The Breck Epic MTB Stage Race

BLOGGERS CONTEST UPDATE & EXPLANATION

2009-03-16T12:18:00.002-06:00

THE EXPLANATION:
Sorry for the delay - I’ve re-tabulating the results yet again. It’s time consuming because every time I download an update, I have to remove the illegitimate data by hand.

A lot of you are wondering why some contestants have moved down in the rankings. Here’s the quick explanation: for a vote to count it must list a “first,” “second,” and “third” choice. Sadly, the guilty party not only voted for themselves “first” hundreds of times, they also voted for other contestants dozens upon dozens upon dozens of times, (at times in big blocks) for their second and third choices. These ballots also had to be considered illegal and were subsequently removed.

My guess is that a script was set up on a handful of machines that cleared both the cookies and the cache of the machine and then automated the voting process, subsequently allowing each machine to vote again and again. Backing out all of the bad data has played hell with the rankings and completely upended some of your expectations. In some cases, folks who thought they were in good standing now find themselves somewhat behind. There are some ruffled feathers out there.

We’ve had a few thoughtful conversations over the weekend with some of the contestants, and there have been some unsurprisingly clipped emails directed at us as well. There’s also a bit of backlash going on by some folks online (and I’m sure in person.) Let me set the record straight – we are not cheating or skewing the results, we are merely rectifying a situation not of our making...and investing a lot of our time in doing so. I can understand some anger, but having it directed at us seems a little off base. With that said, that’s also sort of understandable as we haven’t released a detailed explanation until right now. Please feel free to pass this along to whomever may benefit from reading it.

My phone number and email are generally public domain. I would encourage ANYONE who has questions to pick up the phone and speak to me rather than allow those ambiguities to balloon into something else. I truly regret that things worked out this way, but again I must reiterate, our mistake was trusting in the integrity of the individual. Our experience here in Colorado has always proven this to be the proper course. Withe the Mountain States Cup, The Firecracker, Mountain Bike Little League and The Summit Mountain Challenge we’ve gone to great lengths over the past decade to cultivate, recognize and at times reward what we perceive as outstanding instances of sportsmanship. This philosophy has served us well. I believe that most people, and certainly the vast majority of all of you subscribe to this ethos. Unfortunately, there are some who do not and there is one in our midst.

Thanks for hanging in there –

Mike

Michael McCormack
Managing Director The GreenSpeed Project, Inc.
mikemac@breckepic.com 970.485.5847

UPDATED RESULTS:
Ok folks – these are the real results once the bogus votes have been removed. As you can see, there’s still a bit of shuffling going on and not much space separating some of the top vote-getters and those within striking distance.

You’ve got until midnight to get the vote out, so if you've got a horse in the race, get your pork-luvvin’, Tammany-hall style politician’s smile out and keep shaking those hands and kissing those babies.

…and please, please, PLEASE – impress upon your friends that importance of only voting once per computer. Now that our radar is up for suspicious activity I’ll be taking it upon myself to discard all shady-looking votes. There’s an acceptable limit to how many votes can come from one box – and we’re actually being pretty generous in that regard, but my advice? Don’t push it too far. Do not let your chances be marginalized.

MM

5358 Jen Hanks, Salt Lake City, UT, played by: Jennifer Garner from “Alias” and “Elektra”
5273 Team Dicky, aka Rich Dillen, Charlotte, NC, played by: Rick Moranis
5020 Tomi McMillar, Carlisle, PA, played by: the "I've fallen and can't get up" lady
4993 Heather Szabo and Mary Monroe, Lafayette and Durango, CO, played by Cameron Diaz (X2)
4890 Luke Wiens, HOMETOWN: Temecula, CA, played by: Robert Duval
4616 Matthew Juth, Evergreen, CO, played by: Edward Norton
4024 Brandon Dwight, played by Bill Murray (directed and produced by Wes Andreson)3967 Jeffrey Carter, Denver, CO, played by that guy from Breaking Away
3906 Wendy Skean, Mountain Center, CA, played by: Tinker. In drag.
3861 Neil Miner, Boulder, CO, played by Jon Heder
3728 Ryan Draper, Canmore, Alberta CAN, played by Owen Wilson (He hopes)
3238 Mary Wilcox, Ogden, UT, played by: The 5th Element. Or Angelina Jolie. Or Will Ferrell.
2934 Lynda Wallenfels, St George, UT, played by Claire Littleton
2751 Ben Thompson, Bend, OR, played by: Himself
2739 Anthony Maguire, Taos, NM, played by “Ant” Maguire
2661 Larry Grossman, Eagle, CO, played by: Robert DeNiro
2551 Keith Berkoben, Somerville, MA, played by Harrison Ford as Indiana Jones
2531 Sarah Uhl, played by....wait for it...SARAH UHL!
2150 Cory Wallace, played by Harrison Ford/Indy/the Blade Runner guy

- WE DELIVER

2009-03-03T13:10:00.004-07:00

...your food that is, thanks to Subaru and Mountain Bike Magazine. Subaru is going to provide each racer/team with 2 reusable shopping bags made from recycled bottles (RPET). These are a lot like those $.99 plastic jobbies at Whole Foods. We're going to design them so that we can easily print your bib numbers on the side. You can load them up with extra gear, your own personal food...whatever, and we'll stage them for you at the aid station (or the stage finish) of your choosing each day of racing.

Why is this a big deal? Well, the Hammer folks are our energy gel and beverage sponsor and their stuff is great, but even they acknowledge that if you're on a particular nutrition or supplement regimen that in a race of this distance you might want to have the ability to stick to it as closely as possible. We're implementing a strategy (with their firm blessing I might add - they're so cool,) to help you do just that. Your bags will be lined up at the place of your choosing in numerical order, then we'll bring them all back to race HQ at the end of the day so you can reboot for the next day's stage.

...and you get to take those effin bags home. That means that in a sea of promotional reusable bag crap you'll have the swankest one in town. One that says, "I'm tougher than you. And you. And you." ...and so on and so forth.

Subaru's also underwriting the on-site shuttle system. What is it? Well, they're giving us 10 cars to use for the event. With the generous help of Yakima, they'll all be outiftted with bike racks. From 9am to 8pm each day Breck Epic staffers will use the cars to take you just about wherever you want to go. We're trying to make it as easy as possible to get around our little town, so much so that we can say with a straight face, 'once you get here you don't need a car'.

Wanna go to dinner? We'll take you. Wanna ride to the rec center? We'll take you. Wanna go back to your condo? We'll take you. Wanna take a hopped up 2009 Outback curb-jumping? We're still negotiating that one.

Wanna express your thanks? Consider Subaru when making your next auto purchase - this is just the sort of customer-centric philosophy that makes them a great fit with The BE and a good choice for your next car. It helps that they have the punk-rock 2.5 liter Boxxer turbo engine. My wife has it in her car and I kick the living shit out of it every chance I get (keep that on the DL, yo.) What does it say when I've got my foot rammed all the way to its floorboard? "IS THAT ALL YOU'VE GOT, YOU GUTLESS WORM?!?!? GIMME MOOORRREEE!!!!" All that and 20-something MPG. Made in a zero-waste facility. I love it.

Thanks Subaru. Thanks Mountain Bike. Your thoughtfulness just made the event a bit better.

MM

- ALISON DUNLAP?

2009-02-28T10:30:00.002-07:00

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.)

- A Word About Entry Fees

2009-02-23T19:10:00.005-07:00

The total cost of ownership.

Thought you guys might like to see how we stack up against the competition in the pricing department. Interesting reading, especially once travel costs are added in.

SOLO CATEGORIES (w/o travel costs)
- BC Bike Race: the race, camping & meal plan: $1897
- Trans-Rockies: no solo category offered for full-distance
- The Breck Epic: the race, camping & meal plan: $1442

TEAM CATEGORIES (w/o travel costs):
- BC Bike Race: the race, camping & meal plan: $3795
- Trans-Rockies: the race, camping & meal plan: $3120
- The Breck Epic: the race, camping & meal plan: $2745

Other things to consider:
- Once you get to Breck, you don't need a car. Our venue is in town. We've got an efficient shuttle/taxi system that is at no cost to participants.
- Travel costs to Colorado (with your bikes) are substantially lower than to Canadia.
- Our beer is better. Their bacon is. Their flannel is OK too. We're considering flying in some.
- The course, brothers and sisters. The course. It is holy-shitballs good. Very little road, almost no hike-a-bike.

Why are we pointing all of this out? Well, we're getting a bit of pushback on price from a handful of folks who feel that we should be significantly less expensive. Fact is, we are. And by a lot especially when considering the total cost of participation. We're not completely unfazed by criticism though, so we took the time to work through the math...again. Why? We thought if we squeezed a bit here and there that we might be able to offer a reduction in price. Here's what we came up with:

We're not subsidized by anyone. Not the state of Colorado. Not the town of Breckenridge. Not the local marketing chamber. And as most folks will tell you, this is a difficult sponsorship year. That means that the event needs to live on revenue that it generates from its participants. This is actually a good thing - we've seen far too many great races whose business models were predicated on the sponsorship model disappear over the past few months when their patrons had to back out. By following the honest and straight-forward model of not allowing our expenses to exceed the revenue that we generate from entry fees we guarantee that we'll be around in 2010. And 11. And 12. And so on and so forth.

So we crunched the numbers looking to trim a bit of fat. And there just isn't any. The big dollars in our event are tied up in labor, which is closely related to our medical and safety plans. I can't think of a worse way to try and save money. The next runners-up on the budget scale (other places to save money) are items that would negatively impact the event experience to a degree that I'm just not comfortable with. Here in Summit County it's always been more about substance over style, yet there are certain things that make a race good and in these areas we just don't want to compromise. You'll have to accept our word that our race costs what it costs and that in deference to these challenging economic times we're already as lean as we possibly can be...and we're still the cheapest in both the straight-up and expanded comparisons.

In other breaking news, the website went live last month: BreckEpic.com. It's effin awesome. Thanks Dave Rossi. Cheggidout. In "other"other breaking news, in a nod to Upton Sinclair I'm trying to not use exclamation points anymore.

MM

Course Maps. Elevation Profiles. Tools for inspiration and terror.

2009-02-20T14:55:00.018-07:00

A quick note - these are hand-drawn routes. That means that the stated mileage is probably a bit short. It also means that when combining the tendency for a GPS program to overstate elevation gain with the ham-fisted approach of drawing the routes resulting in losing elevation gain, that the ACTUAL elevation gains per route are probably pretty close.

Or not.

These are the 5 main stages (no prologue)...and they are not in order. Another disclaimer: these loops do not appear to be very long. But because of altitude and the fact that there's very little road to be had here, they are as big around as a can of corn.

Guyot Loop: 39.35 miles/8561'

Colorado Trail Loop: 34.38 miles/7811'

Wheeler Loop: 35.91 miles'/7620'

Pennsylvania Creek Loop: 28.08 miles/5993'

Gold Dust Loop: 33.18 miles/5496'

Breck Epic Newsletter, 2/18/2009: IMBA Stuff. Pricing. Courses. New Sponsors. Other Crap.

