Chequemegon Fat Tire Festival

The team was represented nicely at the Chequemegon Fat Tire Festival in Cable-Hayward-Telemark Wisconsin last weekend. Steve Wenzel and Denny Barry rolling down at the 40 start.


Sunday Funday was dominated by the Maplelag/Paramount team with a 2nd, 3rd and 4th finish in the Crit Cross Final and 1st place by Trent Warner in the Crit Consolation. The team also did well in the fun events displaying the true character of the team. Awesome stuff.

Jake Richards threepeating in the short and fat.
Steve Wenzel in the crit cross.
Trent Warner en route to a first place in the Crit Cross Consolation. Team members were the only ones to ride the stairs!
Casey Hildenbrandt on Sunday. Casey placed a solid 6th place finish in the short and fat and will be a contender next year for sure. Casey sent a nice note, recapping the weekend:
As we dropped dad off for the 40, I got dropped off at the start of my race. I hung out with the awesome Maplelag team and family before the start, and headed to the line. Matt Weik, saw an opening right behind the preferred starts, and got me a spot up there. I still had some work to do to get up to the front group. I went far outside and put my head down to get up there. After a while I was starting to feel good. Just as I started to feel better, we hit the Birkie trail and teammate Jake nailed it and launched a perfect attack. Pushed the rest of the race chasing down 2nd and 3rd, but didn't catch them with a mistake on a corner. Came in 6th on the day for my first short and fat. I was so glad Jake got the win. Congrats to him and everyone else who participated. I packed up and headed back to the hotel after dad finished with a top 60 after taking a nice digger and losing the chase group. We headed back for awards after we got to the hotel, and then sunday came around. I was interested to see what the crit cross would bring... It brought some awesome fun! Dad and I got to qualify together which was nice and pretty fun. Then Jake, Matt, and I headed over to do the hill climb..which worked as a good warm up for the crit cross. I came in 4th in the crit cross when it was said and done. Then it was over to do the rest of the sunday funday events. Jake killed the bunnyhop clearing 26", and also won the hill climb. Matt won the balance beam ride. I won the slow race with the bag of sand on the handlebar. An awesome weekend, right up there with the subaru cup! Definately will be heading up next year, with bigger and better goals.. Fun racing with everyone including Matt, Jake, Jack, Steve, Dad, and Hollywood. Shout out to Jay, the Richards and Wenzel family, and to everyone else for your support and encouragement. I couldn't ask for a better team! Maplelag is awesome!!!


Steve with Matt Engen after the 40 finish. Matt has done 23 consecutive 40s!! Matt and Jay rode on the Cheap team back in the 90's.
Matt Wenzel on Sunday. Matt pushed the pace in solid fashion on Sunday taking the third spot in Crit Cross.
Jens doing the hill climb on Sunday.



Denny Barry all smiles after competing in the 40 and states:

Fat tire 40 was a hoot - 3:04 last year fell to a 3:21 this year --I finished higher in standings this year but was looking to be sub 3 ...
the mud puddles made it interesting --some more so than others ....... but all GOOD !

Congrats again to all team members. Good luck at the Singletrack Escape in St Cloud the last MN series race of the year. Go get em!