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Friday, 27 August 2010 16:46 |
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Sitting at Amazing Grace Cafe in Breckenridge Colorado, a few beers in and more tired then I've been all week. This is bliss. Home made muffins + cookies at a local haven and the joy of knowing I got this thing done!
I wonder if I feel more tired now then I have all week because I know I'm done and I can afford to be tired, or if it all truly did catch up to me today. Even though the Gold Dust stage was announced as considerably easier than the rest of the stages, it started with a bang. My eyes were stuck on Jill, who has been creeping closer to my hold down on 4th overall every day. She was not messing around. Off the start line like a rocket, that girl kicked ass up hill and left me to my own devices. I was feeling the burn as we traversed beautiful singletrack high above Breckenridge. Killer views and all, I was reminded that we were still knee deep in competition and this thing wasn't going to be over til it was over.
Jill's yellow Ibex jersey crept in and out of my visible horizon for 32 miles. By the final slice of singletrack I had completely abandoned my relatively conservative agenda that kept me upright all week and went head over tea kettle about 2 miles from the finish. Pick myself up and rally home as quickly as possible was all I could do. It ended up being enough to maintain my 4th place overall in the women's solo open division.
I am surprised with how well I performed, considering my relatively lackadaisical approach to training for this thing. I enjoyed watching my formula play out: no numbers, no worries... ride when you can for as long as you can and as hard as you can. Thats it. Beyond that, I had other areas to attend to this summer - things like getting a good costume together for bike prom, working at a local organic farm, making sure there were enough sparkles on my bike, designing custom jerseys and rubbing my boyfriends feet at night. The true competitor inside of me is satisfied and fulfilled with this physical result... on top of that, the more spiritually wondering side of my personality is mystified with the journey this provided. More incredible then the moments of solitude in the Colorado backcountry and pushing my own personal limits was the warmth of the mountain bike community I got to bask in all week. Living in tent city at race central for 6 days was a mini-lifetime it seems. It will be sad to leave the simple life I shared with a few new friends in the gravel parking lot of the ice rink. To endure such epic feats amongst the company of others, with unique tales and talents of their own to chase down blends super well together.
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Thursday, 26 August 2010 20:08 |
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Today was big, really big. Wheeler pass tops out at 12,500ft and we reached that altitude within 10 or so miles from the gun going off. Ex-sprinters love shit like this...
The final 2 miles to the first summit are spent alongside your bike hiking most the way, then you crest and traverse high alpine singletrack for a little over a mile to reach a second hike-a-bike summit. The beautiful, vast landscape seeps into your psyche forever from a perch like this. It makes it all okay that your brain stopped working properly about a 1,000 feet below.
I felt like todays stage, even though it was shorter in distance, required a tremendous amount of mental concentration. The high alpine traverse was tricky- full of rocks and ruts and very little flowing mindless stuff- and the final 10 miles on the peaks trail was relentless with rocks and roots. Maybe I'm getting soft 5 days into this thing, but I had to really tap into more mental reserves than physical today. I actually am feeling physically stronger every day- which makes no sense whatsoever.
I had a sweet sprint finish with Katie from Giro. The girl was chasing me down like a tiger for the final 10 miles, sometimes biting at my ankles, other times lurking a few feet back in the trees. She kept me on my game down to the wire and we screamed into the downhill finish less than a wheel length apart! How did she know I was dying to flex my fast twitch, just once, in this 240 mile marathon?
I should start tomorrow with a 10ish minuet lead over 5th place in the overall women's solo open.
Before this thing is all done, I want to quickly thank a few folks:
Walt, thanks for designing me the most beautiful piece of art for such a stunt as this. A custom steal hardtail is all you ever need.
New Belgium, my glorious employer. You're the best title sponsor I could ever ask for! Not only did you give me 6 days off work to do this, but you helped me land so level headed post-bike racing addition 2.5 years ago. Don't worry, I'm not going to quit so I can go back to the crazy bohemian life of a bike racer. I really like doing what we do together... you know, make good beer, do our part to be kind to mother earth and our community, and promoting the pursuit of peoples passions. Oh, and encourage each other to be silly. I've been spreading the NBB liquid love as best I can all week.