2009-02-18T13:44:00.003-07:00

Greetings Breck Epic folks and assorted bike industry friends -

This newsletter is going out to a larger audience than normal. Receiving this month's pearl of editorial smarminess are our regular lot of self-flagellating XC suspects, plus (and much to their surprise) a slew of gravity racers and riders as well as gravity-specific media and industry folks worldwide. Why? Because there's a topic that concerns us all and we're trying to get one last push in for raising awareness.

As many of you are undoubtedly aware, the U.S. National Park Service (NPS) has proposed a rule change which will make it easier for parks to open trails for mountain biking by leaving access issues in the hands of individual rangers. Predictably, this has the hiking segment up in arms at the prospect of us godless heathens and Philistines plundering 'their' territory. What the hiking folks don't seem to understand with their short-sighted "our way is the only proper way" rhetoric is that there are way more folks that just don't care about wilderness issues than those of us that do.

Those that gravitate towards finding our enjoyment outdoors are best served by banding together in the unified protection of those resources and sorting out our differences through pragmatic and well-reasoned discourse instead of adopting separatist stances (there's a lesson in there that some within our own ranks might learn from as well.) If the hikers and their well-funded lobbies keep shutting the door on potential allies they're going to shortly find themselves with underfunded and dwindling resources, ones that in the current 'no frills' economic climate may very well disappear. Like us or not, we're far more alike than different in our respect for the backcountry and our desire for its preservation. We also represent additional revenue streams for a consistently underfunded resource. We're not big on clichés, but something about 'cutting off your nose to spite your face' comes to mind. Get with it hikers - like it or not, we're on the same effin' team.

So what can you do? Sadly, the public comment period ended yesterday - but the outcome still affects you, so pass the word and stay tuned in. If you know a journalist, pass along this tidbit of info. If you know a forest ranger or a land manager, voice your support for the initiative. Basically, be an advocate and an eloquent one if you can. Support IMBA or your local chapter of it - those folks have really paid the freight on bringing this initiative to the fore and generating the support necessary to get if off life-support and into the law books.

That's about it for the gravity folks. Feel free to skip the rest of the newsletter. For those of you interested in more Breck Epic MTB Stage Race propaganda, read on. Thanks for playing along.

Mike

The Breck Epic
A Greenspeed Project Event in Support of Open Space
Whatcha Get in This Issue:
Blogger's Grant Program Voting
New Partners
Pricing is Finalized
Course Maps and Elevation Profiles
Upcoming Events
About The Greenspeed Project and The Breck Epic and the Greenspeed Project

The Breck Epic Blogger's Grant Program is Up and Running!~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
We're giving away 4 free entries to this year's race to a lucky few who can browbeat the most of their friends into voting for them. 'Winners' (we use that terms loosely) of the voting contest will be required to submit a handful or prerace articles, then one article for each day of racing. These articles will receive online publication from some of the industry's best mags. Why? Because so much race coverage is from the outside looking in. Some of the very best race coverage comes from the racers themselves, and with a deliciously cruel torture device like a 6-day mountain bike stage race in place there's sure to be tops popping off everywhere. We're hoping to catch some of that agony and ecstasy in print. For your enjoyment. Sorta like crisping up an ant with a magnifying glass when you were a kid. Or maybe that was just us.

The entrants are all posted under the "Blog City" link at BreckEpic.com (our shiny new website.) We have two more entrants to add, Brandon Dwight of "Chocolate, Waffles and 'Cross" fame and Sarah Uhl. She's sort of a big deal. You can go check it out and vote right now if you'd like. Voting ends on March 15th. One vote per computer, please.

New Patrons:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
We'd like to welcome the folks from Hammer Nutrition, Topofusion, Yakima, KuhlUSA and Shimano to the Breck Epic fold.

Hammer is the official supplier of energy drinks and gels to the event. They'll be loading you up on HammerGel and Heed before, during and after the race. Their approach to athletic nutrition is best-in-class and they offer a complete range of products designed to work independently or together as a system.
Topofusion is the brainiac product of the Morris brothers, two long-distance MTB guys who didn't like the products available to them in the GPS world. Their creation is an inspired amalgamation of products and platforms that features the best aspects of things like Motionbased and Google Earth and combines them with an easy-to-understand interface, the ability to create 'blended' maps with photographic and topographical elements and the ability to upload user data like heartrate, cadence, power output, etc. In short, an amazing tool created by mountain bikers for mountain bikers.
Yakima - have you checked out the latest Yakima site? It's pretty cool and does a great job of featuring their comprehensive offerings from rooftop cargo boxes to hitch mount racks to the usual slate of well-thought-out rooftop products, all designed to work with your existing or factory rack. The Yakima folks will be outfitting our Subaru shuttle vehicles so that both you and your ride will travel in safety and style.
KuhlUSA - based in Murray, Utah, Kuhl is at the leading edge of mountain culture and style. One of the official outfitters of the Breck Epic and Greenspeed staff, their offerings are funky, stylish and functional - all necessary elements up here where warmth and steez are prerequisites.
Shimano - you may have heard of these guys. As the official tech provider of the event they'll be on-site assisting with our mechanical efforts and probably lugging along a product or two that won't be hitting the shelves for a while. They make this stuff called "XTR"...

These guys join an already loaded murderer's row of partners including Subaru, Santa Cruz Bikes, Crank Brothers, Fox Racing Shox, Marmot, JettMTB. Mountain Bike Magazine, Squirt Lube, The Aplineer, Ergon, Great Western Lodging, Ground Apparel and the United States Forest Service.

Pricing Finalized:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
As of January 3rd, our pricing has been set. We're happy to announce that we're the least expensive of the North American mountain bike stage race offerings especially when considering the ease with which most of you can get yourselves and your gear to Colorado. Even better? Once you get here you don't even need a car! If you've already placed your deposit you can head to SportsBaseOnline and select you're a la carte items - camping, meal plans, additional banquet tickets, etc. Once you've dialed it in, the SBO folks will invoice you in two separate payments for your balance. The first is due on March 15th, the second on May 31st. There is a processing surcharge for your initial deposit of $250/rider, but after that we're picking up the tab on credit card fees. On a separate note, we're filling up fast and once we fill our field limit, we're done. No ifs, ands or buts. At this point, deposits are not refundable, but they are 100% transferrable AND deferrable to 2010.

Course Maps and Elevation Profiles
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I'd bet that this may interest some of you. The final tally is just over 200 miles and about 40,000 feet of vertical. While that may seem short to some, we'd like to point out that the majority of the course is over 10,000 feet and that road sections are few and far between. The Breck Epic is a true mountain bike race and the majority of our terrain is primo quality Summit County riding. We'll be posting maps, elevation profiles and GPS data to the site shortly. If you just can't wait, send me a note and I'll email you the data you need in your preferred format (thanks to the cross-platform beauty of TopFusion!)

Upcoming Events ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
We've got a few of our own to tell you about and a handful of others that are close to our hearts.

Coming up first is the "12 Hours of Crested Butte" Nordic ski race. This one is promoted and produced by The Alpineer, one of the very first promotional partners of The Breck Epic. If you're not familiar with Travis and his crew you should head to their website and check 'em out - or better yet, sign up for his race - it's a benefit for the CB Nordic Center. They've also got all the backcountry goodies that make nerds like us drool...and they're having a massive sale.

The Breck Epic a bit too much? Didn't get into Leadville? You can also check out The Breck 100 (or it's little sisters, the B68 or B32). Thane and his Warriors Cycling crew have put together some pretty stiff challenges for those of you that only have a day or two to spend here. The B100 courses are, in a word, 'amazing.' Check 'em out at http://www.warriorscycling.com/

The Firecracker 50: like you didn't know about this one. Word from on high is that there will be a stricter field limit in place for 2009. Our advice? Register early. The F50 is one of the very best races in North America...and you get wool socks. www.mavsports.com

...and our stuff.
You were dying to know what else we're cooking up, right? We've got a 50-mile backcountry ballbusting cyclocross affair we've dubbed "Crossifixion: Hell on Wheels". Debuting in September 20th, 2009 (alongside Breck's annual Oktoberfest bacchanale,) it's a direct rip-off of one of the toughest races in the world, "The 3 Peaks" cyclocross race in Wales. At the suggestion of Jasen Thorpe, Editor in Chief of Mountain Bike Magazine, we'll also be placing barriers on course. Blame him. More info? Contact us.

We'll also be producing a ski mountaineering race called "The 5 Peaks" that will be held in Breckenridge in the spring of 2010. We can promise a long day in the AT gear, your tele stuff, your splitboard or your snowshoes. There'll be fantastic scenery and ripping skiing. There will also be beer. And grilled meat. Contact us for more info.

About The Greenspeed Project & The Breck Epic
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The Greenspeed Project, Inc. was established in the fall of 2008 with the sole intent of funding backcountry initiatives, trail maintenance and trail system improvements through the medium of slightly left-of-center backcountry events. In addition to producing 'greener' events than then norm, we're committed to aligning ourselves with likeminded partners in the outdoor industry. A significant portion of the proceeds from our events and races is donated directly back to local and regional land managers with the intention that it be earmarked for the items mentioned above.

The Breck Epic MTB Stage Race (July 5-10, 2009) is a 6-day ultra-endurance backcountry affair to be held in the massive tangle of backcountry surrounding Breckenridge, CO. As a race its mission is to showcase the incredible work that visionary land managers here have accomplished by pairing an ambitious and shared vision with a 'let's roll our sleeves up and get this thing done together' mentality. It is one of a small few such races in US, and certainly among the most difficult.

If you'd like to find out more we'll happily fire a mind-bullet your way stuffed with an ungodly amount of sleep-inducing propaganda. No need to send us a note, we'll know that you want it. We can also email it.

Contact Information
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
P 970.485.5847
E MikeMac@BreckEpic.com
W www.breckepic.com
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

2009-02-05T22:38:00.003-07:00

The website's up. Big props to Dave Rossi for patiently putting up with my incessant whining and badgering without walking over here and slapping me like in the movie "Airplane". I stand in awe of his reserve.

There are a few errors in there - all of them mine. We'll get 'em ironed out over the next few days. In the interim, enjoy to beauty and spectacle of www.breckepic.com!

MM

- PRICING AND WEBSITE

2009-01-17T10:47:00.002-07:00

Greetings Breck Epic'ers. Just a quick update - we know that many of you have been eagerly awaiting the finalization of the pricing structure and the launch of the website. As coincidence would have it, our SanDiego-based webhost took about 1000 of their servers offline today, so if you're trying to access the site and notice that it's not working, don't get too upset - we'll be back online later today. That also means that the BreckEpic.com email addy that many of you have for me won't work either. If you absolutely need to get a message through please send it to: mikemac01@gmail.com. My gut says that we'll launch the new site this week and that the online voting for blogger's grants will go live within a few days after that. Voting will last for as month or so - I'll fill in the blanks once the site goes live.

