Eagle County went 2-for-2 at the ninth-annual Fat Bike Worlds last month in Leadville.

Minturn’s Haley Dumke and Eagle-Vail’s Josiah Middaugh claimed the respective women’s and men’s titles on Jan. 27 at Colorado Mountain College. It was Dumke’s first title and Middaugh’s fifth.

“It was great to see the event draw riders from all over the country and pretty awesome to get both wins for Eagle County!” Dumke stated in an email after the event.

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Middaugh, who won the event four straight times between 2019-2022, completed the four, 5.5-mile laps of the CMC trail system in 1 hour, 25 minutes and 48 seconds to top the 175-athlete field.

“I actually felt really good on the gradual climbs, which is not a given at 10,000 feet,” the 15-time XTERRA USA champion said. “The downhills were fast with a lot of pedaling and the corners were a little tricky since they were off camber and lots of front wheel slides. I felt like I was getting more comfortable with the handling with each lap.”

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Middaugh said he had 7.5 psi of pressure in his rear tire and 5.5 psi in the front.

“With a multiple-lap course, it is hard to get the pressure just right because the course conditions can change with (that many) riders and four laps,” he said. “Luckily, the course was very firm and with the cold temps, (it) held up better than expected.”

Canon City’s Ryan Graber (1:26:24), and Boulder’s Ryan Petry (1:30:16) rounded out the men’s podium while Leadville’s Jill Cederholm-Mairs (1:51:20) and Lisa Isom (1:54:26) — who coaches Nordic skiing at Battle Mountain — rounded out the women’s top three.

The course’s long, railroad-grade climbs thinned out the men’s field to seven fairly early. Middaugh stayed near the front to make sure he could cover any early moves. By the end of the first lap, only Graber, Petry and Middaugh remained in the lead group.

“I put in a small surge in the middle of the second lap and opened up a small gap,” Middaugh recalled. “At that point, I decided I could go solo and keep pushing the climbs and it worked out.”

The women’s drama unfolded a bit differently.

Dumke trailed Cederholm-Mairs by 39 seconds after a 27:51 first lap, but rocketed through the second in 26:11 to take a 15-second lead. The Leadville rider fell off her early pace, clocking in at 28:30 and 28:22 for her final two revolutions, while Dumke stayed steady with 26:42 and 26:43 as her final two lap times.

“The race felt like it was all-out from the starting line,” Dumke said. “Since it’s a lapped course, it was interesting to see how the snow conditions changed on each lap after a few hundred bikes had gone through since the last time you had been there — it definitely kept it exciting!”

Dumke is the second Eagle County woman — after Karen Jarchow won in 2017 — to claim the Fat Bike World crown.

“Beyond the race itself, the fat bike and Leadville community showed up to bring the spirit with costumes, cowbells, and fire pits cooking bacon,” she said. “It was a really fun day to spend in the mountains with the cycling community.”

Eleven Eagle County athletes participated in the three-day fat bike festival, which included an ‘enduro’ race, a kids race, grooming demonstration and singletrack group rides on Jan. 28. Race director Sterling Mudge said 318 riders took part in the race weekend.

“The event enjoyed Leadville’s amazing blue sky and the course conditions were great,” he said. “We can’t thank the riders and their amazing cowbell-ringing spectators that brought the energy to such a great event.”

Mudge is now preparing for the next race in the Cloud City Wheelers Leadville Winter Bike Series: the Tennessee Pass Night Jam is this Saturday night at 6:15 p.m.

Middaugh said he’d like to see the Fat Bike Worlds event return to Leadville a second time.

“They had a great turnout and (are) guaranteed to have snow,” he said. “If it does, I will have a hard time finding an excuse not to do it.”