Breck Epic Stage 1 - Pennsylvania Creek

I arrived in Breckenridge on a Friday afternoon (race started Sunday).  Melissa was also racing and had decided to drive out with me.  For the past 8 days, we had an adventure that started out with us riding at Devil's Den State Park, where I got well over 100 chigger bites, followed up by me losing my wallet at a gas station on Day 2 of our bike-cation.  Don't judge those standing in the Western Union line at Wal-Mart, as it could be YOU one day 😂😂😂.

Trail 401 - Crested Butte

Trail 401 - Crested Butte

The next 6 days we spent in Salida and Crested Butte, stimulating our bone marrow.  My total ride time for the week prior to Breck Epic was 18 hours; probably not the best idea right before a 6 day stage race, but could ... not ... help ... myself.  On Day 7 of our bike-cation, Melissa initially thought she had altitude sickness, but by the next day, it became pretty apparent that she had a full blown upper respiratory infection.  I then spent the next 2 days distancing myself from the nasal spew-fest, but near impossible when sharing a hostel room and vehicle.

Upon arriving in Breckenridge, I dropped off Melissa at Naomi's AirBNB, where she would be rooming with her during the race.  Sorry Naomi, for dropping off my Wuhan friend to you 😷.  I then made my way over to where Dave and I would be staying at Beaver Run, the host resort.  At this point, I was an nervous as hell about contracting Melissa's illness, but hoping that if I got past the 3rd stage of Breck Epic, I would be in the clear.

We spent Saturday getting our bikes and nutrition ready and in the evening headed over to the venue for packet pick up and the racer's meeting.  Mike, the race director, gave us an overview of Stage 1.  He was also super stoked that 60 pro women had signed up, by far one of the largest women's field ever, in the mountain biking discipline.  To muster up that number, he had comped every one of them, who had a pro license and whose application was accepted.

That night, rain had passed through, and as we were getting ready at 6 am on Saturday, it was raining hard and blowing side ways.  I felt like I was getting ready for a Pisgah Productions race.  Putting all the rain gear on, Dave and I pedaled the 1/2 mile to the start at the Ice Rink.  Upon arriving, we found out that the race had been delayed from 8:30 to 9:00.  Since there was no warm, dry area to wait, we pedaled back to our room.  A half hour later we then drove back to the start, only to find out that the it had been delayed again to 9:30.  At least we had somewhere warm and dry to wait. By now the rain had let up, but there was still a chill in the air.

Only after we were in the start corral, with a few minutes before the gun went off, did we also discover that the distance had been shortened from 35 miles to 16 miles.  So here I was stuck with a full 50 ounce bladder and a bottle on the bike.  And I was NOT going to dump any of that expensive Skratch super hi-carb fuel on the ground.

The race started on pavement.  It was blistering fast!  I thought we would have longer before hitting the single track, but the hole shot came at 1 mile.  Now think of 300+ racers funneling into tight single track.  It was a clusterfuck!  Dave and I waited at least a minute until we started moving again.  It was muddy and slick, but this is BRECK EPIC!  I was dialed and loving every slippery moment. 

The course was a mix of single track and double track.  The double track either went straight the F up ... or straight F'ing down, and was littered with jagged baby heads.  Dave wasn't quite feeling it the first few miles, so I let him lead.  We did end up having to HAB some ... the 2800 feet of elevation gain was mostly in the first 10 miles!

On a double track descent, Dave got ahead of me as he rode a secondary line around a couple of slower racers.  Me, I was not willing to risk a flat, so I patiently waited for a safer opportunity to pass.  The last single track descent was on Baker's Tank Trail and was oodles of greasy fun!  I felt at home in this element.  We finished up the descent on Baldy Road.

Our time of 2:09 was good enough for 5th and just 3 minutes out from 4th.  The top 3 teams were way ahead of us, and also way younger.  I was happy with how we did.  While Dave pedaled back to retrieve his truck, I pedaled on over to the bike wash at Beaver Run and gave Taz a thorough cleaning. Since the climbing out here is, on average 8%, with grades easily getting up to 15-18% and beyond, I decided to ride Blaze (Top Fuel with a 28T chain ring) the remainder of the stages.  Taz has a 30T chain ring.

Now I was off to the recovery race: shower, eat, stretch, leg squeezing with Elevation Legs, prep for tomorrow, eat again, sleep.