Winter cyclists need to gear up and down for this race

The Little Su 50 and its companion Susitna 100 in February have long been the winter wheel crowd's Southcentral staple. Ultra fans have the Iditarod Trail Invitational to McGrath or, for the truly driven, all 1,100 miles to Nome a month later. Since 2007, Anchorage's Frosty Bottom 50- or 25-milers have provided in-town options.

All of those races are open to skiers and runners as well as bikers.

But this weekend, for the first time, Southcentral bike racers won't need to share the trail with other winter warriors. They'll own the picturesque trails of the Sheep Mountain 150 when racers roll out of the Glenn Highway lodge at 9 a.m. Saturday.

Picturesque, perhaps, but tough.

"There are lots of hills the whole way," said Zack Steer, owner of the Sheep Mountain Lodge, who regularly trains his Iditarod dogs on the trails. "We have two kinds of trails out here -- up and down.

"Even under ideal trail conditions, they're going to be pushing their bikes uphill."

Racers will negotiate some of the historic routes know as the Chickaloon-Knik-Nelchina Trail System and used by fur traders, coal miners and gold seekers at the turn of the century.

"It's phenomenally gorgeous," said race director Billy Koitzsch, who's also a competitor. "Zack was saying Sheep Mountain had more snow than he's seen in several years. I don't want to jinx anything. I know Mother Nature's the biggest factor in the race, and it'll be hard enough."

Starting and finishing at Sheep Mountain Lodge, the race breaks down into three 50-mile legs. The first and last legs are the same trail between Sheep Mountain and Eureka lodges -- in the opposite directions. The middle 50 miles constitute a loop starting and finishing at Eureka.

The route passes Gunsight Mountain via the old Glenn Highway, ascending the Gunsight Saddle Trail, passing Squaw Creek, Caribou Creek and Alfred Creek on the way to Belanger Pass before crossing Start-Up Lakes to Eureka Lodge.

The trail then runs northeast across Eureka Lake before paralleling the Glenn Highway. Bikers turn up Old Man Creek Trail, and head up the Little Nelchina River before eventually returning to Eureka Lodge and retracing tire tracks to Sheep Mountain.

"First leg is the hardest," said Koitzsch. "That section to Belanger Pass is a bear."

The competition is pretty rugged too.

While small, the field is stacked with talented winter riders, including former Iditarod Invitational champion Jeff Oatley of Fairbanks, as well as Dave Hart, Janice Tower and Koitzch, all veteran ultra pedalers.

"The course is going to be among the most demanding," said Tower, the only woman in the field of 19 racers -- 16 of whom are doing the 150-miler with the other three doing a recently added 100-miler. "I think the terrain conditions, the snow conditions and potential overflow are going to make it plenty challenging.

"The margin of error is going to be pretty thin."

That's fine with Fairbanks' Jeff Oatley, one of Alaska's most dominant distance cyclists -- winter or summer -- since moving north from Colorado.

Oatley won the 350-mile Iditarod Invitational in 2009, and twice finished second to Pete Basinger, the Anchorage phenom.

"It kind of transcends bike racing," he told the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner of the Invitational. "It's hard in so many different ways and it's hard for so long. It's everything that Alaska can throw at you in the wintertime."

Oatley's passion for riding get him though longer races.

"I wouldn't do it if I didn't love to ride," he said. "Training for races wouldn't motivate me by itself.

"I guess I've been lucky, because I don't feel like I've had that many 'bad' crashes," said Oatley, who owns the Fireweed 400 record of 19 hours, 56 minutes, set in 2006. (Tower has the women's record, set three years earlier.) "I've broken a bunch of helmets and probably had a couple concussions, a few broken ribs, fingers, arms and collarbones. I started off as a nutzo kid with no fear or riding skills that would ride anything and somehow survived that to become a pretty decent bike handler with at least some amount of judgment."

A 5-foot-9, 180-pounder with massive quadriceps and a stout upper body, Oatley is built for rugged riding.

He should get his share this weekend.

Reach reporter Mike Campbell at mcampbell@adn.com or 257-4329.