In which I win a bike race in Colorado...

My 2015 racing season got off to a good start with a 9.5 hr finish at True Grit, but quickly turned "meh" with travel in April and June, and cancelled races in May. July, though, has been pretty good. So far I've raced twice, and both times have been really fun. First I raced the Firecracker 50 Team Relay with KMill. He's gotten really fast (again), so we ended up in the top 20 with some pretty fast dudes ahead of us. Last weekend in went up the Breckenridge again for the B68, which is the last two loops of the Breck 100. I honestly had no expectations for this race since I was using it as prep for the upcoming Maah Daah Hey 100, so when the race started I immediately started going my pace instead of trying to keep up with the two other people I saw in my age class. We hit some trails familiar to me from the Firecracker first, including the climb part-way up Little French Gulch, but soon we were on new stuff. All the trails around Breck are some of the best I've ever ridden, and West Ridge and the Colorado Trail did not disappoint.

I kept rolling at my pace with no indication of where I was. Occasionally another 68-mile racer would pass me, but it was mostly the 32-milers (they were only doing Loop 2) coming by. I had a little bit of a sucky section on the Gold Run Road, but other than that I rode pretty steadily the entire loop. There was nothing too technical out on course, just lots of fast descending and steep climbs.

The third loop (the second loop for the 68-milers) was a little different and would take us up and over Boreas Pass and down into Como. Of course we didn't just climb up Boreas Pass Road to get to the top. That would be too easy. There was some singletrack that turned into doubletrack, that turned into eroded, rock doubletrack, that eventually dumped us out on Boreas Pass road less than 1000 vertical feet from the top. Other than Little French, the trails getting you to Boreas Pass Road were probably the hardest climbs of the course. Even with 30x42 as my low gear on my SRAM XX1 transmission, I did a lot of 60 rpm mashing to keep moving through the loose grapefruit-sized rocks. I stopped at the aid station at the Pass to grab some magic juice (Coca-Cola), and hit out down what would turn out to be the best trail of the day, and definitely the best trail I've yet ridden in all of Colorado. Gold Dust Trail is an amazing almost 10 mile long singletrack that drops from about 0.3 mi off Boreas Pass into Como. Along the way there's wide open rocky sections, a section of old flume which is basically a slot-car track with berms on both sides, a section that reminded me of Iceberg in the Frederick Watershed, and a tight, twisty, rooty descent to finish it off. You have to pedal to maintain speed because the grade is very gentle, but I don't think I touched my brakes once during the flume section. I would definitely make trips to Como just to ride this descent plus the climb from there up to the Pass.

After Gold Dust it was straight back up and over Boreas Pass, then back down to Breck with a diversion onto Baker's Tank and some other singletrack to finish the race. I had started pushing a little harder on my second loop (as dictated my my training goals), and really went as hard as I could  over the top of Boreas and on the whole route down. When I finished, I was pretty shelled; racing in Breck for near 8 hrs is hard on your entire body. After I collected myself, I checked the results sheet and it had me in second place, but I noticed that my times for both loops were exactly the same (down to the hundredth of a second). As this seemed very unlikely, I walked away hoping to still be on the podium when the got it sorted out. When our podium eventually happened, they called my name up in first place. Apparently I was one of two racers in my age category to finish both loops, and I did it 45 minutes faster than the other guy.

A nice plaque and a sixer of Oscar Blues were my prizes

I'm really stoked to have a result, especially since I was treating this as a training race. I had a really great day on the bike, and am looking forward to taking this fitness forward to my greater goals this year, the Maah Daah Hey 100 in two weeks and the Vapor Trail 125 in September. My Pivot Cycles Mach 429c did everything I asked of it without question during the race, and my Kappius KW-1.5 wheels are still round and true even after taking a few accidental hits. As always Ergon kept my hands and butt comfy, and Carborocket kept fuel in my belly. Thanks to 92Fifty for just being the best damn team in the business! I'm looking forward to a few more races this year, and maybe some stuff into October on the mountain bike.

All smiles coming off the Colorado Trail before Aid #4