Coming down to Colorado is always a highlight of the summer race season. In 2021 it was the Leadville-Steamboat Gravel doubleheader, 2022 it was the Leadville-Breck Epic double, and this year it was the Leadville-Breck Epic-Bikepacking triple ! Seeing Steamboat gravel was a couple days after Breck this year, I briefly tried to make it a triple header but they are pretty stingent with there entries up in Steamboat so it was a no go. This was actually a good thing as it allowed for a fun two day bike packing instead. A trip over some beautiful high Rocky passes to Leadville to watch the Leadville 100 runners, and then return to Breck over the rugged Mosquito pass. A nice treat rather then racing steamboat which would’ve involved packing 6 litres of water and racing 100 mph past perfectly stocked feedzones.
Leadville 100 was a late edition to the schedule this year. My buddy Dave Macdowell offered to cover the high entry via his Wild Mountain and Smartwool Stores in Whistler and Banff, so next up I called Mitch for accomodation at Margarits on 6th in Leadville. Soon I was off to join me teammate Becca who was scheduled in for the Leadville-Steamboat double.
Arriving in Leadville tuesday evening meant I’d just have 3 days to acclimate to the 3100 meter base elevation this year. It wasn’t ideal, but we had a family reunion the weekend before, something I didn’t want to miss! Other then not being acclimated, the training had gone well for 3 weeks based out of Jasper and Mcbride up in the Canadian Rockies. Base elevation is right around 700-1000m, I would ride up as high as I could, 2100 m, and also spent 4 nights camping at the Columbia icefields just over 2000m. The best part of racing in Leadville is the atmosphere surrounding the event in the old mining town. Staying with our buddy Mitch on the finish line street puts us right in the middle of the action which is pretty rad. The days before the race were spent pre-riding sections of the course with my teammates Becca and Kerry, and otherwise just resting and fuelling the system.
Race morning is early at Leadville with the alarm going off at 4:30 for the 6:30 start. This year it was blazing right from the gun as Keegen Swenson had his teammate Mctubbin set a high pace to help his efforts at going for a course record. Starting at the back of the gold coral meant a big effort to just keep up to the leaders, as a result I broke the all time record for the opening descent, grabbing the Strava crown 😉 It ended up being my claim to fame for the day. Soon after we went up and over Carter summit, barely getting dropped, a brief chase with Lachlan, pulled our group of 6 back to the front. It was a mistake not making the other riders in the group help the chase efforts, as soon after we hit Sugarloaf climb where the race blew apart and the system was a bit blown to keep in touch.
Running the Kona Hei Hei full suspension this year meant I could rally on the pipeline descent, setting a top 10 record on strava, passing a number of riders and putting me just off the back of the chase group at the bottom. A big effort between Griffin Easter and myself got us back into a strong chase group with some heavy hitters including Stetina, Britton, Lespy, Lideen, Wells and a few others. It was nice to cruise across the flatlands with a solid group before hitting the twin lakes feedzone at the base of the 900 m Columbine climb. Unfortunately I missed both my feeds, and couldn’t stop as I’d lose our fast group. Shortly after our chase group blew apart, as Finsterwalld came through it after flatting early. This left every man for himself up the big climb!
Unfortunately I ended up in no mans land at the top of the climb, refilled my bottles in the neutral feed then started heading back down against 1200+ other riders still coming up. It was unfortunate descending and hitting the flat part of the course heading back without a group. After riding solo for a while I could see a few guys coming from behind, so opted to stop and take a quick leak and fix my seatpost which had been slowly dropping throughout the race. As the group passed, I went to hop on but it was on the rough singeltrack/doubletack section just before twin lakes and their was heavy two way traffic this year. One rider was coming at me on the wrong side with his head down, causing a trail evacuation to avoid a collision, leaving me hitting a rock and crashing. This was just enough to open the gap, which I was unable to close while dodging more riders on this two way trail. As much as I love Leadville, it sure would be great to see a course change at some point as the two way traffic is sketchy.
Now in full race mode ripping through Twin Lakes feed zone, I’d grab my feed off Leland, and tried to close the 45 second gap to the group in front but it didn’t happen as Dylan Johnson was absolutely ripping with his drop bar hardtail. Having run a gravel bike (2021, hardtail (2022), and now a full suspension at the race, I think a drop bar hardtail is the way to go. My goal coming in had been to go sub 6:30, Dylans group would end up at 6:26. Riding solo almost all the way back, I lost some time. Towards the last climb going over Carter Summit fellow Canadian Andrew Lespy came into sight. Catching up to him, we’d work together for a bit before I’d drop him on the finish line drag to come in 22nd on the day at 6:39. 2 minutes slower then last year, and 9 places lower as the competition was the deepest it has ever been this year.
It wasn’t a bad result at Leadville, but feeling pretty strong and having the legs to go sub 6:30 it felt like a missed opportunity. Think I’ll be back at this one as theirs some unfinished business.
After the race my buddy Tyler drove me over to Breckenridge where I checked in with my buddy Jim Jones to stay in his downtwon apartment for the next week of racing at Breck Epic.