We're finally zeroing in on pricing - we've got a few pieces left to nail down, but I'm comfortable throwing some numbers out there that are going to be pretty close to final. I'll send out the usual annoying mass email once they're written in stone, but here's what you should expect to see:

The RACE: just under $1000/person. This actually includes quite a bit - swag, on-course support, bike storage, banquet tickie and on-course food...the usual suspects.
Camping: around $200 for solos (2-person tent plus one pad) and $250 for teams (4-person tent and 2 pads). Only our tents will be allowed for camping. Absolutely no exceptions. We'll work out a different rate for RV's, but we're not likely to have hook-ups or power available for the jet-set camping crew. That's not to suggest that you can't bring them - you can. We'll have great spots for you, but it's also not a KOA campground. Camping fees include parking for your car, garbage and recycling service and a handful of other goodies.
Meal Plan: just over $300. If you haven't seen the menu you should absolutely check it out (there's a link to the right where you can access it.) The food is over the top.
Additional banquet tickets: @ $4o

Do you get a number plate? YES! That is included. Professional timing and scoring? Again, yes. I don't think that we need to beat that stuff to death. Within a few days I'll publish a full list of what each line item includes and send it out to everyone. For now, you guys have a pretty accurate idea of what the event is going to cost. For the record, we're a bit less than The Tran-Rockies and substantially less than the BC Bike Race. I thought that we'd fall somewhere in-between, so I'm happy that we're the least expensive out of those options. I also think that for a lot of folks we're just plain easier to get to (which translates into less expense), but I guess that really depends upon where you're coming from.

We WILL finalize pricing on Monday. See ya -

- FROM THE LAND OF CHEESE AND BEER

2009-01-07T16:04:00.002-07:00

'Cuz it ain't exactly the land of milk and honey. As many of you know, I've been in Wisconsin over the past week making a long-overdue pilgrimage to see 'my people'. Honestly, 15 degrees here feels like -15 in Breckenridge. Also, when you say "thank-you" to the person who makes your coffee, instead of "you're welcome," they almost all say "yup" with a lifeless deadpan expression, like they've just punched another brick out of the factory or something, your expression of thanks an entitlement, their acknowledgement a supreme effort on their part. You can also only travel about 3.5 miles from the center of Madison before you're deep into some bizarre amalgamation of Mayberry, the boonies and Green Acres. I don't mean to be a snob - i really don't, but if you've witnessed the cultural and geographical naivete that I have this past week you'd be a little shell shocked too.

Anyway, a little more detail about why pricing is delayed; we've got a few significant line items in the budget, two of them being school rental (or an alternative) and food. The food plan is a reasonably fixed line item...if you know where you're serving the food. We have two options; a field outside of the Breck Rec Center, or the cafeteria of Upper Blue Elementary, which is one block north. The school folks lit out for the holidays and just as they were returning, I was headed out here, so the long-anticipated sit-down-and-hammer-it-out session with them is delayed. If we serve at the BRC we have one set of costs for the vittles, plus what we'll call "site fee A" and if we serve at the school we'll have a slightly different set of costs, plus "site fee B". Each site fee comes with a different prerequisite in terms of rental equipment like tables, tents, simmering potpourri centerpieces and all that happy horseshit. I'll be back in the saddle on Monday and it shouldn't bee too long after that before we have final pricing out to you guys.

If anyone needs anything from 'Sconnie, just drop me a line and I'll throw it in with the 17 bags of miscellaneous crap that seem to be standard traveling issue when you have 2 kids under the age of three. What's one more thing? Curds, anyone? Nueske sausage? Some Michael's Frozen Custard ('cuz regular ice cream doesn't have quite enough fat, thank you very much!)

Til next week,
MM

- MORE BLOGGER'S GRANT APPLICATIONS POSTED

2009-01-01T23:44:00.002-07:00

...and some of them are fuggin funny. Cheggemout at the bottom of the page. The web-sitey-site was supposed to have gone live on Saturday. The holidays and all are wreaking havoc on our 3rd world internet sweatshop (bah humbug!) so you're not going to get to see the site in all of its exploitative glory until later in the week...which means voting for blogger's applicants also won't start until then. Sorry about that. To make matters worse, I'll be in Wisconsin all week visiting my parents and trying to get a sit-down with Coach Bielema. Since I'll have minion #1 and minion #2 while my snoop-wifey-wife jets off to NYC on some fancy-pants press junket I don't anticipate being very productive...or in a good mood. At all. So hang in there, BreckEpic-o-philes. Stuff's coming together, I promise. Look for a fully self-serving newsletter update with lots of new news within a week.

Now go read those blogs and gird your voting loins!
MM

- ONLY 7 SHOPPING DAYS LEFT 'TIL X-MAS. HAVE YOU VISITED WWW.ALPINEER.COM?

2008-12-18T11:48:00.003-07:00

Long title, huh? 20 years and over 1100 miles away I can still feel the scathing criticism of my journalism teacher from high school all the way out here in CO. (I never liked you either, lady.) With that out of the way we'd like to officially welcome The Alpineer from Crested Butte on board as a patron of the race. We're stoked to have them for a couple of reasons, the first being that they're really, really involved in open space issues in their own back yard starting with a planned project to create a single track route from CB to Gunni. Hard not to like commitment like that.

They've also been in the biz since 1969...and it shows. Their online catalog is unadulterated gear porn, especially if you're into tele, AT or Nordic stuff. And with mother nature blessing CO and the southwest with what's shaping up to be another banner snow year, The Alpineer's goodies take on just that much more luster. Emphasis on the 'lust' part. Their bike stuff is nothing to sneeze at either and it's a great tie-in that Travis himself is a veteran of several La Ruta's and other international-level stage race sufferfests.

Travis and his staff have done more than just create a nice product mix at their retail location. They've really globalized their business through the internet, yet have managed to maintain that small store appeal and benchmark service levels with gear reviews from the folks in the shop, gear guides and FAQ's and an amazing compilation of product reviews from the national magazines...and it's all in one place. They've really created a cool resource for everyone and anyone who's looking for more information. If you've ever shopped Backcountry.com these guys are an unbelievable alternative.

So yeah, there are a few days left until Christmas and there are a few great deals on their site. They also offer free shipping to the lower 48 with orders over $25. You can check 'em out at http://www.alpineer.com/ or http://www.telemarkski.com/. Tell 'em we sent ya.

- NEWSLETTER, DECEMBER 4

2008-12-10T10:24:00.002-07:00

Hello Breck Epic Loyalists, Hangers-on and Groupies,

Push has finally come to shove and it looks like this bird is actually going to fly. The catering folks have concocted an unbelievable series of menus (you may actually gain weight - full menu listed a few posts down,) the insurance folks have had their say and we've even gotten the additional buy-in of another elected official or two. It helps that they're all swag whores like the rest of us.

There's a broad stretch of information in this newsletter, but mostly it's about the fact that we're opening registration on Friday, December 5th at noon MST. We're placing 400 start spots up for sale and they're available on a first-come-first-served basis. This may be the final number - we just don't know yet, but it's a safe assumption. Interested? Here's the online reg linky-loo.

If you're down with Facebook there's a group there called "Weeping Sycophants of The Breck Epic". It's open to anyone if you'd care to join. Just head to FB and search for 'Breck Epic'. If you're like to get on the newsletter email list, just drop me a line.

Thanks for tuning in.
Mike

Michael McCormack
The Breck Epic
A Greenspeed Project Event in Support of Open Space

Whatcha Get in This Issue:
- Online Registration Info
- Category Update
- New Partners
- Industry Cup/ Breck Epic Auction (Now A Benefit for All)
- About The Breck Epic and the Greenspeed Project

Online Registration Opens Friday, Dec. 5th:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Coupla things that you should know:
- Head HERE to get to the registration page at SportsBaseOnline- Deposits will be $250 (US) per rider.
- They are fully refundable until we finalize pricing on Janurary 3rd. You'll have the opportunity to confirm your spot or request a refund at that time. After the opt-in period deposits and installments become non-refundable, but they are transferable/assignable.- We're offering only 400 spots...and this is likely to be it for 2009.
- While final pricing is still TBD, it will be on par with the other offerings (BC Bike race, Intermontaine Challenge, Trans Rockies) in the format. The benefit? You don't need to speak Canadian at our race.
- We'll offer three different items; the race, camping and a meal plan. Your final cost will be determined by which of those elements you elect to purchase.
- All "Race" entries include a t-shirt, jersey, socks, and banquet ticket. You get a lot of other stuff as well, but I don't need to belabor the fact that you'll receive "professional results and scoring!" and "a number plate!".
- Payment will be set up in 2 installments (after your initial deposit).
- We are still accepting blogger's grant applications. The deadline is December 31st. Voting begins on January 3rd. For more info please visit the blogsite (www.breckepic.blogspot.com). Blogger's Grant program applicants are required to submit an initial deposit. It'll be refunded if you win.

OTHER CRAP
- The website will be going live soon...that's a promise. The original version was too good for this world. The DOS-based version will be mostly text, followed by more text. In Times New Roman. Dammit. How the smarmy have fallen.
- The food will be better than fantastic. Super-fantastic? Menus a few posts down. Cheggem-out.
- The courses will be very good...and very hard. You're gonna be cussing like a long-haul trucker with Tourette's. Prologue (@ 10 miles) on Sunday the 5th, moderate stage on Monday, difficult stage on Tuesday, moderate stage on Wednesday, another soulcrusher on Thursday, then a final moderate one on Friday followed by a banquet and awards ceremony on Friday evening. At which there will be food. And beer.
- We'll have coverage of Le Tour available every night in the social compound (generously provided by Subaru)

Categories Update:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
OK, we've received a ton of feedback on this and think that we have it pretty dialed. The follwoing categories will be offered initially. If we have less than 5 applicants in a category we reserve the right to roll it into another category.

Here's what we have:
Open Men Duo
Open Women Duo
Open Mixed Duo
Duo 80+
Duo 100+
Singlespeed Duo
Solo Men Open
Solo Women Open
Singlespeed Open
Solo Men 40+

Got something you need to get off your chest about the categories? Sure you do. Drop us a line...

