Team Eastside Cycles: Breck Epic – Race Report and Reflections…

Quick Stats:

• 6 days of racing

• 211 miles and approximately 33,000’ climbing (According to my Garmin)

• Longest stage = 43 miles; Shortest stage = 29 miles

• Racers from 35 states and 25 countries

• High Points – 12,507’ (Wheeler Pass), 11,585’ (Georgia Pass), 11,481 (Boreas Pass), 11,398’ (French Pass)

• Favorite stages = 3, 4, 6

• Least favorite stages = 1 and 5

• Experience = Awesome!

• Difficulty = EPIC!!

This past week I was fortunate enough to race the Breck Epic 6-day Mountain Stage Race in Breckenridge, Colorado. I have been interested in mountain bike stage racing for several years now and always followed racing coverage of the various mountain bike stage races such as the BC Bike Race, TransRockies, La Ruta, Mongolian Bike Challenge and the Breck Epic. The cost of these events are usually pretty expensive, but the opportunity to enter the Breck Epic at a deeply discounted early registration rate last August ended up being too tempting. At this time last year, I was pretty much finished riding my bikes for the season and waiting to meet with surgeons to discuss having a microdiscetomy on my lower back as it became increasingly difficult to go about my daily activities. I was hesitant to pull the trigger on the Breck Epic, but luckily, Beth encouraged me and even loaned me the money to register for this year’s event. I ended up having back surgery in late September, with the carrot of the Breck Epic looming in the distant future.

Fast forward 11 months and it was go time! I arrived in Breckenridge, elevation 9,600’, the day before the race was to begin. My preparation for the Breck Epic was really just riding my bike a lot. After spending 4 months off the bike recovering from the surgery, I kind of lost my desire to train like I use to and a whole lot of fitness! In years past, I integrated intensity via intervals to build fitness and power on the bike. Going into this year, my intention was the same, but when the time came to really train, I just did not have the desire. Instead, my training involved more of endurance rides and fun hard rides, rather than the more mundane hill repeats or interval sessions I had grown accustomed to. Even with the change of training protocol, I still struggled with the desire to even want to race, let alone ride a lot every week. So, my training thoughts quickly turned to getting in shape for the High Cascade 100 in late July and that should be good enough to do the Breck Epic three weeks later. Short story, stage racing and 1-day endurance races are very different!

Back to stage 0, the day before the race. Brent Gorman and I arrived in town and went over to the base camp area for the race week to pick up our race packets. Almost immediately, we ran into fellow Boise racer Todd Meir and talked with him for awhile. Todd had spent the previous week acclimating in Salida, camping and riding his mountain and moto bikes. After packet pick up, Brent and I went for a short ride before the mandatory rider meeting at 5:00. Immediately into the ride, I was breathing very hard, even though we were just spinning on one of the local trails. The rest of the day was spent attending the racer meeting and getting ready for the week of racing. Joining Brent and I in the week’s adventure were Boise racers John Odle and Matt Hanrahan and two of Brent’s friends from Alaska Tim Berntson and Jeff Ellis. Other Boise racers that made the trip, in addition to Todd, were Sean Hassinger and Matt Woodruff.

Stage 1 – Pennsylvania Creek (35 miles / 5,500’). The house awoke at 6:00 with great anticipation for the first day of racing. According to the racer meeting, this stage was one of the two rockiest stages of the week and some seasoned Breck Epic riders even considered it the hardest. The race director also described this stage as ‘Classic Breckenridge’ riding. The race started with a 2-mile climb up Boreas Pass Rd before jumping onto single track. Immediately into the race, I found myself redlining and gasping for air. My thoughts quickly turned to doubt that I was even going to finish this stage let alone the race week. The gasping for air and difficulty breathing would last the remainder of the stage. I even remember wondering if this is, what it was like to have asthma.

On the first descent, mechanicals and mishaps were already occurring. A pro rider from Japan, who had taken 7th at Leadville the day before was on the side of the trail with some sort of mechanical. Shortly after, a few riders were tending to another rider who had crashed at the bottom of the 2nd descent and was bleeding from the back of his head. He ended up getting 11 stitches and was ok, but we were only maybe 5 miles into the week long race. After a few short descents, the trail pitched upwards for 4 miles. The trail was similar to the climb out of the Lava Lakes section of the High Cascade, but longer, rockier, steeper and much less frequent plateaus. Already, many racers were practicing their hike-a-bike, which we would all utilize during the week at different times. I finally reached aid 1 around 14 miles and a volunteer was waiting for me with my aid bag in hand. I stopped and tipped my head back to drink the rest of my water bottle before taking a new one and almost passed out with my vision temporarily going to blackness. This was going to be a long day, 14 miles down and 21 to go. The rest of the stage mellowed out slightly, but it was littered with steep climb after steep climb. We ended up climbing up to 11,000’ four times during the stage. With 1 mile to go, I began to cramp while going DOWNHILL and had to stop for a few minutes. My right hamstring and quad were both seized up and I couldn’t move. I finally got myself down to the finish and was wasted. This was the hardest 35 miles and 5.5k of climbing I think I ever experienced on the bike due to the technical trail and altitude. My finishing time was 3 hours and 55 minutes for a 14th/28 finish in my age group (30 – 39). Todd Wells (day after Leadville) and Alex Grant did the stage in 2:46……..AMAZING! The rest of the day was the beginning of the daily routine for the remainder of the week; race, drop bike off, eat, shower, put on compression socks, stretch, rest, pick up bike, racer meeting, eat, and sleep.

