InkFreeNews file photo from Fat & Skinny Tire Fest 2019.

WINONA LAKE — The Kosciusko County Velo Board of Directors announced that the Fat & Skinny Tire Fest has been postponed until 2021 via a post on social media.

The KCV Board of Directors and FSTF management team have followed the COVID-19 development closely and are committed to ensuring the health and safety of its participants, volunteers and spectators.

On March 16, Indiana Governor Eric Holcomb mandated all events with more than 50 people be canceled through May 11, in line with the earlier recommendations from the CDC, said a news release from Kosciusko County Velo and Fat & Skinny Tire Fest

Given these events, there are too many variables to allow us to properly plan and execute the world-class event we are known for. It is with heavy hearts that we must postpone FSTF 17 to May 21, 22 and 23, 2021.

We would like to thank the volunteers who have already spent countless hours in planning, our sponsors who are in full support of this decision, and the participants and spectators who have already signed up for, or were looking forward to, one of the Festival’s 40+ events. All registrations received for the 2020 FSTF will be refunded.

This would have been the 17th consecutive year for the Fat and Skinny Tire Festival, which celebrates all types of cycling and the diverse communities involved.

FSTF has not only been a fixture in the Midwest cycling community, but also a premier event for our local communities of Winona Lake and the greater Warsaw area. KCV is 100% committed to bringing this event back bigger and better in 2021.

The organization is planning a new mountain bike event for August 2020; check back on our social media and website for updated information. In the meantime, we urge you to please continue to support your local communities, organizations and businesses in any safe way possible.

As our late friend, Robbie Gast, one of FSTF’s founders, would say, “Ride On.”