WINONA LAKE - From the Miller Sunset Pavilion in Winona Lake to downtown Warsaw, approximately 150 bicyclists rode in the Community Critical Mass Ride Friday evening as part of the Fat and Skinny Tire Fest kick-off, despite the on-again, off-again rain.
Once they got to downtown Warsaw, there were food and beverage vendors and live music as part of Third Friday activities, as well as the return of Friday night road racing with the half-mile timed Zimmer Biomet Downtown Road Criterium. Cyclists raced around three city blocks, starting and finishing on Center Street next to the county courthouse.
Before the mass ride took off from the pavilion, bikers heard from several speakers.
Mike Cusick, president of KCV Cycling and co-director of the Fat and Skinny Tire Fest, said, “On behalf of our board, our members and the community, welcome to the 18th annual Fat and Skinny Tire Fest.”
He thanked title sponsor K21 Health Foundation and all of the other sponsors of the festival’s events, as well as the volunteers.
“We actually have a record number of volunteers this year, approximately 300, who are helping to make our about 34 events happen over the next three days,” Cusick said.
2023 marks the 20th anniversary of KCV Cycling, he said, which originally started to manage the dirt trails and to kick off the first Fat and Skinny Tire Fest. This should have been the 20th year for festival, but due to Covid and the pandemic, it didn’t happen for a couple years.
“Since our inception, KCV has expanded from managing the trails to hosting other events, including educating our community and becoming a strong advocate for safe bicycling and pedestrian infrastructure,” Cusick said. “We continued that expansion recently, and are currently raising funds to support the new Winona Lake Bike Park, which is in fundraising phase now and we hope to have that start building in the next year or two.”
He said the bike fest wouldn’t be possible without the incredible support of the town of Winona Lake, city of Warsaw and Kosciusko County. He thanked the Warsaw Police Department for helping to make sure everyone stayed safe.
On the bike fest, K21 President Rich Haddad said, “This is, in my opinion, and I think even in our foundation’s opinion, one of the highlights of the entire year for our community - the Fat and Skinny Tire Fest. I’m so glad all of you are here, and many, many more that will be coming. This is just an incredible show of our community spirit that we want to share with you. If you’re from our community, this is why you love it. If you’re visiting our community, you might want to consider our community because this is special stuff that we get to experience all weekend.”
He gave a big shoutout to KCV and everything they’ve done to help grow the community.
“Again, as a foundation, our mission is to continue to grow and impact our residents in their health and wellness. This is one of those key ways we want to do that,” Haddad said.
Winona Lake Town Manager Craig Allebach welcomed and thanked everyone for coming to Fat and Skinny. He said the bike fest was the first big event for Winona Lake this summer.
Warsaw Mayor Joe Thallemer, who participated in the ride with family members, including grandchildren, kept his comments short and said he hadn’t missed one of the bike festivals yet and wasn’t going to miss this one.
Rob Bishop, president of the Kosciusko County Parks and Recreation Board that was just formed in the last year, said, “I want to thank all of you, because if it wasn’t for all of you, there would not be a county parks board. It’s the foundation that you all have laid, that we ride and we cycle and we do things outdoors to cause the county to decide they need a county parks board.”
He talked about how Warsaw, Winona Lake and Syracuse have done a great job in making trails, but the county parks board wants to connect all those communities together with trails in the county “so that we can ride throughout the entire community without using your car.”
The new executive director of Bicycle Indiana, Margaret Barawskas, gave the last comments.
“I’m real excited to be here. I’ve never been to this event. I’ve been to Winona before, but not this event,” she said. “If you don’t know what Bicycle Indiana does or who we are, we advocate, educate and promote bicycle safety, but also just resources across the state.”
From Terre Haute, she said she’s going to be traveling across the state for a while.
“A lot of my previous work was with youth mountain biking across the state and getting more kids on bikes, and so it’s really exciting to take it to the next level and educate the state about all of the resources we have,” Barawskas said. “Thank you. Really excited to spectate this weekend, and I look forward to seeing everyone race and ride.”
For more information on the Fat and Skinny Bike Fest, including a listing of events, visit the website at https://kcvcycling.org/events/fat-skinny-tire-fest/?from=domain.