New Partners:
~~~~~~~~~~~~
We'd like to welcome Subaru, Marmot, Great Western Lodging, The Alpineer, Crank Brothers and Jett MTB to the fold. Talks are ongoing with several other bike industry folks and a thoughtful handful on non-endemics. I like our lineup so far and am pretty optimistic that ongoing discussions will bear fruit to the benefit of all.

Subaru will be the official vehicle of the race. We're big fans of their 'zero-waste' philosophy and will attempt to emulate it in principle and practice in every aspect of our event. Subaru is also providing shuttle vehicles that will be used throughout the race for athletes and spectators alike. Check out their environmental philosophy at Subaru.com

Marmot has a longstanding tradition of supporting audacious, grand-scale backcountry efforts and we're stoked that they jumped on board. Philosophically they understand what it means to hold the backcountry dear and their efforts to date have paved the way for raised awareness and increased protections for the things that we as outdoorspeople hold dear. Check out their Fall/Winter 08/09 line as well as some great stuff about who and what they support at Marmot.com

Great Western Lodging is owned and operated by cyclists. They've been huge supporters of all the mountain bike stuff in Summit County for nearly a decade. They've got properties throughout the community from studios to 6-bedroom units and are offering substantial logding discounts to event participants. rates begin at $40/night/person (double occupancy/1 BDR condo). Mention The Breck Epic MTB Stage Race and receive 2 FREE nights on a 6-night minimum stay. Several downtown bike-friendly accommodations to choose from, many of which include hot tub access, garage parking and laundry facilities. Studios to 6 bedrooms. Condos, townhomes and limited private homes. Offer only valid for travel dates 7/4-7/11. Please call or email them for details, as online availability is only valid through April 2009. Other restrictions may apply. 888.333.4535 or check 'em out online HERE.

The Alpineer is a full-service bike and ski shop in Crested Butte. They're also really, really involved in open space issues in the CB/Gunnison areas and a big part of Dave Weins' ongoing project to link CB and Gunni with a singletrack. If you've ever purchased ANYTHING from Backcountry.com you've got to give The Alpineer's website a spin. Their employee reviews on Tele and AT gear are pretty amazing. Detailed, honest and really, really well-written. They also have an astounding selection of Nordic gear and softgoods. Travis and the team down in CB are old hands at many ultra-endurance stage races and they're a great fit with our program.

Crank Brothers has been leading the charge for clean design and environmentally friendly packaging since their inception. If you're like me (a superfreak) then you're also a fan of a lot of stuff in thier line - Acid pedals, Joplin adjust-on-the-fly seatposts and their new Cobalt wheelset. The stuff they make is functional and beautiful. Kryptonite bike porn for nerds like you and me.

And finally, Jett MTB is heading up our merchandising efforts. They've concocted a merchandise line for us that's pretty cool - hats, tees, entrant's jerseys (pro style and baggie - pick your poison - one free with your entry), wool socks, leader's jerseys...you name it. And if I get my way, we'll also do some classic custom wool training sweaters. Visit them at JettMTB.comIf you'd like more info from our end on how to get involved please drop us a line HERE and we'll forward some info.

Industry Cup/Breck Epic Auction
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
If you've been playing along then you know that along with the $10,000 cash purse we're also offering a way for teams to increase the size of the treasure chest. Teams participating in the Industry Cup are required to donate merchandise from their sponsors that will then be raffled off throughout the week. The auction will be open to the public and will take place on eBay. All proceeds from the Industry Cup auction will be awarded to those on the podium who've donated goods. At first we thought that we'd just offer this to the 'Open' (translation: Pros and everyone who wants to ride with them) categories, but after sitting on it awhile we thought, "we've got all this interest nationwide in the event - we could probably generate some interest in a swag auction." So why not expand it to all categories? Athletes are allowed to donate items which we'll then place on eBay for the official Breck Epic auction. This auction will be open to the general public. If you donate you're eligible for those proceeds (which will be in addition to the existing purse for your category), but your donation must fetch at least $100 to be eligible to partake in the winnings. And thus a cash purse for all categories is theoretically possible.

About the Breck Epic and The Greenspeed Project
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The BE is a 6-day ultra-endurance mountain bike stage race to be contested in the sprawling trail network surrounding Breckenridge, CO in early July, 2009. As a race its mission is to showcase the incredible work that visionary land managers here have accomplished by pairing an ambitious and shared vision with a 'let's roll our sleeves up and get this thing done together' mentality. It is one of a small few such races in US, and certainly among the most difficult. The Breck Epic is among a small portfolio of events produced by the newly established Greenspeed Project. The Greenspeed Project's mission is to fund open space, trails and backcountry initiatives through the medium of slightly left-of-center and "zero waste" events. If you'd like to find out more we'll happily fire a mind-bullet your way stuffed with an ungodly amount of sleep-inducing propaganda. No need to send us a note, we'll know that you want it. We can also email it.

- THE WEBSITE IS UP. SORT OF. PLUS SOCK DESIGNS.

2008-12-08T00:33:00.013-07:00

Go check out http://www.breckepic.com/. It's a fully functioning homepage (that'll send your ass right back here...unless you want to send us an email - you can do that too.) We've also got some sock designs for you to check out. I thought there were a few pink versions in here, but maybe that was just wishful thinking.

- REG HAS BEEN OPEN FOR 15 MINUTES. AND CRANK BROS CALLED...

2008-12-05T12:15:00.002-07:00

...and they want in. Stoked. Their stuff rocks - from pedals to wheelsets to drop-on-the-fly seatposts...their whole line is staright-up bike porn. Also, it looks like solo singlespeed men have reached the 5 person category minimum. Like the fire in your belly, guys.

- THE BUS IS COMING! THE BUS IS COMING!

2008-12-04T11:23:00.004-07:00

Sorry - that's generally the phrase I use when something's got me so excited that I need to jump up and down while rapidly clapping my hands right in front of my face, or alternately, hugging myself tightly while rocking and moaning. To fully understand and appreciate the McCormack way of turning a phrase you must yourself be part dipshit. I'll try to annotate as I go along for those of you with IQ's above 107.

I'm gonna open up online registration tomorrow (Friday, December 5th) at noon MST. There. That's the big news. If you want in, GO HERE. Here's all the pesty qualifiers that go with that:

- Deposits will be $250 (US) per rider.
- They are fully refundable until we finalize pricing on Janurary 3rd. You'll have the opportunity to confirm your spot or request a refund at that time. After the opt-in period deposits and installments become non-refundable, but they are transferable/assignable.
- We're offering only 400 spots...and this is likely to be it for 2009.
- While final pricing is still TBD, it will be on par with the other offerings (BC Bike race, Intermontaine Challenge, Trans Rockies) in the format. The benefit? You don't need to speak Canadian at our race.
- We'll offer three different items; the race, camping and a meal plan. Your final cost will be determined by which of those elements you elect to purchase.
- Payment will be set up in 2 installments (after your initial deposit).
- We've switched up categories a bit - added a few more to our initial offering. We'll require 5 individuals/teams in each category for us to ultimately offer it on race day. If we don't have 5 we'll integrate the category with another.
- we're expanding the Industry Cup concept to all race categories in order to try and create a cash purse for all levels. Check out the blogsite to get the broad strokes, but basically athletes are allowed to donate items which we'll then place on eBay for the official Breck Epic auction. This auction will be open to the general public. If you donate you're eligible for those proceeds, but your donation must fetch at least $100 to be eligible to partake in the winnings.
- we are still accepting blogger's grant applications. The deadline is December 31st. Voting begins on January 3rd. Blogger's Grant program applicants are required to submit an initial deposit. It'll be refunded if you win.
- the website will be going live soon...that's a promise. The original version was too good for this world. The DOS-based version will be mostly text, followed by more text. In Times New Roman. Dammit.
- The food will be better than fantastic
- The courses will be very good...and very hard. Prologue (@ 10 miles) on Sunday the 5th, moderate stage on Monday, ballbustin' stage on Tuesday, moderate stage on Wednesday, another soulcrusher on Thursday, then a final moderate one on Friday followed by an ass-kicking, hangover inducing, "you lookin' good, girl" drunken free-for-all banquet and awards ceremony.
- We'll have coverage of Le Tour available every night in the social compound (generously provided by Subaru)

...and fer the luvva Boo, will some of you chime in on the sock discussion on Facebook (search for "Breck Epic")? You're all going to get the Keith Van Horn white chocolate baller cotton/acrylic over-the-calf tallboys if I don't start to see some emotional investment in the sock issue. I can't be the only one with a burning passion for hosiery...or am I?

Aw yeah. It's effin' on.
MikeMac

- HELL YEAH I LIKE WOOL

2008-12-01T15:01:00.004-07:00

...and nothing's too fine for my Breck Epic buds, so it's wool socks all the way around. Black ones...and PINK ones. Maybe a litte argyle. Why? WTF not? You see, my dirty little secret is that I know a lot of little elves who know how to not only make stuff, but GET STUFF DONE. In this case, it's the creative and industrious folks at Jett MTB. They may look like a casual riding apparel company, but the guys who own it and run it have project managed and industrial designed for just about every lifestyle and outdoor company you can imagine. They've concocted a merchandise line for us that's pretty cool - hats, tees, entrant's jerseys (pro style and baggie - pick your poison - one free with your entry), wool socks, leader's jerseys...you name it. And if I get my way, we'll also do some classic custom wool training sweaters. We'll see...but usually I get what I want in the fashionista department. Anybody like those swank Eisbar hats? I'm gunning for those, too.

In other news:
- We're going to start accepting deposits this week. Promise.
- Our web guy is in Peru, so we're having a bit of a delay on the site, but man - it looks cool, and believe me, it's hard to find someone to do good work who'll accept t-shirts, Onza pedals and Oury grips as payment.
- We've created a Facebook Group for the race. Just head over there and search for "Breck Epic". Any nutjob can join - I did!
- If you're signed up for the newsletter you'll be the first to know once we open regsitration. Need to get in on it? Send me a note: mikemac@breckepic.com

See ya -
MM

- YOU GONNA GAIN WEIGHT, YO

2008-12-01T15:00:00.002-07:00

Here's a quick peek at what the menu's going to look like. Big thanks to Hearthstone Catering for using organic fruits and veggies (locally grown where possible) and environmentally friendly servingware. We'll also have dinner on Sunday, July 5th, but details on that guy are pending.

Breakfast Options (daily, all week long)
- homemade breakfast breads and assorted danish
- butter, assorted jam and preserves
- fresh seasonal melons, berries and fruit
- locally baked bagels with a variety of cream cheese flavors
- special recipe jumbo sausage links or hormel black label bacon (rotating)
- chilled hard boiled eggs (in the shell)
- breakfast potatoes (a variety throughout the week)

Breckfast Entrees (we’ll two for each day)
- fresh basil and creamy havarti strata
- grand marnier french toast
- veggie scrambled eggs with leeks, tomato and bell peppers
- mexican chorizo, roasted green chile and cheese egg soufflé
- italian pancetta and sharp gruyere strata
- homemade buttermilk biscuits with sausage gravy
- cinnamon raisin french toast
- huevos rancheros casserole with black beans, roasted tomato salsa and melted cheese

- chilled orange, apple and cranberry juices
- premium coffee, decaffeinated coffee & assorted hot tea (we're still looking for that elusive coffee sponsor that wants to come in and blow this up.)

