So I've waited 6 months for the BreckEpic and it's finally here... I can't believe it, all the hard work, the countless hours of training & preparation have all come down to this week. 6 days of back to back racing. I've never done a stage race so I'm anxious to see how I do over the course of this week.
Today was the prologue or the opening stage of the race. This was to be a 9 mile - 3,000' climb. The problem with today (in everyone's opinion) was the fact that the stage didn't start until 3PM... which here in Colorado is the prime thunderstorm window. True to form, the storms started at about 1:30PM, some lightening, fog and sheets of rain coming down.
I got staged to leave the timing tent at 3:44:30, each rider (or pair of riders) left at 30 second intervals en route to the 12,000' level on Mt Baldy. My friends and I arrived at Carter Park at about 2:45 in the cold rain. We were geared up for the worst.
Just before I started the climb, the rain quit, the sun came out and it got nice. By the time I topped out about 49 minutes later the rain had just started again... we really got lucky with the weather!
Unknown to us, the race director made the wise decision to cut the race short and stop it at about 11,100' on Baldy and keep people below tree line and hopefully out of harms way. We didn't know about this change until we were within about 1/4 mile of the revised finish line.
My friends Mike and Tim are racing as a team and pulled off 2nd place in the Men's Duo - 80+. The 80+ means that the sum of their ages is greater than 80.
I managed to secure 6th place out of 13 riders in Men's Solo 40+ but 2 of the riders Did Not Finish (DNF) so it looks like we are down to 11 in my field already. This showing isn't great against my competition but this short format doesn't suit my strengths of going long so I'm hopeful that through the week that I'll hang in there long enough to pick up a spot or two. This is a tough field of guys so I'm now hopeful that I can survive to Friday.
Today was the prologue or the opening stage of the race. This was to be a 9 mile - 3,000' climb. The problem with today (in everyone's opinion) was the fact that the stage didn't start until 3PM... which here in Colorado is the prime thunderstorm window. True to form, the storms started at about 1:30PM, some lightening, fog and sheets of rain coming down.
I got staged to leave the timing tent at 3:44:30, each rider (or pair of riders) left at 30 second intervals en route to the 12,000' level on Mt Baldy. My friends and I arrived at Carter Park at about 2:45 in the cold rain. We were geared up for the worst.
Just before I started the climb, the rain quit, the sun came out and it got nice. By the time I topped out about 49 minutes later the rain had just started again... we really got lucky with the weather!
Unknown to us, the race director made the wise decision to cut the race short and stop it at about 11,100' on Baldy and keep people below tree line and hopefully out of harms way. We didn't know about this change until we were within about 1/4 mile of the revised finish line.
My friends Mike and Tim are racing as a team and pulled off 2nd place in the Men's Duo - 80+. The 80+ means that the sum of their ages is greater than 80.
I managed to secure 6th place out of 13 riders in Men's Solo 40+ but 2 of the riders Did Not Finish (DNF) so it looks like we are down to 11 in my field already. This showing isn't great against my competition but this short format doesn't suit my strengths of going long so I'm hopeful that through the week that I'll hang in there long enough to pick up a spot or two. This is a tough field of guys so I'm now hopeful that I can survive to Friday.
1 comment:
Sooo....???? What about the rest of the story??? BT
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