There’s really no singular aspect of cycling that I’m (sager) worse at than racing at 10,000′.
So naturally, when given the opportunity to join Blake for a few stages of the Breck Epic, I jumped at the chance.

Breckenridge is where I first sampled the mountains when I was a young lad straight out of high school in Louisiana. A 24hr non-stop drive brought us to Bald Mountain, which is here in Breck, and we promptly hiked it, and then succumbed to massive altitude sickness.
I’ve generally avoided this place since then, but …

Mudgasm at the Bikes for Bovines

Well my last mtb race in New England for the year is in the books. This year it ended on a high note, I was able to pull out another W. This was my last East coast race last year and it ended poorly so I had something to prove to myself and for Blake since he was at the race last year and failed just as bad as I did. Last year the two of us had more wardrobe and mechanical …

Every now and again we all have one of THOSE days and today my number was plucked.
I knew today’s stage and knew that it would be a tough one. 41 Miles with significant climbing and not too much recovery. Most bad days are spent in the hurt locker so to speak. Somebody rides by and asks “how ya doin?” where you reply “tired”, or “cracked”. Today there was nothing to be said except maybe some internal conversations.
Friend and old roomie Kiel Reijnen and I refer to this dark place as …

Holy Toledo. Stage 1 is in the books and as race promotor Mike McCormack stated, it was a knuckle brawl today.

The race’s”neutral start” would have made any Puerto Rican race proud as the police escort pinned it up the steep switchback climb. Once the race was actually on, I think it might have slowed down for a couple minutes.
“I thought this was neutral” screams Rad Ross.

I spent the entirety of the race in the cave. An hour went by and I was climbing. Two hours went by and I was …

Well, what can I say, I’m back for more Breck Epic this year.
The 2010 edition is….harder. Much, much harder. The field is stronger, the stages are longer and the elevation profile is..you know,around 10,000ft, so that’s the same as always.
Last years race was a prologue complemented by 5 stages. This year, the prologue is out, and in its place is a queen stage. Yup, they throw us out to the wolves on day 1. No “here, go get your feet wet”, or “this will give you a little taste …

The Millstone Grizind
The #1 reason why I love coming back east is for the races and this race didn’t disappoint. Every aspect of the race was spot on: Sweet race course, Free food/Beer, Good friends, Cliff Jumping and sweet race course (it deserves two mentions). I have never done this race before so I didn’t know what to expect but since it was put on by the awesome people at Root 66 I knew it had to be good.
I was a little worried about what bike to ride. …

For today’s stage at the Wild Cat we decided to take the Manamit chocolate wafer bar on a ride.

Manamit at the start. Manamit prefers to win the start, but we were stuck on the 3rd row.

Manamit feared the shark attack! (it is shark week), and the were lurking behind briar bushes, which are functionally like coral reefs. Manamit fears no blood.

Manamit rides rail trail. -1% false flat downhill means 45kph. Manamit feel strong when really Manamit had a tail wind.

Manamit dismounts for the road crossing. Its New York state law. Unless …

New Paltz, New York.
Sorry for all the  Snyder, but scenery is boring without people in the frame.
Fugitaboutit.

50 miles became 56.8, mostly because of some vague marking towards the end of the day, but who doesn’t want a few extra time to see the carriage pathways of Catskills. Fast, smooth, and scenic, today’s stage was only upstaged by how welcoming the folks were at the race.
Yesterday was spent the day riding 2011 Jamis road bikes, all DI2, of course…I’m ruined now. After the road ride and lunch at the local Thai …

World Cup #4 in Champery, Switzerland
Champery and the area of Portes du Soleil is probably one of Europe’s most beautiful places, year long.

This area stretches itself between France and Switzerland and is a ski heaven in winter and a freeride bike park heaven in summer. Amazing views, mountain peaks, small Euro-style ski resort town and lots of good produce – cheese, meat and, of course, chocolate…

Of course, as a European vacation location it is a given that restaurant dishes are tiny, prices are expensive and road directions are awful… but …

Usually 6.5 hour mountain bike rides are planned, the route determined, food packed and well you are usually mentally prepared for what lies ahead. However I seem to have fallen into the habit of spontaneously ending up on these long rides, often underprepared. That is how my most recent adventure played out. What started as a normal alpine mountain bike ride in Nederland soon turned into a six and a half hour epic mountain bike ride which included going up and over Rollins Pass twice with a nice lunch in …