Monday, July 6th - mexican fiesta fajita bar
- house made chips and three fresh made salsas
- southwestern chicken wraps with black bean hummus and roasted peppers

- tres fajitas: all finished with onions and bell pepper rings
- grilled marinated chicken breast
- lean skirt steak
- roasted portobello
- fresh guacamole, shredded cheddar cheese, sour cream and pico de gallo
- steamed flour tortillas
- black bean and corn salad in tequila scented lime vinaigrette
- authentic refried pinto beans
- spanish rice

- mexican chocolate brownies sprinkled with roasted pepitas
- tres leches
- vanilla cake awash in caramel and three milks

Tuesday, July 7th - Italiano
- caesar salad
- fresh cut romaine with homemade dressing, herbed croutons and grated aged parmesan
- traditional antipasto platter
- aged salamis, italian cheeses, marinated vegetables, roasted garlic served with crispy flatbreads
- fresh baked focaccia breadsticks

- lasagna trio:
- spinach and prosciutto ham with alfredo sauce
- smoked chicken with vodka tomato cream sauce
- grilled summer vegetables with marinara sauce

- cappuccino and amaretto cheesecake bars

Wednesday, July 8th (Awards Banquet) - Pacific Rim
- vegetable potstickers
- asian dumplings served with scallion hoisin sauce
- cucumber salad with red bell peppers and pure sesame dressing

- stir-frys with chicken breast, beef loin or tofu in garlic soy sauce with sherry and ginger tossed with green onions, mushrooms, broccoli, peppers and more steamed rice

- coconut and raisin rice pudding
- sweet coconut custard baked with golden raisins and kaffir lime
- plum cake ripe plums baked in sweet cream cake
- all good fortune cookies

Thursday, July 9th - Chicago style
- bountiful salad bar
- crisp lettuce blend and a plethora of fresh toppings and dressings
- pasta salad caprese (orecchiette pasta tossed in olive oil with house made mozzarella, fresh basil and ripe tomatoes)
- bacon and bleu potato salad

- penne pasta with broccoli and tomato in a light reggianito cream
- baked ziti tossed in red sauce with mozzarella, parmesan and classic italian spices

- sub station:
- fresh baked baguettes filled with your choice of
- beef meatballs in marinara
- chicken cheese philly style
- italian sausage with peppers and onions

- bailey’s mint brownies
- carrot cake bars with cream cheese icing
- double chocolate brownies

Friday, July 10th - western hoe down
- summer vegetable pasta salad
- cavatappi pasta tossed with a rainbow of fresh vegetables in a lemon, honey vinaigrette
- corn soufflé (rich casserole of whole kernel & creamed corn baked with sour cream and melted butter)
- cowboy beans (homemade bbq style chili beans simmered slowly with bacon, onion, peppers & cilantro)
- green chile cheddar corn bread

- bbq chicken (juicy drumstick, thigh & breast char-grilled and finished in scratch made chipotle bbq sauce)
- bbq ribs (fall off the bone beer braised pork ribs roasted in our signature bbq sauce)
- four homemade bbq sauces from mild to wild:
- bacon apple
- cherry ancho
- chipotle
- spicy ancho

- refreshing watermelon
- apple crisp
- granny smith apples stewed in brown sugar, cinnamon and a hint of bourbon, baked under streusel topping. served with fresh whipped cream
- peach cobbler, golden peaches lightly poached in simple syrup and spices served hidden under a moist cake topping. served with fresh whipped cream.

- THE LATEST NEWSLETTER (NOV 10)

2008-11-24T11:10:00.005-07:00

I've gotten so many email requests for this that I've decided (belatedly, I know - bear with me, I'm just not that smart) to post it here.

Hug/Kiss,
MM

Heya. It’s been a month or so since we’ve self-promoted, so we figured that you were all overdue for a long email from us that let you waste another 10 minutes of your work week. Information is starting to coalesce for next year’s Breck Epic and we wanted to make sure that we maintained some sort of shared consciousness with all of you whereby we could incorporate your feedback (or at least maintain the pretense of doing so) for as long as possible prior to getting all rigid and inflexible.

In this newsletter you’ll find info on how the solo categories will be administrated, what the actual race categories will be, some new info on pricing, yet another reminder that Breck Epic Blogger’s Grant applications are now being accepted and a blatantly self-serving plug about sponsorship and media inquiries. A big thanks to all who’ve stayed tuned and offered encouragement over the past month. It’s been a weird one, but in the immortal words of HST, “When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro.” Me? I got sweatbands and everything.

Mike

Breck Epic Categories:
Categories. Here you go. These aren't finalized and I'm willing to listen to what you guys think, but I think that this will be pretty close to the final product. You can email me your thoughts or you can let your discontent fester inside you like a little pill of bitterness. Totally your call. If you want to sound off, you can email me (addy below) or you can get a conversation going on MTBR.com in the Endurance forum. On to the categories…

Open Men Duo
Open Women Duo
Open Mixed Duo
80+ Duo
100+ Duo (added 11/21/08)
Singlespeed Duo (must be 5 teams to establish category...this actually applies to all categories)
Solo Men Open
Solo Women Open
Singlespeed Open
Solo Men 40+ (added 12/04/08)

Solo Information:
There's not really an established blueprint for the solo thing in this type of racing, but our sense is that you need to be a pro or expert level rider for us to allow you to race solo. Even this gives us a little pause, but you guys need some finite guidelines to begin planning. My gut tells me that anyone racing/riding below that level is going to meet the cut-off buzzsaw by day two…and that’ll suck for you. And for us. Bottom line, if you hold an Expert or above license (let's use that terminology instead of the new categories that they're instituting for the coming year) then you'll be allowed to race solo. If you're a Sport guy or girl you'll need to submit some substantiation to be considered for solo (you've held your own in La Ruta, you've summited K2 without supplemental O2, you've cannibalized your fellow plane crash survivors in order to survive, et cetera.) Also, everyone who races solo needs to pinky swear that you'll be really, really careful out there.

"Sport?" "Expert?" If you're among the underground crew that views these categories as facile tools of the man, then my guess is that you've been operating outside of the USAC firewall. The fact that there may be some unabombers out there isn't really a surprise, especially when you consider that most of you are actually looking forward to being nailed to this particular tree of pain. Nonetheless, categorize you we must, so if you don't hold a USAC license that proves that you're an Expert or above, then you'll need to justify your inclusion in the solo category should you wish to participate in those categories. You'll all get the requisite forms and info on the next vomitous mass of dogma that we email out. Not on our email list? Think about getting on it. Your address is safe with us. Email me here: mikemac@breckepic.com.

About Time Cuts: (added 11/24/08)
They’ll be generous, but they will be enforced. Like the BC Bike Race, if you miss the cut you’ll be out of the race, but you WILL be allowed to ride in the remaining stages.

Pricing/Registration:
I've gone on record with the statement that the BE's pricing will be driven by value. I stand by that statement. With that said, this is our first swing at this and even though our group has A LOT of experience producing races, we still need to make sure that our budget projection rests somewhere within the realm of reality. Translation: I don't have it figured out yet, and if I screw it up then there won’t be a Breck Epic in 2010.

Despite that, we still need to begin accepting reservations for the event, so here's what I propose: we'll begin accepting refundable deposits by the end of November. The deposit amount has yet to be determined, but it'll be manageable. By January 1 we'll set our official pricing structure and everyone who’s laid down their deposit will be given the opportunity to say “looks great, sign me up,” at which point the balance of your race fee will be split into two non-refundable payments for which you will be invoiced. If the fee looks a little steep for you when we announce final pricing we’ll happily refund your deposit.

Couple of quick qualifiers here:
1. Once you’ve accepted the fee structure your payments become non-refundable. In the interest of not being a bunch of self-serving dicks, they will be transferrable. You can eBay ‘em, Craigslist ‘em or even raffle ‘em off to a barful of disoriented boozers.
2. If you’ve submitted a Breck Epic Blogger’s Grant application or are intending to, you must still submit a deposit. Should you win the contest your deposit will be refunded within 7 days of its conclusion.
3. If you hold a sport license (or don’t hold a USAC license at all) you’ll still be allowed to place your deposit, but you’ll get a note from us within a few days and we’ll have a few questions for you to help us establish your bona fides. We're looking into other options in lieu of USAC. Stay tuned.

A final note about pricing: it’ll be broken out in a couple of different ways. There’ll be a basic plan that covers camping, food and race entry. There’ll also be a couple of differentiated plans that allow for the fact that many of you may make other arrangements for lodging, meals, et cetera. Your final payments will be determined by which plan you sign up for.

Love it? Hate it? My back is strong. Bring it on: mikemac@breckepic.com.

Sponsorship and Media Inquiries:
Our sponsorship packets for 2009 are now available. Give us a shout and let us get something together that’s specifically targeted for your brand. If you toil in the 4th estate and are interested in receiving pre-race and daily copy from one of the winners of the blogger’s contest drop us a line and we’ll get you more information. If you’d like some general background about the race please visit our blogsite, http://www.breckepic.blogspot.com/. Until we go live with BreckEpic.com the blog will host all relevant info. If at any point in this email your found yourself saying, “WTF is he talking about?” a quick visit to the blog might be in order.

Industry Stuff
If you’ve been playing along then you know that along with the $10,000 cash purse we’re also offering a way for sponsored teams to increase the size of the treasure chest. Teams riding in the Industry Cup are required to donate merchandise from their sponsors that will then be raffled off throughout the week. The auction will be open to the public and will take place on eBay. All proceeds from the Industry Cup auction will be awarded to the on the podium who’ve donated goods.

We’ll also be in haymaking season here in Summit County as far as destination mountain bike tourists go, so we’re asking all of our friends in the industry that have rolling demo programs to consider bringing them out to the Epic for the week. We’ve a generous media buy allocated in support of this aspect of our program. Please contact us to reserve some of our lusciously flat asphalt.

About the Breck Epic and The Greenspeed Project
The BE is a 6-day ultra-endurance mountain bike stage race to be contested in the sprawling trail network surrounding Breckenridge, CO in early July, 2009. As a race its mission is to showcase the incredible work that visionary land managers here have accomplished by pairing an ambitious and shared vision with a ‘let’s roll our sleeves up and get this thing done together’ mentality. It is one of a small few such races in US, and certainly among the most difficult. The Breck Epic is among a small portfolio of events produced by the newly established Greenspeed Project. The Greenspeed Project’s mission is to fund open space, trails and backcountry initiatives through the medium of slightly left-of-center events. If you’d like to find out more we’ll happily fire a mind-bullet your way stuffed with an ungodly amount of sleep-inducing propaganda. No need to send us a note, we’ll know. We can also email it.

- HELLO SUBARU. HIYA MARMOT

2008-11-21T13:02:00.003-07:00

Thanks for stooping by. What? You'd like to sponsor the race? Wellll...lemme think about it - we don't just hand these sponsorships our you know. Ya gotta have some relevance.

OK. I'm a moron who's easily amused by the fact that you press these little buttons on your keyboard and the little marks on the little buttons magically appear on your computer screen. Wow. In any case, I met with Subaru in person and Marmot over the phone and it looks like they'll both be piling onto the promotional juggernaut that is The Breck Epic.

I've also begun plugging in more Blogger's Applications at the bottom of the page. Or you can just snoop-clicky-click that little rightwards facing arrow next to the word "October" over to the right and a handy-dandy list of all the posts will come up. Again, wow.

MM

- BLOGGER APP UPDATE

2008-11-20T09:35:00.002-07:00