Stage 2 – Colorado Trail (37.4 miles / 5,300'). The next stage was described by the race director at Sunday’s night racer meeting as ‘Classic Colorado’ riding compared to ‘Classic Breckenridge’ riding the day before. The trail was to be much smoother and not as hard. I awoke to feeling a little fatigued and was worried about how the day would go with altitude, since the prior day was so difficult for me. After getting out of the starting gate, the days racing felt much better. All of the trail rode was really cool, but my favorite was riding these sections of rocky spines of old mining flumes and yes there was a ton of steep climbing during the day including Heinous Hill. While the riding much smoother than day 1, we all decided that the race director must be a ‘crunchy’ vs. ‘creamy’ type of peanut butter connoisseur since the ‘smooth’ Colorado Trail loop was still much rockier and technical than we are used to in Boise and Alaska. This assumption ended up holding true for the remainder of the week. Day 2 ended in a time of 4:00 hours and 13th in my age group.

Stage 3 – Mt. Guyot (36 miles / 6,564’). After the 2nd day going better than the first with the altitude, I was excited for stage 3. Stage 3 was originally considered the Queen Stage of the race, but racing the whole week, stages 4 and 5 are just as hard or harder. The stage was actually described as 38 miles and 7,774’ feet of climbing, but racers Garmin’s recorded otherwise once finished. To me, stage 3 introduces the real ‘flavor’ and uniqueness of the Breck Epic. During the day, we would climb and descend the continental divide twice via French Pass (11.398’) and Georgia Pass (11,585’).

The stage started like any other day, a short neutral roll-out on the road to a steep 2-track climb. The first 10 miles consisted of really fun singletrack and a descent down Little French, which we had climbed up on day 1. Little French is basically a very rocky and slippery old mining flume that you hope not to crash or have a mechanical in. At the 10-mile mark, the 1st of 3 aid stations arrived before starting the 4-mile long climb to French Pass. About a mile or so from the pass, the trail opened up above tree-line and you could see the solid line of racers pushing their bike straight up hill. The hike-a-bike lasted about 0.5 hour. While cresting the pass, a handful of local bikers were present to cheer racers on and even offering a ‘taste of the rainbow’ thru a pitcher full of skittles! After loading my mouth full of skittles, I began the steep and rocky descent off of the pass through the alpine tundra. At this moment, the word ‘ridiculous’ came muttering out of my mouth and I felt like I was part of a really cool group mountain bike ride rather than a race. From French Pass, we descended back down to 10,000’ only to climb via Middle Fork Rd back up to Georgia Pass.

The climb was maybe 3.5 miles long and towards the top, the storm clouds let loose with rain and hail. Luckily, I had planned for the long day above tree line and had my vest and arm warmers in my jersey pocket. I stopped briefly to put on the extra layers and continued along the ridge in the hail to the pass. After reaching the pass, some more Breck Epic ‘superfans’ were there offering up shots of espresso. I took a quick shot and then proceeded to bomb down the very long and steep descent from the continental divide down to 9,800’. After exiting the alpine, into the trees, the singletrack was covered in hail. My glasses became quickly covered in mud and spent the rest of the day without sunglasses. The last few miles of the descent consisted of really rocky trail, similar to the rockiest hiking trail you could imagine. The word I muttered for this section was ‘gnarly’ after realizing that it was becoming endless. I ended up riding most of it except for a small portion towards the end. The rest of the stage consisted of more cross-country type of riding back to Breckenridge. With about 10 miles left in the stage, I realized that half of my spring from my right pedal was missing. Luckily, the cleat mechanism still worked enough to somewhat keep my foot attached to the pedal for the rest of the stage. The stage ended with another strong thunderstorm about 4 miles to the finish. The day was done with a time of 4:40 and another 14th placing.

