Jay Petervary hates to be cold. That by itself is not an odd statement, plenty of people hate to be cold, I know I do. What’s make it slightly strange for Petervary to say it, is that he is a giant in a sport where being cold is kind of a foregone conclusion, fat biking. If you want to be more specific about it, long distance self supported fat biking. To be clear, Petervary said he just knows how to stay warm. In 2013 he set a new record on the Iditarod Trail invitational, finishing in 2 days, 19 hours, smashing the old record by 10 hours.

I talked to Jay at Fitzgerald’s Bicycles in Victor, where he works, just before he headed off to an over 100 mile race in Minnesota.

He would go on to beat the second place finisher in the Arrowhead 135 by over an hour, in a race where temperatures were well below freezing the entire time.

I asked him about his new bike, the Salsa Beargrease. (Petervary is sponsored by Salsa.) We also talked about what draws him to fat biking besides just the riding, the survival skills and equipment riders need.

Petervary said for a long race, “you need shelter, you need a sleeping bad, you need a way to boil water which means a stove, a pot, a way to carry water, you need to carry your calories, you need to carry and an extra expedition jacket, possibly an extra change of clothing.”

He said he’s hosting his own long distance race, Jay P’s Backyard Fat Pursuit on March 1st. The race will feature 60K and 200K divisions. He said that he has set equipment requirements for each rider to help keep competitors safe. Petervary said he also has put into place measures like snowmobile patrols to keep riders safe in case something goes wrong. He said that makes the Fat Pursuit a good event for riders who want to try a long distance race, but in a more safe environment that trying to tackle say, the Iditarod course.

Though he said, just like any long race there are challenges.

“Its not just about riding a bike, there’s an adventure here, that’s what I like to call it. Your going on an adventure,” he said.

The music on this episode was made by Sergio De La Garza Palacios and was used under the Creative Commons license.

This article appeared in the Teton Valley News on February 20, 2014.