I think the course description summed up stage 2 quite well. “Today is good. Today is stuffed chock full of terrain that brings us all back to those components of why we all ride. To test our legs and lungs against mother nature.”
Stage 2 saw us set of from middle of downtown Breckenridge and soon as the police escort pulled to the side the front guys in the open category shot off up the first climb. Mike Schilling racing for Wilderness Sports, who by the way is a great competitor, had a 6 minutes lead on me in the 30-40 male solo category and I was hoping to make up some time on him. Just after we crested the first climb I crashes hard but luckily on my right side so that left and right side match. While I was telling myself that 35 psi is clearly not the right tyre pressure Mike passed me and I knew it was going to be a long hard day. Just over 25km into the stage we started the real climb of the day that would take us up to 3,400m above sea level. It was at this climb that I finally managed to catch Mike. The Colorado trail descent on the other side was a true grin inducing experience with sharp switchbacks and I was trying my best to keep in contact with Mike. This decent really made all the blood (literally) and sweat worthwhile. The descent takes you down from 3,400m to 2,850m in the space of 5km so that should give some indication of how much fun it was.
Everything that goes down must go up again and the descent was followed by two sharp climbs and on the second one I managed to open up a gap on Mike. I knew it was time to push it on the last climb of the day to make up some time. Altitude was definitely not my friend and at one point it felt as if my head was going to explode. I managed to keep the pace up win my category and make 4 minutes up on Mike.
Breck Epic stage 3.
Mt. Guyot – 63km, 1,850m total ascent
Stage 3 saw us cross the Continental Divide twice as part of our circumnavigation of Mt. Guyot! As for stage 2 we set of from downtown Breckenridge but this time instead of starting with a climb after the neutral zone we had a long flattish gravel section where there guys in the open category quickly formed a single pace line. Didn’t take long for some of us to drop off and the pace settled down into something that I could manage. A short fun singletrack section and then we hit the first climb of the day. I was paying the price from stage 2’s hard effort and it didn’t take Mike long to pass me. It seems the race was on between him and I in the 30-40 Solo male category as the 3rd placed racer was over 44 minutes down on us after 2 stages. We ended up riding for the next 25km.
20km into the stage we found ourselves on French Gulch Trail climbing up towards out first Continental Divide crossing of the day at 3,600m. The last part of the climb was a hike-a-bike section and although it was hard no MTB stage race would be complete without a good old hike-a-bike section. The views from the top were magnificent and we actually crossed a small patch of snow just as we started out decent down French Pass. It is always a pity that one doesn’t get more time to admire the scenery during a race. Unfortunately I had to focus to try and keep up with Mike on the descent but he managed to drop me and it was only towards the end of the next long gravel road climb that I managed to catch up again. The decent that followed down Gorgia Gulch via the Colorado trail was the best single track I’ve seen so far in this race and I just couldn’t stop smiling. Rocky, rooty with a lot of switchbacks but the great thing was that the trail was quite tacky.
Just after water point 3 Mike and I were riding together again when he said that he think we have taken the wrong turn even though the arrow and confirmation ribbons were clearly indicating that we were on the right trail. Just as we were discussing it the front guys came back up the trail. Turns out somebody messed around with the course markings sending us down the wrong route. Luckily a few guys knew the route from previous years and we were back on course but it did end up costing stage wins for some of the front guys. The last big climb was a real vein popping experience that only got steeper and steeper. At last we crested and we were onto the home straight – or so I though. Just as we dropped onto the road close to were we finished yesterday we were sent on a single track loop before we finished. Normally I would love this singletrack but after such a hard stage it almost felt cruel. However, seeing my biggest cheerleader/race supporter Nadene at the finish put a smile back on my face In the end I managed to make up some more time on Mike putting me into the leaders jersey for my category.