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  • Breck Epic 2019

     

    Featured photo courtesy of Ron Kennedy

    The Breck Epic event has been on my bucket list for years – maybe eight or 10 years. My buddy Scott Ellis and I planned on doing the race in 2017. That did not happen so I’m doing it in 2019 with his spirit-support.

    What is Breck Epic? It is a six-day mountain bike stage race on the trails in Summit County, Colorado. Each stage starts and finishes in Breckenridge (at roughly 9,600 feet elevation.) At the sweet age of 61, I am concerned about simply finishing the event. I am told by the race director that only one woman in the 60+ age category has completed this event. That was 10 years ago. There are only two of us in the 60+ age category entered in 2019, so we’ll be racing in an age category of women 50+. Men 60+ will race their own category because there are five or more of them racing.

    I took a quick count of entrants last week (numbers may have changed since) and there are 332 people entered in the 6-day SOLO category, 51 of which are women (15% of the field.)

    My goal is to simply finish every day so that I can begin the next day. Then repeat the routine to total six days of riding. To give you some perspective, below is the stage listing, miles per day, elevation gain that day and the daily feet-per-mile of climbing.

     

    Breck Epic Stage

    Miles

    Feet of Elevation Gain

    Feet/Mile

    Maximum Race Elevation (Feet)

    1

    36.4

    5700

    157

    11,188

    2

    41.4

    6565

    159

    11,154

    3

    39.2

    7100

    181

    12,030

    4

    41.2

    6473

    157

    11,160

    5

    24

    5227

    218

    12,539

    6

    29.3

    3740

    128

    11,468

    Totals and avg

    211.5

    34805

    166

    11,590

     

    What makes any race “hard” is some combination of distance, weather conditions, altitude, feet of climbing and whether the course includes technical climbing and descending. Breck Epic has all of those. To compare some other one-day races with Breck Epic, look at the chart below. Or, you can take data from your own race and ride experience to have some kind of comparison.

     

    Race

    Miles

    Total Ascent (Feet)

    Feet Per Mile of Racing

    Minimum Elevation (Feet)

    Maximum Race Elevation (Feet)

    Dakota Five-O

    46.87

    6,260

    134

    3,517

    5,940

    Breck 32                                  

    34.3

    4,551

    133

    9,382

    11,142

    Gunnison Growler

    35.7

    4,659

    131

    7,415

    8,269

    Firecracker 50

    51.3

    6,394

    125

    9,132

    10,580

    Breck 68

    70

    8,508

    122

    9,367

    11,437

    Laramie Enduro

    61.75

    6,763

    110

    7,838

    8,925

    Leadville

    103

    11,325

    110

    9,233

    12,479

    * Note that all three Breckenridge races start and end at the same relative location

     in Breck. The differences in elevation readings are due to barometric pressure

    differences.

     

     

     

     

     

     

    For Northern Colorado riders, below is a chart of some of the local climbs and routes along with the feet-per-mile ranking. I used many of these in my training plan. More on training later.

     

    Northern Colorado Local Training Climbs

    Miles

    Feet of Elevation Gain

    Feet/Mile

    Towers up and down

    3.6

    958

    266

    South Ridge up and down

    4.4

    1108

    252

    Pinewood from Carter entrance

    7.2

    1225

    170

    Blue Sky, Up Towers, down Mill Creek, up and down Sawmill, Blue Sky

    16.65

    2723

    164

    Old Fall River Road out and back

    22.35

    3287

    147

    4SOH

    20.39

    2720

    133

    Rist Climb from Bellvue out and back

    23.06

    2814

    122

    Buckhorn climb out and back from Masonville

    31.6

    2613

    83

    Rist Loop from home

    58.15

    4547

    78

    Estes from home - Glen Haven both ways

    64.57

    4170

    65

    ** All up and down or out and back elevations are estimated,

    using the climb data only - so all are short a bit of elevation

     

    I’ve ridden most of the Breck Epic stages last year or within the last month. I have a healthy dose of respect for this race and simply finishing is not a given for me. I expect to be riding some five to six hours each day and they are obviously not easy miles.

    So there you have it. That’s what I’ll be up to August 11th through the 16th. Riding my bike in the mountains for hours. I’m excited, nervous, fortunate, grateful, and a whole list of other emotions. I’ll try to post something each day, but no promises. It might be all I can do to finish the day, clean up, eat and get some rest.

    I tell people it’s good to do things that scare them a bit. Now I have to live my own advice.   

     

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