Breck Epic Stage 1

I've sat down and started sorting out some of the video I took during the BreckEpic mountain bike stage race. Stage One took us up Boreas Pass Road and over to Pennsylvania Gulch and descending back onto Boreas Pass to ride much of the same trails as the Firecracker 50 ultra endurance mountain bike race held annually on July 4, such as Bakers Tank, the Iowa Mill climb, Nightmare on Baldy, Sally Barber Road and Little French Gulch.

You'll note that I had a second row starting position for stage one. Because I was racing in the Open Mens division, I had the opportunity to line up with riders like 2 time (now 3 time) National 24 Hour Solo Mountain Bike Champion Josh Tostado, who I am directly behind in the video, and other riders like Federixo Ramirez, multiple La Ruta de Los Conquistadores mountain bike stage race winner, and Travis Brown, a long standing figure in the mountain bike community. Even though I would finish on Day Six placed 18 out of 19 riders and 10 hours off first place, it was still fun to be able to start on the first few rows each day.

The clips in this video include the start, Aspen Alley, Baker's Tank, Pinball Alley, Iowa Mill, Nightmare on Baldy (enterance), Nightmare on Baldy exit on to Sally Barber Road, Carter Park switchbacks. I have oodles more footage from this stage but I wanted to keep these videos pretty short.

And for you data junkies, here's Stage 1 from Strava, crack for competitive cyclists.

Breck Epic Stage 2: Colorado Trail

Today's course would take up into some of Breckenridge's finest singletrack riding on the Colorado Trail. After our "neutral" roll out of town, we climbed... and climbed some more including a up a service road known as "Heinous Hill." There wasn't much riding on that one. I had already seen this climb once before when I came up to Breckenridge to do some scouting and thought I was lost multiple times after how awful it was on that climb. While pushing up Heinous Hill, I saw the rider with the #3 race plate. He, like me, is in the unfortunate situation of being a Sport level racer under 30 years old. As a result, we get to race in the Open Mens' Division which is stacked with top racers like multiple La Ruta de los Conquistadores winner, a former U23 national champion and other pro racers. We are not out here to win this but to finish it.

Heinous Hill topped out and sent us racing down towards the Colorado Trail crossing multiple forks of the Swan River. I knew that from the bottom of descent I had about 2 miles to fuel up while riding on the road before hitting the Colorado Trail. We took a hard left turn and ripped a short section of the CT before hitting Aid Station 1. From Aid Station 1 it was a 5 mile climb up to the top of West Ridge with amazing views. My goal for this climb was to ride all of it, which I was able to do bouncing between my small and middle chainring. After topping out, we got to ride one of the best singletrack descents in town. After a series of fast switchbacks, we rolled out through a meadow at high speeds.

The fun ended when we hit the bottom of "Vomit Hill." This short grinding climb just sucked energy. We topped out and down the backside just to climb back over it on another section of the Colorado Trail.

After topping out on that section of the Colorado Trail, I was within 1 mile on aid station 2 and 10 miles of today's finish but with another grinder of a climb to go. I was getting a bit gassed and needed to fuel up at aid station 2 but miscalculated how much time I would have to eat my peanut butter and jelly sandwich before I would need both hands to navigate some singletrack. At the top of the final climb through the Gold Run woods, I was feeling gassed and ready for the finish. I knew that once I hit X10U8 It was all downhill and once I did, I let it rip to the finish line.

I felt good with today's pacing but I was having to hold myself back as I was hoping to go up a spot in the overall rankings after the racer (bib #3) flatted on the first descent. I kept having to remind myself about not overdueing myself in an effort to win, as I most certainly won't do so.

Breck Epic Stage 1: Pennsylvania Creek

Today was the opening stage of the 2011 Breck Epic, a six day mountain bike stage race in Breckenridge, Colorado. I was familiar with much of the course at it is used as part of the Firecracker 50, a 50 mile mountain bike race on July 4th.

We started with a police escort up Boreas Pass Road and dropped into a new (to me) trail known as Aspen Alley, which flows through one of the largest Aspen tree groves here in Breckenridge. Interspersed were old mine tailings and thinking I could ride down a section my rear slid out and I hit the deck. As you can see, I managed to do a number on my knee but it's feeling pretty good to go for five more days of adventure.

