and intriguing idea. The COGGs group is not unlike what snowmobilers were like a few decades ago, when they got together and worked with state agencies to develop the incredible snowmobile trails that consist of more miles than there are miles of highways in Northern Minnesota. There is an entire subculture of snowmobilers and facilities that serve them behind any given stand of pines along Northeastern Minnesota roadways.
People who love zooming along on their snowmobiles in the wintertime must “endure” our wonderful summers, and the hardy among those might ride dirt bike motorcycles up and down wooded hills. The by-far hardiest of such adventurers, though, have taken to off-road bicycles. Mountain bikes with wider-tread tires and sturdy frames can carry riders up and down the same sort of terrain a motocrosser might appreciate. The difference is, when gravity has done its work and you get to the bottom of a hill or mountain, you have to go back up.
“COGGs has a passionate interest in off-road biking, and they’ve done a great job building hand-crafted trails with curves and hills,” said Iisakka. “They had built 32 miles of trails, and now it’s up to 60 miles, and aiming for 100 miles. Their expertise has helped make this area one of the top-ranked areas in the country for off-road biking. The trails they’ve built already have had a positive impact, and we’re finding that people are migrating to this area to work so that they can take advantage of our trail system.
“And Kraus-Anderson Construction has all the required expertise in building and managing -- that’s what we do,” Iisakka added.
It seems like a match made in heaven, and the potential for unlimited growth is right before us. Last year, about 125 entrants came to the inaugural Bike Duluth event, and this year, Iisakka is cautiously optimistic that that number could more than double.
“We’ve added both a long and short tour for those who just want to ride at a touring pace,” Iisakka said. “We have both a 25-mile and 50-mile tours, starting and ending at Spirit Mountain, and going off into Carlton County.”
The main events will be the enduros, down and up Spirit Mountain’s steep climb. More accurately, it is up and down Spirit Mountain. The enduro events actually start at the lower chalet of Spirit Mountain, and riders must get to the top, riding or pushing, in 20 minutes, in order to enjoy the race down. The short enduro consists of two trips up and down the hill, and the long enduro is four such trips. Times are computed for the downhill runs, and the watches stop to give the riders 20 minutes to get back up on top of the hill.
The long enduro and the bike tours start with opening ceremonies at 9:30 a.m. at the main chalet atop Spirit Mountain at 10 a.m. Saturday, with a short enduro race and kids downhill races starting at 1 p.m., and a youth (15 and under) downhill race at 2 p.m.
At 5 p.m., the hard-core downhill enduro racers will start. They cover different, more difficult terrain and the same sort of timing system adds up to declare the order of finish.
An amazing Expo Village has been set up near the lower chalet at Spirit Mountain, with a stage and concession vendors all lined up to sell food, beverages, and all sorts of product demos as well. From 3-7 p.m. on Saturday, there will be bike games at that lower chalet area, with kids low-slung, no-pedal Strider bike races and decorate-your-bike competition, a parade, and kids bike races, concluding with what should be a hilarious adult relay race on Strider bikes. There are also facilities to try out various bicycles on short demonstration rides.
The stage area will not go to waste, either, as Kraus-Anderson has arranged for Big Wave Dave and the Ripples appearing for a concert at 7 p.m. Saturday.

On Sunday, Kraus-Anderson has connected with the Great Hawk Chase, a regional stop on the Minnesota Mountain Bike Series of rides at Lester Park, from 9 a.m. until 5 p.m.
“We thought by tying our Bike Duluth Festival into the Great Hawk Chase, it might give them a boost and make our event a two-day thing,” said Iisakka.
“Last year, we just had the long and short downhill, so we think the added bike tours and the kids events, as well as the Expo Village could attract a lot more entries. It could grow quite a bit, I suppose. We’ve already had hits on our website from every state.”

Skilled and experienced as Tommy Archer is as a road-racing driver, he was completely uncertain about his chances when he pulled his new Chevrolet Camaro onto the BIR track a month ago. Archer won the pole position as fastest qualifier for the Trans-Am II feature race and led most of the way before having to settle for second place.

But it’s no coincidence that as Duluth’s most prominent road-racer prepares for his new car’s second Trans-Am in this weekend’s race at Mid-Ohio, Archer feels more confident in his chances.