My bike riding hommies. Eszter, Chris, JJ, Dave, Stephen, Andrew and my Mom... Thanks for encouraging me to do this silly thing and not pre-riding too many of the course with me, in the event that if I saw all that was to come you probably knew I wouldn't want to do it anymore.
Oh, and of course, Mike our promoter. He let 4 of us kids in for free in exchange for these bloggy blog posts. If I wasn't stealing wi-fi and drinking thai ice teas in the afternoons to blog, I doubt I'd leave Breckenridge with as fully loaded of an experience.
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Thursday, 26 August 2010 19:09 |
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Lees Cyclery and Hodi's Half Note Theater invite you to a viewing of "Ride the Divide" .
An award-winning feature film about the world's toughest mountain bike race, which traverses over 2700 miles along the Continental Divide in the Rocky Mountains. The film weaves the story of three characters' experiences with immense mountain beauty and small-town culture as they attempt to pedal from Banff, Canada to a small, dusty crossing on the Mexican border.
http://www.ridethedividemovie.com/
The $10.00 tickets are available at http://www.hodishalfnote.com/ or at the door.
Where? Hodis Half Note
When? 730pm Sept. 14th.
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Wednesday, 25 August 2010 19:20 |
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Okay guys. Time to come clean with all of you about a few things: The Breck Epic is only my third mountain bike race. So, after completing the 4th stage today, I have tripled the number of times I've raced a mountain bike. Kinda cool. But, I won't lie to you... I've have plenty of experience with the whole two-wheeled eye of the tiger bike racing thing. It was just on skinny tired bicycles. Once, about 10 years ago, I even won me some rainbows in the jr. worlds for match sprinting. That was cool too. This Breck Epic thing seemed like a great way to dust off the cobwebs from a 3 year hiatus from any sort of racing at all.
What really stood out to me today is that the competitor inside of you never dies. I did come to the Breck Epic with my own personal agenda (you know, the whole "make bike love" thing) but I didn't really know which way my competitive spirits would take me. Would it be a dull distant calling or a fierce vengeful whip, screaming at me for not training enough. It turns out the voice is still pretty loud, clamoring around in my head. I wasn't okay with my performance yesterday, 3rd mountain bike race ever or not. It was time to make a comeback and assert myself. So today, I dug in deep. I oozed the love of competition. I decided at the start that nothing today's course threw at me could phase me. I was so personally offended by every inch of elevation gain yesterday it made me so angry and disconnected to the task at hand: get to the finish as fast as possible. I rode strong, and hard. I got to each aid station so invigorated by my renewed spirits I announced to everyone there "I feel STRONG today!!" Somehow, that reinforced the positive attitude and helped me ride into a 5th place finish. Right back to where I want to be.
The promotor called this stage a "queen" stage and suggested it reminded him of a rabid dog that just kept coming at you. It was hard, no doubt, but it was also my favorite course thus far. With long, low gradient sections to power along I actually felt fast for once... Views were killer and the tree canopied singletrack sections were yeehaw worthy.
I have been meaning to spend a little blog-time to painting a picture of our sweet accommodations at race central, so here is a brief photo essay for you:
tent city, where about 20 of us brave kids are living it up all week.
race central, adjacent to tent city, where meetings and meals are held daily.
Tim and Todd, the organic mechanics making bike love to my Waltworks and refueling with finest New Belgium Brews.
The view from tent city this morning: a moonset.
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are on their way to Mount Sainte Ann Canada for the 2010 UCI Mountain Bike World Championships. Both riders secured their US Team spots by winning National Cross Country Championships earlier this summer in Granby CO. Sklyer and Georgia also won silver medals in the National Short Track Championships. After a strong and consistent season Georgia finishes the World Cup ranked in forth place.