Stage 4 – Aqueduct (43 miles / 6,332’). Day 4 consisted of more of a cross-country style loop that brought us to the backside of Keystone ski resort. The stage was also the longest of the stage race, in terms of miles. The previous day was fun, but ended up being the stage where I lost the most amount of time. Day 3 I didn’t feel really fresh, but Day 4 I was feeling a little spunkier. On day 3, I began eating two lunches , which I carried on the habit for the rest of the week. The stage consisted of 6 significant climbs, which included another trip up Heinous Hill and a trip up Vomit Hill (1.2 miles / 800’). This was probably my overall best day of riding and I finally found the big ring on the climbs. Short story – 4:39 hours and 11th (missing a top 10 by 6 seconds).

Stage 5 – Wheeler Pass (29 miles / 5,013’). Day 5 brought us to the high point of the week at just over 12,500’. After having a good day on the bike the day before, I felt confident of my abilities of having an even better day. This quickly changed once the race started. My legs felt completely ‘flat’ and I did not have anything for the entire day.

The stage began with climbing right away on dirt service road at the base of Beaver Run at the Breckenridge ski area and up into the alpine. Within the first 5 miles, we were already above 11,000’. The hike-a-bike was even longer on this stage then on day 2, but I think you could ride a lot more of it on a non-race day, without so many people. With that said, even the top pros hiked a large majority of the upper trails of the pass.

After topping out over Wheeler Pass and passing by the bacon feed from more ‘superfans’, it is a 3,000’ descent in less than 3.3 miles. My forearms were getting so blown that I had to stop half way down to shake them out, so I could keep a grip on my handlebars. Once at the bottom, a 8-mile time trial or pace line (if you were lucky) on the local bike path to Frisco proceeded. Once at Frisco, we jumped back onto dirt road and trail back to Breckenridge with one final 1,500’ climb, which was new to the course this year. It turned out to be one of the least enjoyable climbs of the week and consisted of steep grades along a cobbled / boulder strewn road. Then, once we finally got to singletrack for the last 5 miles, the trail was littered with tree roots making this section nothing like what we had ridden the 4 days prior. Finished the stage and felt the most beat up than from any other stage. For me, this was by far the hardest day on the bike of the week, followed by stage 1. I got back to the house and proceeded to ‘bitch and moan’ to Brent on how ‘stupid’ this stage was. Looking back, it is a cool stage minus that last climb! 13th place and finishing time of 3:50.

Stage 6 – (31 miles / 3,416 feet). Last day. Holy moly, this has been a long and tiring week. Beth arrived the day before and got to see firsthand how beat up everyone was with their altitude cough and sore legs. The last day was a festive atmosphere and I think everyone was ready to celebrate such an amazing week of riding and racing. The day would take us up and over Boreas Pass twice, but with a much more reasonable amount and pitch of climbing. Starting the stage, I was worried how my body would respond. My legs were very tender to the touch from day 5 and I ended up not sleeping very well the night before.

The stage started with an uphill grind up Boreas Pass road before jumping onto singletrack. Surprisingly, my legs were responding well and I was big ring climbing once again! At about mile 9, deep in the woods, I began to hear music and thought we might be getting close to Boreas Pass. Instead, around the next switchback, my favorite ‘superfan’ of the week was on the side of the trail playing the banjo in a tuxedo t-shirt and lycra bottoms. This ‘superfan’ road up on his bike and provided some great music to all the racers on the last day. Shortly after, we popped out onto the dirt road and the pace line was on to the top of Boreas Pass. From there, we descended the super fun mining flume of the Gold Dust Trail before climbing back up to Boreas Pass a second time. At Boreas Pass, the Team Ergon van were doing PBR hand-ups. Going over the pass, I grabbed a PBR and slammed about half of it before choking on it. I was now prepped for the 7 mile descent to the finish. The descent was super fun and fast and ended in 2:39 and another 11th. Beth was at the finish line to greet me and all racers were congratulating each other on finishing up the week.

All in all, the Breck Epic was awesome and actually epic! My goal for the week was to have fun, not break my bike or any bones. I succeeded on all levels and escaped the week without any mechanicals. My racing performance was average, but it is hard to tell what your body will do at altitude. Also, the field was super strong and deep. 7 of 12 riders in front of me in my category were from another country and riding extremely fast. The local Boise riders all did awesome, finished all 6 stages and held their own in the thin air against the Colorado locals!

So, brings me to several questions:'Would I do it again?', YES; 'Will I do it again next year', MAYBE; 'Would I recommend it', DEFINITELY; but get yourself a full suspension! My Rocky Mountain Element rocked all week and worked flawlessly! Everyday I was amazed that people were racing their hardtails! The week was by far the hardest week of riding I have ever done and I am a better rider for it. Also, some of the stages were some of the hardest rides I had ever done. MILES AND VERTICAL DO NOT COME EASY IN BRECKENRIDGE!