The first stage of Breck Epic was brutal after a rough 3 hour sleep thanks to late night partiers and the fact the body was still hard wired from the Leadville effort. Mentally the head was pretty out of it and the 3 hour race on deck seemed a bit daunting. Thankfully things started a bit easy for the first few km before hitting the opening singeltrack. Figuring it was going to be a hard day no matter what, I decided it would be a bit easier if I went off the front for a bit, rather then struggling at the back to keep up. This tactic kind of worked, Lachlan and 4 other riders would come flying past me, but I kept the diesel on and by the end of the day wound up 3rd, just under 4 minutes down from Lachlan in the lead. A much better day then I anticipated. Sleep was great this night and the body woke up ready for Stage 2. I’d again roll in 3rd, just under 2 min off the leader Lachlan on the 67km Colorado trail stage with Tasman from 🇦🇺 in 2nd.
Breck Epic is always great week with some amazing alpine riding, this year their was a solid group of 400+ racers, a fun organization as always, lead by Mike Mac and an ideal weather forecast ☀️.The racing was pretty tight this year as well with some fast legs inside the top 10. I tried some different tactics to get ready for the high altitude (2900-4000) this year training up in Jasper and Mcbride. It seemed to be work, managing to cut over 9 minutes off my stage 2 time from last year, and a few minutes off stage 1.
Stage 3 around Mt Guyout is always a favourite, heading up and over the continental divide twice. The body was a bit tired this day so I kept it steady, moving up to 3rd mid race then had a strong finish on the flat flume trail, moving up to 2nd overall in the GC, just over 7 min down from the charging Lachlan.
Stage 4, I had the best legs of the week but lost the most time. Going hard up the first climb the field split, before working together with the two Aussies to extend our lead going into the first feed zone. Unfortunately for me they both had feeders, while I stopped to get my feed from the neutral service the race offers. A small gap opened up and they capitalized on it, working together to stay away. I kept the gap to around a minute for an hour but the two Aussies were a force working together on the fire road heavy day, eventually extending their lead to over 6 minutes by the finish. They did nothing wrong, but it sure would be nice if the race took away outside support to level the playing field. Their is a great feedzone service with drop bags which the race offers, theirs no reason everyone can’t just use this great setup!
Wheeler pass, Stage 5 at Breck Epic is one of the all time favourites. Racing 2 x over 12 500 ft passes on some rugged goat trails in the Colorado Rockies.Theirs no easy way to go about it so we sprinted off the line to get right into the good stuff. Lachlan would ride away off the front as he does, I’d hold down the fort in 2nd for the majority of the race.
Local young gun Nolan would use his home course advantage and 2.4 Maxxis Rekon race tires to overtake me at the bottom of the rugged miners creek descent. All that was left was about 40 minutes of fast and sometimes rugged single track on the Peaks trail back to Breckenridge. I’d catch Nolan to narrowly take 🥈 by a few seconds, putting 4 minutes into Tasman in 4th to buffer the 2nd in GC lead to around 13 minutes heading into the Finale.
Stage 6 is the fire road heavy stage going up and over the 12000 ft Boreas pass twice! Matthew Pike would get the hole shot into the trails and would get away as the rest of us were jammed up by some blown up riders. Eventually we got around and I lead the chase, going deeper into the red zone then I had all week as I figured I might as well go all in on the last stage. This I paid for, with the engine slightly blowing up, and at 10 000 ft it takes a while to bounce back once you detonate. Eventually rebounding, I’d ride the day in 4-5th with Jeremiah Bishop, limiting the damage to the 3 riders ahead and more less just trying to enjoy the last day of high altitude racing in the Rockies for the year. Rolling in 4th on the stage, it wrapped up the Leadville- Breck Epic doubleheader with winning the 🥈 in GC behind a flying Lachlan Morton, comfortably a head of a strong group lead by Tasman🫡.
What a week of racing in the high Colorado Rockies 🏔️. Breck Epic is one of North Americas premier, and longest standing stage races and I can’t recommend it highly enough.
Big shout out to Mitch Dulleck and Jim Jones for the great base camps the past two weeks, Leland Turner and Avalanche Sports Breck for the bike support and everyone else involved in this tough but great trip!
The competition was strong this year but the #konaheihei ran flawlessly and the engine ran strong for the full 7 days straight 🤠.
The highlight of the trip was an overnight bike packing trip from Breckenridge to Leadville via the Colorado trail to cheer on the Leadville 100 runners. Returning to Breck over Mosquito pass the next day 🚲 🎒✌️. The Colorado summer alpine is like heaven on earth.
Plan A was to race a gravel race 2 days after Breck to make this CO trip a triple header. I couldn’t get into that one so the bike packing trip was Plan B. Think I’ll make this the plan A for next year as it was rad, probably funner then racing 140 miles of gravel and blowing bye perfectly stocked feedzones all day 😜.
Recap:
Leadville 100: 22nd (6:39hrs) ✅
-Breck Epic: 5 stage podiums, 🥉🥉🥉🥉🥈and 🥈 in GC ✅
– 2 day Bike-packing trip to Leadville via the Colorado trail, returning Mosquito pass and a 4130 M peak ⛰️✅.
– 15 days of altitude (2900-4100m) into the system ✅
– Great time racing and hanging out with new and old friends ✅
It was a quick turnaround heading back to Canada to host the Canadian Rockies 24 in Camore Alberta. We had a stellar weekend of weather and the 2nd event went off without a hitch. Right after this it was back into Calgary to hop on plane North to the Yukon for the Canadian Marathon Nationals. Go go go is the them in our short but sweet Canadian summers!
