TreadFest is a mountain bike race held at Grand Geneva resort in beautiful Lake Geneva, Wisconsin. The race is part of the Wisconsin Off-Road Series (WORS) that travels various parts of Wisconsin in their racing series. This year the event was the "Grand" Finale of the Wisconsin Off Road Series 2017. The TreadHead Cycling Club organizes this event at Grand Geneva each year. The weekend event is two days and includes races for kids and all ability levels of adults, as well as a "KMC King of the Mountain" hill climb challenge on the first day this year. The weather forecast threatened to dampen the event, but some how the rain stayed away and the event went off!
^The base area was littered with vendor tents
showcasing gear. Racers were milling about in this picture above as they finished their races and began to gather in the base area talking about their rides. The ability level of racers was across the entire spectrum with categories for kids, gender, and every ability level.
^The course offers many challenges for racers, and in this picture above a racer rounds the long swooping traverse bending single track in front of Grand Geneva's beautiful base lodge...
^...coming into a big hill climb called, Michigan Ave.
^At which point they round a corner...
^...through another spectator area of more vendor tents, fans, and friends.
^The course came back around through the ski area again with a bunch of speed down the hill and through this big berm turn that this woman pictured above is banking her mountain bike through with her eyes ahead through the turn leading the way.
^After the fast downhill and berm turn show for the base area spectators the racers wheeled back past the people in the base area...
^...cheering them on and enjoying the day.
^The course would then turn the racers back around into another hill climb that culminates in this quick swooping drop back down the front of the top the ski area just next to the chairlift unloading tower.
^In this picture a racer leans into the corner on the backside of the course just before entering a really fun area of the course where the organizers, the TreadHeads, set up a "party tent" of sorts with music, costumes, and plenty of enthusiasm.
^This photo shows a racer coming past the TreadHead tent littered with spectators and good times! With a small jump for a little showtime that looped around to a rock garden rumble back downhill through cheering friends.
^In this picture above, a red-clad racer rattles down the rock garden section of trail just behind the partying TreadHeads in their tent through the supportive cheers and fun heckles.
^A rock garden rumbling racer in this picture was light on his wheels and fluttered smoothly through the feature. From this zone the race course moved on into to back stretches of Grand Geneva's trail system before coming back around to the populated action of the ski area and base lodge grounds. Racers complete a certain amount of laps around the course according to their race category and start times were also staggered to manage traffic and the ability levels on course at any given part of the day.
^These two male racers took it down to the wire in a full sprint as they entered the finish line vying for just one more move up the placing list. The highest level racers were indeed strong racers with obvious talent and dedication to their craft. The top categories were competitive enough for any hardcore charger to feel the challenge, and the slower categories were perfect options for the less ambitious riders.
^Some youngsters play around on the slack lines in the base area in this photo above. These kids finished their race earlier and were having a ball playing together in all the base area excitement as the adults were coming into their finishes.
^In the end, TreadFest proved to be an all-around great event for the whole family and the hardcore mountain bikers as well. Grand Geneva's mountain bike trail system is a fantastic venue, and the TreadHead Cycling Club did a bang up job organizing another great WORS race event. The weather played nice, and it seemed all the people involved from volunteers to racers, friends, and families had a wonderful weekend at TreadFest.
For more on the Wisconsin Off Road Series, results from the race, future events, and news go check out the website for WORS with just a click here.
For more information about Grand Geneva click here, or to check out the TreadHead Cycling Club click here.