Notre Dame senior nearly comes out on top in the largest one-day mountain biking event in the United States. Alum also finishes high in pro class.
Notre Dame senior Justin Kreger, second from right, is on the winners’ podium Saturday after finishing second in the 2016 Bell’s Iceman Cometh Challenge mountain bike race in northern Michigan.
Kreger’s second-place finish in the Junior Men 17-18 category also put him 117th overall of 4,606 total participants, which included many professional racers.
The warm weather and ideal course conditions made for record times from all the racers and the Juniors were no exception. Kreger finished the 27-mile course from Kalkaska to Traverse City in 1:36:49 and just seconds separated the top four in his category.
Michigan Youth Cycling and their generous donors were able to present scholarships to the top five male and female finishers. More info on Michigan Youth Cycling is at www.michiganyouthcycling.org.
Kreger also had a chance to hang out and pre-ride the course with many top pros, national champions, World Cup champions and Olympians, including Stephen Ettinger, Spencer Paxson, Brian Matter, Chloe Woodruff, Alexey Vermeulen and Howard Grotts. These athletes are the tops in their given disciplines and still find the time to support and encourage the juniors coming up behind them.
Howard Grotts, the 2015 & 2016 National MTB Champion and member of the 2016 Summer Olympic team, took the top spot in the Pro Race with a blistering time of just 1:23.36. Not far behind, 2016 NDP graduate Luke Mullis, who is still considered a Junior athlete, chose to race the Pro race for the first time and came in 37th, bringing in a superior time of 1:32.31 in a field stacked with world-class athletes.
The annual Iceman Cometh Challenge is the largest one-day mountain biking event in the United States, bringing in over 5,000 participants and even more spectators. The 27-mile course takes the racers down dirt roads, through fire roads and single tracks as they wind their way from Kalkaska to the Timber Ridge Resort in Traverse City. Others choose the Slush Cup, which is roughly eight miles through the VASA trail. And, for the littles ones, the Snow Cone, a 1.5-mile course through Timber Ridge.
All courses are routed through the finish line so every rider gets to experience the cheering spectators as they pass through.
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About Notre Dame Preparatory School and Marist Academy
Notre Dame Preparatory School and Marist Academy is a private, Catholic, independent, coeducational day school located in Oakland County. The school's upper division enrolls students in grades nine through twelve and has been named one of the nation's best 50 Catholic high schools (Acton Institute) four times since 2005. Notre Dame's middle and lower divisions enroll students in jr. kindergarten through grade eight. All three divisions are International Baccalaureate "World Schools." The Marist Fathers and Brothers sponsor NDPMA's Catholic identity and manages its educational program. Notre Dame is accredited by the National Association of Independent Schools, the Independent Schools Association of the Central States and the North Central Association Commission on Accreditation and School Improvement. For more on Notre Dame Preparatory School and Marist Academy, visit the school's home page at www.ndpma.org.