“First, we have a better idea of what the car can do,” Archer said. “And what a lot of people probable don’t realize is I’ve raced a lot at Mid-Ohio – more than at Brainerd, even. I know the track well, and I’ve always done well there.”

The series began with Archer uncertain of his ride for this season. He thought he had a spot on another team secured when he ran an early race, but it didn’t work out, and Archer came back home and did it his way – rounding up a group of sponsors and trying his best to involve the whole Duluth community in what it was like to go big-time racing.

By the time his delayed Howe chassis showed up and got fitted with its new engine, the series was well along. Archer’s entry at BIR was a unique situation, because the promising but younger drivers in the series had no idea what to expect when Archer showed up with his new Camaro.

Now they do, and so does Archer. His crew revised some chassis settings and suspension bits, and he took it back to BIR for an updating test.

“We ran close to our qualifying time right away, and then we actually did run as fast as our best lap on the next test run,” Archer said.

The crew left for Mid-Ohio and Archer was planning to fly to Lexington, Ohio, Wednesday to catch up. It will be an interesting weekend, because there are over 40 Trans-Am II entries, and the Sports Car Club of America decided to separate Trans-Am II from the more powerful Trans-Am I cars and the slower Trans-Am III, and will run the race on Friday afternoon, with the other two divisions running Saturday as preliminaries to the NASCAR Xfinity stock cars.

“We practice on Thursday, and we qualify Friday morning, with the race at 4:45 p.m. Friday,” Archer said. “We’ve got an interesting thing set up, a transponder in the car. People who are interested can get on our Archer BrothersRacing.com website and follow our qualifying times as we run them.

“Also, if they go to GoTransAm.com, they can get on racemonitor.com and follow our times on their smartphones.”

Archer’s clean, blue No. 54 Camaro will only have six remaining races, so his chances of making a run for the title are all but impossible, because even if he were to win all six, the top points-getters will likely finish in the top half-dozen and earn enough points to stay on top.

“Our main objective is to get the car up to its peak and do the best we can, while getting set up for next season,” Archer said.


The Friday race at Mid-Ohio will be televised nationally on CBS Sports network on Aug. 29 at 10 a.m. By coincidence, that’s right when Archer and the other Trans-Am II racers will be running live at Elkhart Lake that day.

Huskies Season Ends

The Duluth Huskies reached the new four-team Northwoods playoffs, but time is short, so the whole playoff had to be crammed into this week. The Huskies had to go to Willmar Monday for a one-game elimination, and they won 2-0 to end Willmar’s season.

That sent them to St. Cloud for Tuesday night and another one-game showdown. This time, the Rox ended the Huskies season with a 10-3 rout.

Still, in the 2-0 game at Willmar, Eric Morrell pitched a 3-hitter for six-plus innings, and Josh McLaney, Preston Guillory and Austin Carpenter finished the pitching job for the shutout.

Colton Waltner came up big both offensively and defensively, making a second inning catch with runners at first and third and gunning down the Willmar runner when he tried to tag up and score in the second inning. In the third, Danny Lee singled, and took second when Waltner’s fly to center was deep enough for him to tag up. Then he scored on Jimmy Heck’s single to right.

In the eighth inning Elliott Barzilli beat out an infield single for his second hit, went to second on an error, and scored when catcher Holden Cammack doubled him home.

That victory will send the Huskies back to college on a high note, regardless of Tuesday’s loss.

Twins Keep Going

The Vikings have started their exhibition season, while the Twins had a horrible road trip, going 1-6 at Toronto and Cleveland to all but eliminate themselves from wild card contention.

But home to face the Texas Rangers, the Twins bounced back, particularly Tuesday night when they came back from a 2-0 deficit in the eighth inning, with Joe Mauer and Miguel Sano blasting consecutive two-out doubles.

In the last of the ninth, a critical play came with Kurt Suzuki, who had walked, getting the chance to break early when the count to Eduardo Escobar worked the count to 3-2. Suzuki took off and Escobar, a left-handed hitter, hooked a line drive down the right field line. It took a crazy bounce, but when the throw came in to the plate, Suzuki easily slid in with the game-winning run, only because he had been able to run on the pitch.