Thanks for keeping those cards and letters coming folks. I've spent the past few weeks pretty heads-down on sponsorship and merchandising. I'll get them all posted today (or more likely late this evening.)

In other "Nobody Probably Cares But Me" news, I just sweet-talked Dave Towle into announcing. I also boxed out the Breckenridge Resort Chamber folks by ordering all the crappers from Royal Flush. They told me that 'nobody had ever ordered that far in advance before'.

What can I say, my shit is tight.

I also popped for daily servicing as well as a fresh dose of "The Blue". I heart a fresh shitter and nothing is too good for you, my 16 loyal blog followers. You can almost smell it through the screen, can't you. Smells like excitement.

On a sidenote, I've come up with a perfect penalty for littering on course: the offender will be required to push down 'the cone' in the fullest porto with a piece of wood that's 4x4....x4! And that's inches, not feet. Think twice before you drop a gel packet, bud.

- SPONSORSHIP PACKAGES NOW AVAILABLE

2008-11-18T14:44:00.001-07:00

...and in other breaking news, I was projectile shat upon last night. It really wasn't as sexy as it sounds.

If you'd like to take a peek at the sponsorship stuff send me a note or give me a call.

mikemac@breckepic.com
970-485-5847

MM

- DID YOU GET THE NOV. 10 NEWSLETTER?

2008-11-10T16:47:00.004-07:00

...I hope so, because I typed it one-handed while holding a constipated newborn in my other arm. BreckEpic.com's set to go live this week, at which point the blogsite will take a turn towards the 'stream-of-self-consciousness' style that you're all used to. Or as I sometimes like to describe as "an elaborately constructed cathedral of self-adoration." Or is that self-loathing? Dunno - deep down they're probably both the same thing. At some point in the near future I will be publishing the ultimate (and annotated!) waffle recipe. You're not going to want to miss that. Seriously.

In any case, if you missed the newsletter and you'd like me to send it to you just drop me a line and I'll get it to you. There was info on:

Pricing
Categories
Solo Rider Info
Registration Info
...and much, much more!

- BRECK EPIC OVERVIEW

2008-10-22T23:07:00.006-06:00

Endurance racing has diversified over the past decade, evolving from traditional cross-country racing into events designed to challenge a rider’s fitness, bike handling skills and mental strength over a prolonged period of time. The Breck Epic is a 6-day backcountry mountain bike stage race held against the stunning high-alpine backdrop of Colorado’s Central Rockies in Breckenridge, Colorado. Two-person teams and solo competitors contest each stage with cumulative elapsed time over all five stages determining the winning team.

The format has gained traction internationally with athletes and media alike, yet to date there are no significant MTB stage races of this length in the United States. Increasingly, the most popular mountain bikes events are extreme challenges; 24-hour races and 100-mile ultra-endurance events are great examples. The Epic falls into this category – it’s experiential in nature, challenging each participant to seek out reserves of strength and character throughout a prolonged effort. Here the competitive experience is measured in days, not hours. The nature of a stage race creates drama, not just at the top of the leader board, but among each team and within the mind of each athlete as the depths of each individual’s physical and mental resolve is plumbed over a span of 6 days and 250+ off-road miles.

All images courtesy Liam Doran: liamjski@msn.com

- FORMAT AND GENERAL INFO

2008-10-22T23:05:00.002-06:00

- 5 stages plus a prologue off-road TT - The stages will be Monday-Friday with the prologue taking place on Sunday afternoon.

- A field limit will be in place (approximately 400 riders)

- Categories are still TBD, but we'll be taking our cues from the pioneers in the format, the Trans-Rockies guys and the BC Bike Race folks (and on that note, we take our hats off to both of them for establishing such an amazing format and for so graciously allowing us to so blatantly rip it off.)

- We'll offer team and solo categories, but the solo folks will be required to submit a formal application prior to acceptance. This race is going to be a bitch and any newbie that squirms in under the wire will most likely suffer an agonizing and painful week.

- Pricing is being worked out. We'll let everyone know as soon as it's finalized.

- PROCEEDS BENEFIT THE TRAILS

2008-10-22T23:01:00.002-06:00

First and foremost, proceeds from The Breck Epic will be donated to the Town of Breckenridge’s Open Space and Trails Department (BOSAC) and the USFS (Dillon Ranger District) with the intention that they be earmarked for additional staff, trail improvements and maintenance. In this regard The Epic would be the first race of its kind to directly underwrite open space improvements with hard dollars.

Put simply, there’s a great story here; our community’s progressive stance on open space, the connectivity of our trail network and its impressive sprawl. To date those three qualities have not been placed into context on a national or international level. Through marketing, PR and the blogosphere The Breck Epic will showcase all three, highlighting the symbiotic relationship between them and showcasing Breckenridge as the ideal model for forward-thinking community involvement and the shared vision and cooperation of various land managers from the federal level on down.

- WHERE AGAIN?

2008-10-22T22:59:00.001-06:00

Where does it take place? Summit County, CO. The beauty of Breckenridge is that you can be so close and yet so far. The Epic aspires to provide a high-end, yet rugged experience. We’ll utilize town and USFS ‘system’ trails with each stage beginning and ending within the town limits of Breckenridge. The route will change from year-to-year, each subsequent iteration allowing a select group of riders to experience a unique perspective of the place we call home.

- WHEN? WHY THAT DATE?

2008-10-22T22:58:00.000-06:00

When? The short answer is July 5-10. Want the long answer? Right. Me too. Remember that time in band camp? Just kidding. Remember when we were discussing date options and we asked you guys to chime in? Well, with the help of the bike industry folks (and all of you) we’ve decided. This year’s Breck Epic will take place on July 6th-10th. There’s a possibility that we’ll add a seeding prologue on the afternoon of the 5th. I’ll keep you posted on that.

Why did we decide to go with those dates? Well, there are a couple of things going on in Colorado that we didn’t want to conflict with, yet we also felt that we needed to pay close attention to what we consider our window of good weather here at 9,600 feet…and that means July. There’s the Firecracker 50 on July 4th which will serve as USAC’s Marathon National Championships, The Breck 100 on the 18th and USAC MTB National Championships which will be held in SolVista Basin from July 16-19. After deliberating the merit and level of conflict with each we decided to go with the earlier week. I don’t want to conflict with any of them, but unfortunately we will. I’ve got a bit to say about each:

The Firecracker: Jeff and I created this race 9 years ago and it’s blossomed into one of the very best races in the country. I’m proud of that and more than a bit bummed out that we’re crowding its space. With that said, I’ll also throw out there that the customers are probably a bit different. It’s also a one-day event, whereas the BE is a 6 day affair soup-to-nuts. The USFS will be limiting Jeff’s field this year which means that regardless of the conflict (real or imagined,) The Firecracker’s going to have a full field. That makes me happy and ultimately allowed me to fall in line with the bike industry’s wishes to go with the earlier date so they could support both and not conflict with NATS. For more info on The Firecracker head to www.mavsports.com.

The Breck 100: The Breck Epic is based on the belief that Summit County contains an abundance of riches in terms of its trail network and its connectivity. If you don’t have the ability to take the full week off, but would still like a stiff challenge on an amazing course you should check this race out. Thane from Warriors Cycling also offers a 32 mile and a 68 mile option if you’re not up for the full hundo. http://www.warriorscycling.com/.

NATS: I feel that we have the least crossover here especially since NATS caters to short-format, UCI World Cup-style racing. I also am stoked beyond belief that NATS are finally in Colorado. I lobbied USAC for years to create a one-day NATS event and then lobbied some more to bring it to the Rockies. There’s something pretty amazing about hashing it out on course for a stars and stripes jersey and the event at SolVista promises to be amazing for both the endurance and gravity crowds. The good folks at Bigfoot Productions will be producing and promoting NATS with the help of the SolVista Bike Park crew and the folks at Granby Ranch. You can find more info here: http://www.racemsc.com/ and http://www.solvistabikepark.com/

Jeff and Thane will probably be involved in some way with the event. Thane in a course capacity and Jeff in an 11th hour “hey Jeff, I can’t figure this out, will you do it for me?” capacity. Let me offer a preemptive thank you to Jeff right now: Hey Jeff, thanks buddy.

- COURSE/VENUE INFO

2008-10-22T22:56:00.001-06:00

- There will be a strong emphasis on course quality. You can expect very little road riding and even gravel and fire road riding will be minimized. The Breck Epic is intended to be a rugged backcountry experience.
- Distance? About 235-250 miles. Find a spandex-clad Europhile if you need to know how many K that is.
- We'll use a 'cloverleaf' model with each stage starting and finishing in Breckenridge. That means that we'll use ONE campground and will have no transfers
- Lodging will also be available – Breck’s got it all whether you’re looking for hostel, hotel or condo.
- Attn: Weekend Warriors: if you're the type of guy who likes to give yourself one extreme challenge once a year...well, this is probably not the event for you. The courses will be long. They will be difficult. 90% of the terrain will be above 10,000 feet. Cut-off times will be strictly enforced. You could die here. And nobody would find you.

- PROPOSED ROUTES

2008-10-22T22:54:00.000-06:00

This is all subject to change of course. You know that my wife and I just had another baby and that my hormones are all in a tizzy. I might decide tomorrow that it's going to be a recumbent-only event. In the words of Crash Davis, "I really don't know where the ball's going." As if that's not enough, there's the whole USFS permit approval thingie. Keep in mind that all routes are proposed only – actual routes are subject to town, county and USFS permit approval process. These will also probably be shuffled around considerably - "Stage 1" might not necessarily be Stage 1 if you get my drift. Details on Sunday's seeding prologue are pending.

Stage 1 – Circumnavigation of Mt. Guyot
French Gulch Road to French Pass
French Pass to Michigan Creek TH
Michigan Creek to Georgia Pass
Down Georgia, up American
Out Little French Flume
Down Little French to FINISH @ western parking lot

Stage 2 - Pennsylvania Gulch/Boreas Pass
Begin at Hockey Rink
Up Boreas Pass Rd to Illinois Gulch
Illinois Gulch to BPR to Aspen Tunnel
Aspen Tunnel to Blue River Trail
Blue River Trail to Blue River Subdivision
Blue River Sub to Pennsylvania Gulch
Pennsylvania to Indiana Gulch, down Indiana
Right at bottom of Grind
Up through Dyersville
Left on Boreas Pass Road
Right on Baker’s Tank Trail
BTT to Iowa Mill
Iowa Mill to Nightmare on Baldy
Nightmare on Baldy to Sallie Barber
Sallie Barber to Barney Ford
Barney Ford to Moonstone
Moonstone to finish

Stage 3 – The Gold Dust Trail
Start in Wellington
French Gulch Road to Sallie Barber
Sallie Barber to Nightmare
Nightmare to Iowa Mill
Iowa Mill to Baker’s Tank
Baker’s Tank to Boreas Pass Road
BPR to Dyersville
Dyersville to Indiana, LEFT on Indiana
Indiana to Boreas Pass (Section House)
BPR to Gold Dust Trail
GDT to BPR
BPR back to Baker’s Tank
Tank Trail to finish at BTT Lot

Stage 4 - Wheeler/Peaks Trail
Begin at Peak 8
Climb up access road, then Peak 8 to Peak 9 Trail
Peak 9 to Wheeler
Up and over Wheeler
Return to Frisco via recpath
Pick up Peaks Trail in Frisco
Peaks Trail back to Peak 8
Finish at Peak 8

Stage 5 – The Colorado Trail
Begin in Wellington
Up Gold Run Road past the McLeary’s
Out the Side Door, hang left at first intersection (past snowmobile)
Sharp left up to Prospect Way
Right on Prospect Way to Lincoln Meadows
Climb road from Lincoln Meadows to top of American
American Gulch to Great Flume
Great Flume to Georgia Pass CT section
Descend CT to Middle Fork
Middle Fork to North Fork (Westridge)
Westridge to Soda Creek
Soda Creek to Horseshoe Gulch
Horseshoe Gulch back to dredge and Tiger Road
Tiger Road to Discovery Ridge Trail
DRT to Preston
Preston to Slalom
Slalom to Upper Flume
Upper Flume to Recycling Center & Finish

- THE INDUSTRY CUP

2008-10-22T22:53:00.001-06:00

