Breck Epic Stage 2

Ouch!  37 miles and another 5000' of climbing.  It was a little more fun than yesterday, and despite the longer course, I was only about 5 minutes slower.  I was 23rd yesterday and 18th today, so a move up relatively speaking.



Today, was a ton of fun.  After a few miles of climbing on pavement and dirt, we turned onto a fast dirt descent.  Unfortunately my legs took a while to get going and the first hour was pretty miserable for me.  The climb hurt a lot, and I just couldn't get my heartrate up.  I've been averaging 15-20bpm less than at home out here.  Given that we spend most of the days between 10000' and 11000' this isn't a huge surprise.  It is however challenging to have to ride so far below what you know you can do.  I've found that if the grade is 5%-10% and I can "big ring" it, then I can roll really well.  Once it pitches up and I've got to go above threshold, I really suffer.

I forgot all about that suffering though after the descent when we turned onto some fast, flowy singletrack in and out of the trees.  We motored along for a few miles and I was in a nice group of 4 that was absolutely flying along!  I was almost giggling I was having such a great time!  This section dumped out into the first Aid Station and I filled up my water bottle.  I didn't carry a Camelbak today, just two bottles on my Specialized Epic FSR and a jacket in my back pocket.  The temperature was a bit cooler than yesterday (around 65), but the course was more open and it was sunnier.

After the Aid Station is was more fire road climbing, but was a nice section that I could roll on.  I was able to make up some time and started to pass people before we hit a really sweet singletrack climb up the Colorado Trail.  This was a long climb, about an hour total and I was able to settle into a nice rhythm.  It hurt, but you pretty much just went as hard as you could until the top.  Near the top I felt a few raindrops, so took the time to stop and put my jacket on  before the phenomenal descent back down into the valley.  The descent was super-fast, switchbacks, and a few drop offs.  I had one rider pass me near the top and he rocketed away before we hit "the gulch" which was several miles of riding through a 12 inch wide ditch.  I was able to pass several riders here as a lot of them had flats, etc.

We reached the second Aid Station and I finished my Perpetuem and grabbed some GU Roctane for the last stretch of the race.  We hit a paved stretch and as the hail started, I zipped my jacket up and got into a tuck as I motored by another few riders.  We then turned onto some nice neighborhood singletrack that wound through a golf course before dumping us into a really fun and flowy section that rolled up and down.  I had my best moments of the race and not only was I feeling good, but I was really flying through the trees and around the berms here.  This dumped onto another dirt climb and I had to pay a bit for my efforts over the past 2 hours.  The first hour and last hour of the race were really my worst moments of the day.  I held my own but suffered a bit up the last climb before a flying and fun descent back into Breckenridge!

Tuesday is up to the Continental Divide 2 times!  Wish me luck and fun.

- Chris