Once we hit Little French Gulch, a steep and rocky climb on a good day, the evidence of a storm several weeks ago was readily apparent. The trail had been washed out and massive shifts in the rocks and soil dramatically changed the ability to ride that climb.

 After some more singletrack climbing, we shot down and out onto French Gulch Road for the day's final climb- Sallie Barber Road. I told myself to put in a sustainable 30 minute effort and that would get me to the top. From the top of Sallie Barber, it is mostly a singletrack descent to the finish with some great local trails. I hit the last aid station and motored on at a pace that I felt was just right for me. I ripped the descent and crossed the finish line in 5:17 and change. In total, my computer calculated 37.5 miles of racing and 5,600 feet of climbing.

Other than the mishap less than four miles into the race, I had a strong ride and felt that my pace was pretty spot on for what I believe is sustainable for the next five days. I have no visions of course records but certainly a strong test of my physical and mental capacity over the week.

Cyclo-X Refrigerated

Albeit a few weeks late, I found this video with a few race highlights from the last cyclocross race of the season that was on January 22 at the Boulder Reservoir. Going into the race I was unsure how I'd fair as I was coming out of a nasty head cold and a busy few weeks at work. I had a strong start and was leading for laps 1 and 2 but with a serious head wind on several parts of course, that turned out to be a bad move later on in the race. True to form for a race at the Res, much of the course was sand but unlike previous races, it was wet and well packed in some places and very loose and heavy in others and after bunny-hopping a single barrier, I crossed wheels with Lucas Clarke from Primal and went down and lost 4 spots as I recovered. As the top five riders took off, I was left to hold my position and battle with Anthony Carcella from the Velonews team. We went back and forth until we managed to cross wheels followed by a dropped chain, I let AC get a gap as I couldn't get the chain back on quickly. I was able to hold on to finish in seventh, which gave me just enough points to move me into third for the Colorado Cross Cup.

Cross At the River

Buena Vista XXX Cross at the River - SM 4 from Russell Harding on Vimeo.

Cooling off, Warming Up

I had today blocked off as a vacation day to make this weekend a four day weekend (we take Columbus Day as a holiday) so my ride today was a warm up for racing this weekend. I pulled the road bike off the wall, pumped up the tires and headed out.

The gray sky and cool temperatures on my way out gave way to sun and warmer temperatures as I rolled towards home. Today also marked the first ride of the fall that I rode with a base layer, jersey, vest, and arm and knee warmers.

I realized today was the first long ride in while and I've felt it the rest of the day. Hopefully this will act as more of a warm up than a jet burning ride come Sunday's inaugural Colorado Cross Cup points race.

The heart of 'cross season is here. Game on!

I'm all in!

From August 14-19, 2011, I'll be racing the Breck Epic mountain bike stage race. Today was one of the last days to register at an early discounted rate and since I have been interested in this race since it started two years ago, I figured I might as well give myself 10 months to prepare myself. The race covers approximately 240 miles over six stages and climbs over 40,000 vertical feet throughout the race.

Alpha Cross #1

Today was the first of two races put on by the guys from Alpha Bicycle Company, a great little shop down in the Denver Tech Center area off of I-25 and Arapahoe. The race venue was a dirt lot behind the City of Centennial's city offices. Because of the high heat and little moisture we've seen lately, much of the course was very loose dirt, which was almost the consistency of sand, and other sections of significant washboard due to small patches of grass holding the loose dirt and sand in place.

With a Boulder Racing race the previous day, and a good distance to travel, registration for the Cat. 4 race was 24 racers (compared to 62 on Saturday). With the call ups based on last year's BCR points then on registration order, I landed a third row start position, which was the last row for our race. I took an outside position for the start, slipped a pedal but then cut a line across the pack to get an inside position through turn 1 and turn 2 leading into the dirt. This put me around 8th wheel but riders balled up in a quick, loose drop at turn 3 and some charging put me into 3rd or 4th wheel. Spencer, from the Clif Bar Development team, was off the front and I sat in behind a Vitamin Cottage rider and a Primal Wear rider down through the back of the course.

As the course wrapped back uphill towards the start finish, I made a move to put me into second wheel and charged ahead. I would hold second position for the remainder of the race watching Spencer hang anywhere from 20-40 seconds ahead of me. I could tell on the last lap that he was slowing down but not enough for me to make the catch.

