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JHK, Dunlap win 20th installment of the Iceman Cometh Challenge in Michigan
For more on the Iceman Cometh, please visit Singletrack.com later Sunday.
Temperatures in the mid-50s saw the pro men’s and women’s fields off at the start of the Iceman Cometh Challenge near Traverse City, Michigan, on Saturday afternoon.
Jeremy Horgan-Kobelski (Subaru-Gary Fisher) and Alison Dunlap (Luna) topped their respective fields, each winning for the first time at the 20-year-old race not far from the shores of Lake Michigan’s East Grand Traverse Bay.
The approximately 28-mile point-to-point course ran through the woods on non-technical doubletrack, dirt roads and a smattering of twisty singletrack — all of which was pocked with sand traps. The few hills were short, a couple of which offered up steep pitches.
Horgan-Kobelski topped the men’s field in 1:34:02, 12 ticks ahead of teammate Sam Schultz and Brian Matter. Dunlap came in at 1:46:38, a wheel ahead of five-time winner Kelli Emmett (Giant). National champion Heather Irmiger was 11 seconds behind the winner.
It was Horgan-Kobelski’s fourth go at the Iceman and Dunlap’s first.
“I love this race,” said Horgan-Kobelski, the national cross-country and marathon champion. “It’s so fast. It’s about position and tactics; about being in the right spot.
“It took me a few years, but I finally pulled it off.”
Once underway, the men’s race turned into a six-rider affair, with each taking turns on the front of the group. In the last 10 miles, each rider, including eventual fourth-place finisher Carl Decker (Giant), put in attacks to test the others.
“Then it was clear no one was going to get away,” Horgan-Kobelski said.
With two miles to go, Horgan-Kobelski put in a final kick that took him to the finish.
Dunlap, meanwhile, literally had Emmett breathing down her neck in the final half-mile.
“I could hear her breathing,” Dunlap said. “She was absolutely dying and I was absolutely dying.”
Prior to that, a group that consisted of Dunlap, Emmett, Irmiger, Jenna Rinehart and Amanda Carey traded pulls. At about mile 20, Emmett attacked on some rollers, with Dunlap countering.
The cat-and-mouse tactics continued, with Emmett launching another attack with about two miles two go. Dunlap then countered with her own break.
“I pounded it up a climb and got the gap,” she said. “I drilled it the last half mile.”
The pro winners each received $3,000. Second place netted $2,000 and third $1,500.
Defending men’s champ Jeremiah Bishop (Monavie-Cannondale) did not start the race due to a health issue. He chose instead to lay low prior to the La Ruta de los Conquistadores in Costa Rica, which starts Nov. 11.
