| The Breck Epic w/ Sarah Uhl -Stage Five |
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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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