- ALISON DUNLAP?

You may have heard of her. She's kind of a big deal. She'll be racing with Mr. Alison Dunlap, Greg Fro-zelli (former Breck denizen) in the Coed Duo class. Katie Compton will also be here, but won't be racing - she'll be supporting husband Mark Legg-Compton in a long overdue role reversal. All kidding aside, these are two of the nicest, most genuine pros on the circuit. In my long association with both they've always made time for fans, always epitomized the high-water mark of sportsmanship and best of all, they're the first to laugh at themselves. That's nice. Katie can also swear like a trucker. I call that added value.

I'm not sure how the rest of the pro field is going to shake out. With MTB NATS only a couple of weeks after our event a lot of them are opting to not burn all of their matches above 10,000 feet. There is a rumor that the Fisher/Subaru squad will be jumping in - we'll see. Evan Plews is signed up - he's been quietly making a name for himself on the marathon circuit over the past few years. Josh Tostado may sign up - we'll see. He's a local kid and a friend, so we're trying not to pressure him - if it works with hsi program, great. He'd certainly be a favorite.

Lance Armstrong, in a not surprising move, has spurned the 2009 Tour de France and announced his intention to throw his hat in the ring for the inaugural BE. In his words: "Those French guys are dicks. I'm going to Disneyland!....err, I mean Breckenridge!"

(And if you're Lance's attorney, I'll eviscerate my own clearly fabricated story about Lance in deference to your humorlessly hair-trigger litigation finger and state that the above paragraph is not true. It is, in fact 100% false. Funhaters.)