This year's Breck Epic will offer $10,000 in prize money. I've yet to decide how that'll be split up, but we're committed to providing a decent purse. While $10K is nothing to sneeze at I do wish that we could commit to more, so I've been thinking about ways to up the ante a bit. To sweeten the pot. To really ratchet up the pressure to unbearable levels so that losing a spot on the podium is actually physically painful. In a perfect world the disappointment of not finishing in the money would be so purely distilled that your ears would bleed. So here's what I've come up with - "The Industry Cup". Impressive, huh? (Ladies, don't bother queuing up, I'm married.)

Here's how it works: Factory pros, or manufacturer's riders will be allowed to donate items for a silent auction. It could be a frame, a fork, a component, a riders kit, a footrub from the Luna Chix, a pair of Dave Weins' dirty socks, a big spitty kiss from a man with a bushy moose-stash...whatever. Over the course of the event these items will be displayed and bids will be taken. At the conclusion of the event auction winners will be announced and the proceeds from the silent auction will be split between participating riders in the pro categories. In lieu of merchandise, teams may throw cash into the pot. Merchandise donations must have a minimum cash value (retail) of $250. Cash entries will be $150. Participation must be declared at packet pickup and merchandise (or a gift certificate or reasonable facsimile if product is size-specific) must be delivered to Breck Epic registration staff prior to the beginning of Stage 1.

- IN "LE NEWS"

2008-10-22T22:08:00.013-06:00

If there's one thing that can be said about bike journalists, it's that they're bike nerds like the rest of us. God bless 'em. Thanks for the ink, boys. Here's a looky-loo at what the pundits from the 4th estate have to say:
Mountain Bike, October 8, 2008
VeloNews, October 22, 2008
Bike Magazine, October 21, 2008
Mountain Bike, October 23, 2008
Cycling News, October 24, 2008
MTBR.com, November 11th, 2008
Mountain Bike, November 12th, 2008
Mountain Bike, November 13th, 2008

- BENEFITS FOR BRECK?

2008-10-22T15:46:00.004-06:00

The obvious benefit for the community is an influx of cyclist dollars. Secondary to that is that the revenue from the event will be donated directly to BOSAC, and through the use of a restricted grant, the USFS. The use of an event as a fundraising mechanism that underwrites trail construction and maintenance represents a paradigm shift in the event business, but this is a logical extension of one of the principles upon which Maverick Sports Promotions, (the joint venture of Jeff Westcott and Mike McCormack) was founded; “Events must give back to the community.” If the event makes money, that money will directly underwrite trail improvements. The Epic’s goal will be to provide the funds necessary to add one additional seasonal staff member for each organization.

Additionally, the PR generated from the event will create millions of unique consumer impressions, further solidifying Breck’s status as a worthwhile stop for national and international destination mountain bike travelers. The biking season here is short, but the goods are, well...good. Really good.

- THE MESSAGE

2008-10-22T15:45:00.000-06:00

The message is simple – open space is vital. And Summit County is a wonderful representation of how 3 disparate land management entities can work together to create something truly amazing. Preservation, conservation, responsible use…whichever way you’d choose to describe it. There’s a great story to tell here in Breckenridge, one that’s been years in the making. Town leadership decided early on that ‘quality of life’, as a concept and in practice, needed to be elevated and reprioritized in order to achieve more harmonious balance with the commercial pressures unique to resort communities. In looking around at some of our counterparts across the state it’s obvious that we’re head and shoulders above most of our them in both principle and practice.

We also want to underscore the fact that Breckenridge is an amazing place to visit and live. There are many old Victorian mining towns in Colorado, but few with a world-class resort and none (other than us) with almost unlimited backcountry access. Most of the town’s marketing efforts focus on the first two elements. Athletic events, especially ones grand in scope and detailed in execution do a great job of highlighting the third.

- A GREEN EVENT

2008-10-22T15:44:00.006-06:00

We’ll be making every effort to make the Epic as green as possible. A kinder, gentler mountain bike race. This means concentrated efforts at recycling, a conscientious nod to the reduction of our overall carbon footprint every step of the way and the use of renewable energy credits for all of our power needs. These are just the tip of the iceberg – we’ll be striving for sustainability and conscientious use with every decision that we make. We’ve always felt that 1000 heads are better than one, so please feel free to forward your suggestions on how we may shrink our impact as much as possible.

- TEAM IMBA

2008-10-22T15:44:00.005-06:00

The Epic will partner with the International Mountain Bike Association (IMBA) and its new “Team IMBA” initiative. Through participation in the Team IMBA program participants are given the tools to fundraise for their racing efforts. Proceeds from Team IMBA fundraising are split 50/50 between IMBA and the event’s charity of choice, in this case BOSAC and the Dillon Ranger District. The beauty of this strategy is that an estimated 90% of the event’s participants will come from outside of Colorado. Team IMBA’s program extends the reach of fundraising efforts to communities well outside of the traditional harvesting grounds for open space donations. Funds raised through Team IMBA will be in addition to the event revenues described elsewhere.

- SPONSORSHIP OPPORTUNITIES

2008-10-22T15:43:00.002-06:00

If the idea of a sprawling, unbelievably difficult and environmentally and socially conscious event with a built-in PR Hemi piques your interest please feel free to drop me a line at mikemac@breckepic.com. We've got value-driven partnership packages that can be tailored to your brand's marketing and PR needs. We've also got flat asphalt for your rig if you need it, and if you talk sweet enough we'll park you next to the coffee guys. Or the beer guys.

As far as partners go, we place a premium on folks that share our values about the altruistic underpinnings of the race. A decent sense of humor goes a long way, too.

- SPONSOR REFERRAL PROGRAM

2008-10-22T15:42:00.002-06:00

...or in other words, "It's not what you know..." I don’t want to overly commercialize and monetize the event, but historically the best sponsorship leads come from word of mouth. In order to integrate with the stated goal of the event (to directly fund additional labor resources for Breckenridge Open Space and Trails and the USFS) we’re being a bit selective about who we partner with. If you’re hooked up with an organization that might be interested in aligning themselves with greener goods and goals, please feel free to contact us to make an introduction. I can provide more details, but we’ll offer each referrer a 10% ‘finder’s fee’ that can be applied toward entry fees and merchandise. Based upon finalized cash sponsorship. Limit one solo entry (@ $1000 value, actual value TBD) and $300 merchandise credit.

- VOLUNTEERISM

2008-10-22T15:41:00.003-06:00

It's good for the soul. And for the wardrobe. Volunteers? We need ‘em. Course Marshals, moto guys...you name it. Volunteers will get piles of event swag and I’m talking about the good stuff. Each volunteer will earn $10/hour credit at the company store ($150 maximum.) You’ll be able to redeem your credit for socks, tees, hats, fleeces, bags, etc. All volunteers will also receive meal tickets for breakfast and dinner for each day that they volunteer. Interested? Please contact me at mikemac@breckepic.com.

- BLOGGER'S GRANT PROGRAM OVERVIEW

2008-10-22T15:37:00.007-06:00

We’re giving away 4 race entries to the folks who’ve got the scribbling jones. Each blogger will be required to submit four 1,000 word articles prior to the event on topics ranging including actual race prep, their mental states, why they love their bike and just about anything else loosely related to the event. During the event they’ll be asked to write 500-1000 words after each stage. All of these articles will be distributed via email within the event newsletter and published on the event's website. Each blogger will be assigned to one of the vertical cycling publications and the promoter will forward their daily race journals to their print partner at no cost. Blogger hopefuls are required to submit writing samples and a completed questionnaire detailing their qualifications. Voting will be public and will take place online beginning January 1st. If you're interested please take a spin through the "Dogma" and "Rules" posts, then get crackin' on the Application. You can also email me (mikemac@breckepic.com) and I'll forward you the Werd dock-ya-mint.

- BLOGGER’S GRANT DOGMA

2008-10-22T15:36:00.000-06:00

BLOGGER’S GRANT PROGRAM OVERVIEW (Kill ‘em with copy!):

I’ve been involved in cycling events for as long as I can remember. There are two memories that stand out for me when I look back and I guess if I really dig deep into the mental nooks and crannies I can say that they’ve shaped how I’ve come to look at events in general. The first one that jumps out at me was a what-was-then-called NORBA event in Traverse City, Michigan. I remember that the race was so much more than that – it was an event. The energy was unbelievable and you were left with no doubt that if you were a mountain biker, that Traverse City, on that weekend, was the center of the universe.

My weekend was highlighted by two notable experiences, both of which left indelible impressions on a short, pale and naïve kid from Wisconsin. First, there was a fit and tan women walking around all weekend with a shirt made of what I could only describe as the sort of fish netting that you might sea in the South Pacific. She was also bra-less. Possibly European. To this day I couldn’t tell you what her face looked like. Couldn’t pick her out of a crowd of two if I had to. What can I say? I was about 22 years old and still flailing about in the uncertain seas of huge testosterone surges. I was also sort of a drooling moron at the time (you could make a case that I still am, although it’s possible that I’ve been upgraded to ‘juvenile’.)

The other part of that weekend that sticks out for me was the fact that the night prior to the XC event I got caught up in the excitement of the weekend and the camaraderie of sharing one crappy hotel room with 15 other farting, belching and generally stinky recent post-adolescents. There was beer. There were drinking games. Being a Wisconsinite, there was credibility on the line. So I got hammered. Drunk as a chicken. I was so hung-over during my Sunday race that I’m pretty sure I got passed by a 12 year-old wearing clogs. I may have hallucinated that, but unfortunately for my ego I’m pretty sure that hippy freak middle-schooler owned me. My race experience was summed up at the finish line (yes, I finished) with the following words: “I’ve never wanted anything to end so badly in my life.” Then I was laughed at. By people claiming to be my friends. For years.

What these two memories underscore for me is that events at their best are experiential. When the stars align they give a participant much more than just an on-course experience. I don’t want to get all John Tesh-y here, but something that requires an over-the-top amount of commitment and sacrifice tends to get its mitts into your life in a systemic way. By living through the experience you generate memories. Of pain. Of triumph. Of good food. Or the lack of it. Of a particularly smelly fart. Of intense suffering and of rich reward. Of a woman with nice boobs, a staggering lack of modesty and no visible tan lines.

What started way back in over 20 years ago as a ‘sweeper’ for a local century ride turned into a full-immersion experience that’s defined my life and career. Over the past decade-and-a-half one of the things I’ve enjoyed most is living vicariously through the exploits of others, especially where it concerns bike racing. I like reading about other people’s experiences in the saddle and my guess is, so do you. So without further preamble, I give you “The Breck Epic Blogger’s Grant Program”. Or in other words, “Why use 10 words when 10,000 will do?”

So to bring a long and probably pointless intro to a merciful close; be funny. Be smart. Be informative or entertaining. Be all of those things. Or be none. We don’t care what you have to say…as long as it’s interesting. If that sounds like you, then sharpen your pencils and click on the “Blogger’s Grant Application” link to the right.

- BLOGGER’S GRANT RULES

2008-10-22T15:35:00.000-06:00

