The 2025 Fat Bike Birkie was the 13th annual running of what is still is still the largest gathering of fat-bike racers in the world and, this year, raced on Saturday March 8th.
I made the trip up to the greater Cable/Hayward area with my wife Wendy for some R&R and to cover the event. We stayed at Seeley Dave’s place where she enjoyed some quiet time with a book while Seeley Dave and I hit the race venue to cover the event and shoot a bunch of photos.
There were 3 different distances for classified results. The Big Fat at 47K, the Half Fat at 21K and the 10K Fun Fat.
This year’s entries totaled 542, down just a bit from 2024’s 594 participants, with the majority about split equally between the Big Fat and the Half Fat.
Race Day Course Conditions
The Fat Bike Birkie is raced largely on the American Birkebiner Ski Trail. With 6 to 7 inches of snow falling just a couple of days before race time, the Birkie trail crew did a great job grooming the 20-foot wide trails and at race time they were excellent, firm corduroy. The trail conditions, for the most part, remained very good throughout the races.
The Race
Racers gathered at the American Birkebeiner Trailhead in Cable, WI for the 9AM start and, for the winners, there some familiar names from the 2024 race. Corey Stelljes continued his winning streak with a finishing time of 1:46:56 while 2024 top 5 finishers Sean Cooley and Steve Marshall repeated their 2nd and 4th place positions. Joel LaFrance in 3rd and Mitchell Erickson in 5th rounded out the top 5. 2nd through 4th were separated by a tick of the clock!
The Top 3 Results
47K Men’s
- Corey Stelljes
- Sean Cooley
- Joel LaFrance
47K Womens
- Erick Danckers
- Jennifer Youngwerth
- Heather Stelljes
21K Men’s
- Quinn Ebner
- Eliah Flintrop
- Karl Nelson
21K Women’s
- Wendy Stocker
- Anne Grabowski
- Jennifer Neuman
For a complete, searchable list of participants in the 2025 Fat Bike Birkie check out – https://my.raceresult.com/329007/results
We met friend and frequent fat-bike.com contributor, Spinner Ryerson, on Friday evening at The Sawmill Saloon and, while shooting the shit, Spinner offered to race our Panorama Cycles Chic-Chocs test bike instead of his Salsa Beargrease that he’d raced for the past few years! Sweet!
If You Go Next Year
Oyster Bay Resort
Check out the Otter Burger! Fantastic!
http://www.otterbayresort.net
Rivers Eatery – Cable, WI
The pizza at the Rivers Eatery has become a must have for participants of all the sporting endeavors in and around Cable and the Fat Bke Birkie weekend is no exception.
http://www.theidealmarket.com
Angry Minnow Brewing Company – Hayward, WI
Supplier of really great beer to a lot of the bars in the area, the Angry Minnow is also a brew pub in Hayward.
http://angryminnow.com
Sawmill Saloon and Lenroot Lodge
The Sawmill has an extensive menu as well as several rooms that were filled with fat-bikers. Plus, the Lenroot Lodge is just a hop, skip and jump away and boasts 2-story rooms that were my home in past years.
http://www.seeleywis.com/saloon.htm
http://www.seeleywis.com/lenroot.htm
I don’t think I’ve ever seen Spinner race so fully clothed.
You got that right! I updated the story with a photo of Spinner from 2016!
2016 Spinner for the win!
Same face, MORE SKIN!!!!