‘I go wherever the fun is and the challenge is’: Revamped Fireweed bike race takes all comers

Kristy Berington likes to joke about the actuating nickname for the tandem bike: The Divorce Horse.

“It’s a segue to wherever the relationship is headed,” she said. “Either it’ll get you faster toward ‘This is working’ or faster toward ‘This is not working.’ It’s not for everybody.”

And despite cascading rain and whipping wind at times, Berington and husband Andy Pohl survived last weekend’s Fireweed — a 200-mile self-supported road race from Sheep Mountain Lodge to Valdez — with their relationship intact.

The Fireweed returned last year after a four-year hiatus. And in many ways, Berington and Pohl epitomize the riders who compete in the revamped version of the race that was initially launched in 2003 as a grueling 400-miler. They relish challenging themselves more than competing against opponents.

While the Fireweed still has an emphasis on competition, providing a number of relay options and more of a festival atmosphere means the race is enjoyable, even if it can also be excruciating.

Berington and Pohl, who have been riding the tandem for five years together, had an inclination that their seven-year marriage would be fine.

“In the spring, we did a 2,000-mile trip in the Lower 48 together,” Berington said. “So we definitely knew that 200 miles together in the pouring rain, wind and cold wasn’t going to be a problem.”

Pohl has been a serious biker for decades and raced in the inaugural version of the Fireweed. Both are well known in Alaska’s mushing world, operating the Seeing Double Sled Dog Kennel. Both have also completed the 1,000-mile Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race, with Berington finishing the race 13 times.

“The camaraderie that it brings (is similar to mushing),” Pohl said. “You meet a lot of really cool people both mushing and in the cycling world.”

Pohl and Berington finished third in the coed two-person division with a time of 12 hours, 10 minutes and 16 seconds, averaging over 16 miles per hour. And while Pohl said they were serious about the race and had an objective they were shooting for, the relays open up the race to virtually all comers.

“It’s a very good, inclusive format to get other cyclists to go on an Alaska adventure like this,” he said.

Zachary Morvant won the men’s solo race, completing the trip in 10:28:19 to outpace the next closest competitor by a half-hour.

He got back into biking after college as a commuter, and he’s run fixed-gear bikes and road bikes as well as gravel and ultra racing.

“I go wherever the fun is and the challenge is,” he said.

Morvant grew up in Eagle River and now lives in San Francisco. When he realized he could race the Fireweed and bring his wife and young son to visit Alaska for the first time, the trip came together serendipitously. They were able to snag lodging at Sheep Mountain Lodge for two nights. The race runs along some of Alaska’s most picturesque stretches of road but also traverses Thompson Pass, which sits at upward of 2,500 feet elevation.

“My family loved it,” he said. “The views were incredible. We went to check out the hiking trails the night before, did the whole pasta feed and hung out, and then my wife and our son drove down and they met me at the finish line.”

Morvant’s race started dry, but rain started falling quickly and he had to swap into his rain gear in Glennallen. He caught former UAF national rifle champion Patrik Sartz a bit past the halfway point and didn’t look back. Although he’s a sponsored amateur rider, Morvant had no expectation to finish on the podium.

“I love the variety,” he said. “Just all the different people showed up, this eclectic crew of different kinds of riders, different kinds of bikes. I think if I did it again, I’d have to be on a relay team because some of those team names were hilarious.”

Among those cleverly titled relay squads were Wheely Good Times, Two Tire(d) Guys, Tandemonium, The Cyclopaths and It’s All Downhill From Here.

Joe Fish, known as the race’s chief bureaucrat, said when the race was brought back in 2023, a lot of thought was put into what would be the most accessible approach for a majority of racers. He said the race operates exclusively on volunteers, so maintaining the most popular registration draw, the 200-mile one-way run, was vital. From there, they offered relays so racers could do a portion of that 200 miles.

“We opened up our interpretation of relay teams in order to encourage that participation,” he said. “People that may only want to do the 50 or 100 miles, we would truly try to provide an outlet for that.”

There are a handful of relay categories, include coed races, and there’s also the Brewers Cup, which features teams from various Alaska breweries, including Denali Brewing Co., King Street Brewing Co. and Cynosure Brewing this year.

And while many of the relay teams are composed of hobbyists, the fastest run of the race came from the relay team representing Goldstream Sports in Fairbanks. The four-person team finished in 8:47:16, averaging a blazing 22.53 mph.

Luke Buth — whose dad, Joel, owns Goldstream — said the idea to race came together with employees talking around the shop.

“I didn’t really know what to expect,” he said. “It was the first time I’ve been down there for it, so I didn’t know the course. We had a general plan, switching off every 15-20 minutes and just kind of seeing what we could hold.”

Fish said the registration numbers were stable from 2023, the first year the race returned. He said this year, the race tried to build in a bit of a festival atmosphere at the finish with food trucks, bonfires and a beer garden. And even if the rough conditions may have been a greater challenge than some had anticipated, Fish said the race will continue to offer all levels of bikers a challenge.

“The vast majority of the people that ride and ride competitively are doing it because it’s fun,” Fish said. “Nobody is signing up for a 200-mile race in what proves to be the wettest day of the year because there’s a paycheck in it. They do it because it’s fun. They do it to test themselves. They do it to prove to themselves that they can.”

Fireweed Bike Race winners

Solo Male

Zachary Morvant, 10:28:19

Solo Female

Emily Mailman, 13:58:32

2 Person Male Team

Natty Ones (Alex Yang, Cameron Jimmo), 11:49:59

2 Person Female Team

Dill Pickle (Jody Barton, Katelynn Stearns), 11:13:16

2 Person Coed Team

AHAAW (Andrew Weller, Hillary Weller), 11:40:42

4 Person Male Team

Goldstream Sports (Jordan Laker-Morris, Dylan Low, Eric Difalco, Luke Buth), 8:47:16

4 Person Female Team

It’s All Downhill From Here (Mary Kay Sorich, Suzanne Armentrout, Jessica Maves, Ruth Kroona), 13:16:25

4 Person Coed Team

The Legends (Tim Lawrence, Chris Lindsey, Kristina Storlie, Artiom Gorash), 9:52:59

4 Person Nonbinary Team

Team Zerto (Cesar Rodgers, Zoe Rodgers, Douglas Barrows), 12:48:41

Open Team

Ragtag Riders ii (Courtney Heinz, Clayton Harrison, Bert Martin, Ryan Debonis, Burt Heinz), 11:15:24

Brewers Cup

Denali Brewing Company Team A

Visit thefireweed.org for full updated results.