News & Stories
2017 City of Lakes Loppet Recap
What a great weekend for the 2017 City of Lakes Loppet Festival! We had beautiful weather and a great course made possible by our trail maintenance crew and a huge team of volunteers. We’d like to thank all of the racers, participants, spectators and volunteers who came out!
The 2017 City of Lakes Festival was packed full of fun and action: kubb, skijoring, fat tire riding, snow sculpting, snow making, speedskating, biking, snowshoeing, dogsledding, ski touring, snow tubing, ski racing, orienteering, sprinting, the Luminary Loppet, Surly beer, amazing volunteers, fireworks, round-the-clock grooming and Minne-Loppet skiing…the list goes on. We even crowned new National Champions in classical and freestyle skiing, skijoring, and speedskating!
The final numbers from the on-site registrations are still rolling in but, we estimate that more than 10,000 – 11,000 participants came out to the events this weekend. We also estimate that another 40,000 – 50,000 people cheered, spectated and enjoyed the festivities!
The racers all agreed that the conditions were great across the 6-kilometer course, despite the lack of natural snow. Festival Director, Mike Erickson said that, “It took a hard working, dedicated team and some creativity to get Theodore Wirth ready for this weekend. Thanks to our giant snow pile, made possible by our new cooling tower, we were extremely happy with course that came together. We couldn’t have done it without the trail maintenance crew and the best volunteers in the world who were out all weekend adding new snow, raking corners and working non-stop!”
Check out these pictures from the weekend, or view the complete results here.
We hope to see you on the trails again soon! We’ve still got a lot of fun coming up this winter, including the Mayor’s Challenge and the Midwest Junior Championships. In the Spring, join us for the Salomon CITYTRAIL Loppet. In the Summer, come out for the UCare Tri-Loppet, or in the Fall, run the Surly Brewing Co. Trail Loppet. And, of course, mark your calendars for the 2018 Master’s World Championships, January 19 – 26, and the City of Lakes Loppet Festival, which will be two times the fun next year with two weekends of events: January 26 – 28 and February 3 – 4.
– The Loppet Team