With 2.5 laps to go, coming through a hairpin section, the rider in 3rd calls out, "Are we holding 2nd and 3rd?" I respond, "Yeah" followed with a a few extra pedal strokes to try and open up a bigger gap thinking he was about to come charging and pass me in the final laps but it never happened. I crossed the line in 2nd place, 20 or so seconds from 1st, to take my first podium spot in a cross race (although there was no podium).

Other race reports:
Mountain Flyer's Race Report

Green Mountain Sports CX #1

Photo by: Six Degrees to Slush

A new record high temperature was recorded in Denver today-- somewhere in the mid 90s. this is not your typical weather report when you think about a cyclocross race report. More than a few people commented on feeling dizzy and getting chills in the middle of the race which is a sign of serious overheating. Thank goodness the ACA officials ran the races on the short side of the race time (ie: our 45 minute race was actually about 40 minutes).

Today's Cat. 4 race fielded about 40 starters and the officials based call ups on last year's standings. Although I earned some points in 2009, it was not enough to get a call up leaving me to wait for us to fill in the start rows numerically which left me with a 3rd row starting position. we took off down the length of the soccer field and looped around the goal and headed back towards the single track. By the goal, I had worked my way into about 10th wheel and then into 5th wheel by the single track. A few quick pedal strokes, some inside lines and some jostling set me up into 3rd wheel before the stairs. I sat in until the climb back towards the start/finish area and then took a tight inside line into first position (see picture). I somehow managed to get some toe overlap and caught my right Achilles area on my front chainring so I have a nice cut back there to heal up now.

I rode a fast and steady pace the rest of the race only allowing 3 riders to get past (one of whom won in Colorado Springs yesterday and motored on to 1st today as well). On the third lap I started getting sloppy in a few of the loose turns and could see the 5th wheel rider starting to get closer. I kept on the gas and tried to build up gaps where I could but he finally caught me in the final uphill towards the finish line and he came charging with some power. I was able to respond only long enough to catch his back wheel and he took off again into the final hairpin turn.

I'm very pleased with how today's race went, especially given my history of poor performance in the severe heat. Boups complemented me on my form today saying that it looked like I was having a much better time staying on the gas for the whole race over last year.

As far as my skills today, I was much more comfortable through the barriers today than yesterday and I think a big part of it is I was able to come into the barriers fast, dismount at speed and carry that momentum into the remount. The barriers yesterday were in awkward pseudo-uphill areas where I could not carry any speed into them and lost more momentum on the dismounts and getting over them. I also felt really strong on the stair run up today but I should have taken another lap through them in warm up and decided if I was going to go with a double step or hit every stair for a matter of consistency.

I hope this isn't all a fluke and that I can continue to improve and stay in the front of the pack.

A few things I've picked up on from Wednesday Worlds and short track racing is knowing when to sit in on a wheel and when to attack, to importance of powering all the way through the apex of a turn or hill. Next up to work on is responding to attacks.

Pikes Peak Velo Cyclocross Race #1

We kicked off the cyclocross racing on the front range yesterday with the Pikes Peak Velo cyclocross race at Bear Creek Regional Park in Colorado Springs. As the first race and the distance to the Springs, this race historically has a low attendance and that was true yesterday with only 10 starters in the Mens 4 race but that was going to stop me from going out hard and racing-- none of this, "It's a training race" nonsense.

First lap through the double barriers. Photo: Bill Keller

As you can see in Josh's Video, I took off from the start and set into a strong lead out which I held for the majority of lap 1 and 2. There was a brief moment that I sat 2nd wheel but the lead rider laid it out going around a loose off camber turn around a fence post on the backside of the course. Then I started having front dérailleur issues- a la Andy Schleck-- and lost the second and third position.

With first through third strung out, I pushed on to stay in fourth for the remainder of the race. There were a few modifications to the course this year including a new uphill finish, different barrier placement and a 3 turn hairpin twisting section which was a good test of bike handling skills. I am still waiting for Josh to post the section of his video from when he struggled through that section. the course was as dry, bumpy and dusty as one would expect from this course when the last rain was 3 weeks prior and the average temperatures have been in the 70s to 80s.

For a first race, I'm pleased with how it went but know that I need step up my barrier speed to stay fast throughout the racing season.

off to pack and kit up from Green Mountain Cross.

2010 Sponsors Update

I made an earlier reference to my 2010 teams and sponsors in my January 14 video post but hadn't updated the rest of the blog to reflect new sponsors and all. The list this year is a good one and I am looking forward to putting it all together.

For the mountain bike season, I'll be racing with the guys from ALL MTN Racing and we've picked up Bicycle Outfitters up in Evergreen as our shop sponsor. Most of us will be riding Gary Fishers and a few will be on Niners. I'm excited to give 29'ers a go since I've been running a 69'er setup on my singlespeed for three years now and spent a season on Trek's 69'er Top Fuel. We have kept WTB for our tires, wheels, saddles and grips and added Honey Stinger for energy gels, bars, chews and other food needs and also added Rudy Project to the list as well.

For the cyclocross season, I'm planning on riding with the Boulder Cycle Sport crowd again.

Saturday Ride

Zolder Photos

U23 Zolder CX World Cup

Women's Zolder CX World Cup

Men's Zolder CX World Cup

Scene at Zolder CX World Cup

Elite Women's CX World Cup Race

The Elite Women's race strung out quickly in the first lap. The first clip in this video is at the end of lap one. American Katie Compton is the fourth rider across the line and would end up in second place by the end of the day, 22 seconds behind reigning World Champion Marianne Vos of the Netherlands.

U23 CX World Cup Race

Mud and muck...

I think this pretty well sums up yesterday's Boulder Racing race at Xilinx. More later...

Valmont Bike Park Ground Breaking Cross

I took a few video clips with my 7 year old digital camera. Yeah, it's not exactly the greatest quality but it sure does show the basics well.

From CX 10.17.2009 Valmont Bike Park is going to be huge when it is finished. Huge in the sense of 'lets bring out all the cyclists in the community together' type huge. I guess, size wise it will be pretty decently sized at 40 acres with a little bit of everything for everyone-- stairs, sand pits, dirt jumps, run-ups, spectating areas, STXC courses, pump tracks. Although I haven't been around since the beginning, I'm looking forward to it just as much as everyone else.

I did put in my share of time on the Boulder Cycle Sport grill heating up brats and hot dogs for hungry spectators wanting to pitch in some money to pay for the park too.

As for the racing itself, I had a good, clean start until I hit the high speed barriers on lap 1 when on the remount I laid my bike out on the non-driveside, throwing it into my left knee, dropping the chain, twisting the left brake lever inwards and losing 20 spots. That didn't bode well for the rest of the race. I was able to swap back and forth with several other racers as they would slow down on the climb just past the finish line to grab a bottle feed and I continued to motor past them. With 2.5 laps to go, I could see Zach Lee coming in to lap me so I sat in to let him pass and dug to gain a few more spots with only one lap left.

Dejan Smaic's (Sportif Images) photo from Interlocken is a great shot but is only a glimpse at the pain and pace of Sunday's race. It's one thing when you speak of yourself as pedaling backwards in a race, but it's another thing to have a teammate say that to you afterwards. I think that in and of itself is a pretty accurate statement of the race.

SSWC'09 Pictures

People have been searching for any and all Singlespeed World Championship 2009 Durango photos. Here's my collection including the pre-ride, New Belgium Party, and the Starting Line Crowds.


Friday's Group Pre-Ride of the course.

Friday night's New Belgium Party.

At the start line on Saturday morning.

All of my SSWC'09 Durango photos can be viewed and downloaded from either my MobileMe gallery or from Picasa Web gallery.

Looking down the road...

Watching the final lap of the 2008 World Cup race at Koksijde gets me thinking down the road towards the Boulder Racing cyclocross race at the Boulder Reservoir on October 25. Although I haven't raced a Boulder Racing race at the reservoir, I remember the Boulder Cup Day 1 in 2008 at the Res. One thing I notice in this video is how tactically smart Erwin Vervecken and Sven Nys ride this last lap-- never letting the other one get too far out ahead, knowing when to ride and when to dismount, when to attack and when to sit in just just a little longer. In the end, Vervecken punches it just right to come out from behind.

The sand at the Res just sucks the energy out of your legs and the best option is to run and pin it. It hurts so much but feels so good at the same time. Weird how so many 'cross races end up that way.