The Breck Epic Blogger’s Grant (BEBG) Program was established out of pure selfishness. I like to read about bike races and I feel like there are a lot of people out there like me. I also feel that the current crop of race reports published in the straight-up vertical media sometimes lack in nuance what they attempt to make up for with a detailed list of top-five finishers. I think that people want to live vicariously through others and I’m willing to pay for a small handful of you to document your journey from wherever you are right now to your finish in Breckenridge on July 10th. In exchange for you putting pen to paper I’m offering 4 individual race entries.

The Rules:
1. There are four BEBG’s. They’ll be made available to solo and team competitors.
2. Only 1 person per team may receive a blogger’s grant. In the event that you win 50% of your team’s entry will be picked up by us.
3. BEBG application submission period begins today. Thanks to all of you who’ve already forwarded your literary palmares…but please fill out the form and get it back to us.
4. BEBG applicants will have their applications posted online on the event’s website. Users of the site’s forums will be allowed to vote for their preferred blogger. Winners of the ‘poll’ will receive their very own BEBG and unlimited self-promotional bandwidth. Polling rules are still to be determined, but in general, the sooner you get your application to us and published online, the greater window of availability for people to vote for you.
5. Blogger’s will be required to submit 4 training/general articles (1,000 words minimum) prior to the event and one per day (500 word minimum) while the event is in progress. Did you get 9 when you added that up in your head? Me too.
6. BEBG applications need to be submitted (via email only) by Tuesday, January 6th, 2009. That’s 6 months out from the race start which provides you a rough submission deadline of one article every 6 weeks leading up to the race.
7. Images may be included – please submit screen-resolution images unless otherwise directed.
8. Articles will be edited by BE staff, posted online at http://www.breckepic.com/ and blasted out to the members of our newsletter email list. The copy of BEBG recipients becomes the exclusive property of the event. You may repost your copy, but in broad strokes, we own exclusive rights. This leads us to…
9. Your blogs will appear on the Breck Epic website and in email blasts. Each blogger will also be ‘paired’ with one of the industry publications. BE staff will edit and forward your copy (race journals only) to your designated publisher with the sole intent that it be allowed to be published on that publication’s website.
10. Don’t be bummed if you don’t win! If you habitually write we’ll happily post links to your stuff on the blog page. There are also event sponsors who may request their own writer for the event. We’ll address this situation one-on-one with sponsors and writers as it becomes relevant.
11. We (OK, “I”) hold the deciding vote. I could be coy or less than up-front about that, but there are also strategic reasons for this program. I’ll serve as the ultimate tiebreaker if necessary.
12. Please submit your application by January 6, 2009 to mikemac@breckepic.com. Sans-serif fonts only please.

- BLOGGER'S GRANT APPLICATION

2008-10-22T15:34:00.000-06:00

BRECK EPIC BLOGGER’S GRANT APPLICATION

Feel free to write whatever you’d like, but please adhere to the word-count guidelines. You’ll be allowed to run on indefinitely if you win. To the victor go the spoils, right? Please email to mikemac@breckepic.com by January 6th, 2009.

NAME:
SPONSOR/TEAM:
HOMETOWN:

SECTION 1: 35 words or less per question (please answer all)
Where are you from?
What kind of bike do you ride?
What do you love about it?
Solo or team competitor? Why?
Who’s your teammate (if applicable)?
Done any ultra-endurance stuff before?
Favorite food?
Movie?
Book?

SECTION 2: 100 words or less per question (please answer at least 4)
Worst experience on a bike?
Best experience on a bike?
Tell us about your LBS (Local Bike Shop):
Tell us about your favorite ‘local’ ride:
Tell us about your favorite ride EVER:
Describe a sponsor or company you admire and why you admire them:
Who will play you in the Breck Epic movie and why?

SECTION 3: 200 words or less per question (please answer at least 1)
What do you hope to get out of this experience? Expectations/goals/etc.
Tell us about your history as a cyclist or in the industry:

SECTION 4: 200 words or less (optional)
Feel free to blatantly self-promote here. A quote you like, a direct appeal to the voters, some hateful vitriolic slander for your political opponents (see: Rush Limbaugh, Bill O’Reilly, Ann Coulter…) This is your space. Decorate it however you’d like.

SECTION 5: An image of you. Or of whatever.
Mandatory. 200 x 200 pixels please.

SECTION 6: Links to your work:
Optional. Please submit a maximum of three.

- FIRECRACKER 50

2008-10-22T15:33:00.005-06:00

If you're making the trip from either coast you may want to consider registering for The 4th of July Firecracker 50 on the Saturday preceding The Breck Epic. 50 miles might be a bit long with what lies in store for you with the Epic, but I can honestly say that the F50 is one of the very best races in the US. It's as close as I've seen to what I'd imagine racing in Europe to be like. It's also Marathon NATS. If you like the idea of getting two amazing race experiences while you're out here but are balking at the 50-miles, they do offer a team option. Each rider on the team does one 25-mile lap.

Seriously, the F50 is a race that you should do before you die. It's that good. If you're here and can't/don't want to race it I'm sure that Jeff would love to have you as a volunteer. You get a pretty cool swag package (t-shirt, custom DeFeet Woolie Boolies, a killer barbecue and I think I remember there being free beer in the past) If you're interested in racing or volunteering you can give Jeff a ring-a-ding at westy@mavsports.com.

- PROMOTER PROPAGANDA

2008-10-22T15:33:00.003-06:00

...also known as "lies." In another life (and universe) I was a marketing and brand director for the Trek Bicycles family of brands, I’ve been a Breckenridge resident since 1998. In 2000 I co-founded Maverick Sports Promotions with Jeff Westcott. Through that collaboration we established the environmental education program “Mountain Bike Little League” which has since become the national standard for youth development through advocacy and education. We also developed “The Firecracker 50”, an event generally acknowledged to be one of the best ultra-endurance mountain bike races in the United States, as evidenced by its designation by USA Cycling as national championships for three consecutive years. For 5 years I was employed by Vail Resorts both as an event and customer service manager in Breckenridge and subsequently a marketing monkey at Beaver Creek. Do not annoy me. I WILL throw my own poop at you.

Somewhere in there I've also mucked around with The SuperCup Cyclocross Series and a bunch of high-profile, televised snowboarding, freeskiing and alpine events while at Breck and BC. I also have a dog. He doesn't throw poop. But if ever figures it out, you better watch it.

For the last 3 years I’ve been the managing director of Bigfoot Productions, the event arm of Yeti Cycles. In this capacity I’ve been directly responsible for all aspects of The Mountain States Cup (the largest race series in North America,) as well as several cycling industry initiatives and strategies designed to grow the ranks of the sport.

Thanks in advance for taking a look at the event –
Mike

- BLOGGER APP #1: Team Dicky

2008-10-22T15:32:00.006-06:00

NAME: Rich Dillen

SPONSOR/TEAM: Team Dicky

HOMETOWN: Charlotte, NC

Where are you from? Charlotte, NC
What kind of bike do you ride? I still don’t know what BRAND I’ll be riding, but rest assured it will be a rigid single speed 29’er with pink wheels.
What do you love about it? I don’t have it yet, nor do I know who is going to make it, so the anticipation of the unknown is quite thrilling.
Solo or team competitor? Why? Solo. All my former teammates from previous stage races still have restraining orders against me, so my options for a partner are quite limited.
Done any ultra-endurance stuff before?
Two La Rutas
Two Trans Rockies
One BC Bike Race
Tour de Burg
Twelve hundred milers
Twenty+ 12/24 hour events
A myriad of other bicycling related tests of fortitude
Favorite food? Oatmeal cookies washed down with Amstel Light
Movie? Three Amigos
Book? If Chins Could Kill (The auto-biography of Bruce Campbell)

Worst experience on a bike? By far doing the Cohutta 100 on a fixed gear the week after my dad died was the worst time I’ve ever had on a bike.
Best experience on a bike? My first 24 Hour World Championship in 2000. It was the first time my dad got to watch me race my bike.
Tell us about your favorite ‘local’ ride: Getting up every morning, riding my bike to work, riding for a living, and then riding home. Some days I forget what a gift it is to be a bike messenger, but when I think about it what could be better?
Describe a sponsor or company you admire and why you admire them? The Bare Knuckle Brigade is the best sponsor anybody could ever hope for. They have taught me to hate, but with compassion. To destroy, but with empathy and kindness. To be the absolute best ever, but with humility. They are a cult of excess personality with a capital “P” that rhymes with “T” and that stands for “Tool”. Did I mention we’re just a club that loves show tunes?
Who will play you in the Breck Epic movie and why? Tony Danza, of course it would only be shown on the Lifetime Network for Women. If he were not available the producers would probably give Rick Moranis, Martin Short, or Ben Kingsley the nod.

Tell us about your history as a cyclist or in the industry: I started riding mountain bikes back in 1989 or so while attending Youngstown State University. I sucked at the very start, but over the years I got slightly better. I floundered around in the beginner class at some local XC races, and eventually worked my way up to being a slightly better than average sport class racer. When I started my job as a bike messenger in 1996 I started getting stronger, and when I discovered endurance racing in 2000 I knew I had found my niche. I had some success in the first few years, but I burned out pretty quickly as I focused mainly on 24 hour races. After a tidy little hiatus I sold all my geared bikes and took up single speeding thinking I had left endurance racing and the idea of ever doing a classic stage race behind. Little did I know that over the next four years I would race my single speed for thousands of miles all over North and Central America, and have some of the best times of my life. Yeah, that sums up my lifetime’s worth of cycling history in 200 words or less (199 words to be exact).

That's fascinating! Tell us more! (editors note: the sarcasm is mine, and yes, I know that sarcasm is, A: verbal violence, and B: often a greater statement about the issuer than the subject.): When it comes to endurance racing my goals have morphed since I first started. I used to do it for the pure challenge of pushing my limits, but now I think of it as an advanced form of speed touring or just a painful vacation from the real world. Now my goal is to be the guy who can squeeze the most fun out of every event I enter. Sure, there are times when I want to do my best, but for the most part I just want to ride new trails, meet new people, and come home with new memories. I may not come in first, I may not have the most popular cycling blog, and I really only remember about 50% of the grammar skills I learned in college, but I am the most proficient blogger when it comes to describing my experiences with run-on sentences, and you will definitely have a hard time finding a better single cogging, humor blogging, fun hogging, brain fogging, eggnogging writer to help you live out the Breck Epic in a vicarious manner.

Links to my work:
Smacktalkapalooza: http://teamdicky.blog.com/2684031/
Shove Industries: http://teamdicky.blog.com/3117453/
La Ruta 2004 (caution: @ 4,000 words): http://teamdicky.blog.com/489784/

- BLOGGER APP #2: Luke Wiens

2008-10-22T15:31:00.008-06:00

NAME: Luke Wiens

SPONSOR/TEAM: Ergon…hah, just kidding…we are of no relation. (Wiens Family Cellars/Lucca Restaurant).

HOMETOWN: Sacramento, CA…currently Temecula, CA

Where are you from? I reign from Sacramento….and honestly, vow never to return!
What kind of bike do you ride?/What do you love about it? Kona “The King”…In my opinion has been an all around beast. I’ve punished this thing at Mammoth, thrown thousands of miles at it, and raced everything from XC to Endurance…it still keeps on tickin!
Solo or team competitor? Why? Solo…because I have yet to find anyone local that can keep smiling after 10+ hours on the bike.
Done any ultra-endurance stuff before?
Ironman
12 hours of Temecula (Solo)
Tahoe-Sierra 100
24 Hours of Hurkey Creek (Solo)
In that order…
Favorite food? By far the burrito…god programmed me with an instinctual craving for these boogers that kicks in usually between hours 4 and 6 on the bike.
Movie? Gladiator…you aren’t human if you didn’t like that movie.
Book? A New Earth…by Eckhart Tolle. I read this long before Oprah starting pumping it up.
Worst experience on a bike? When I first moved to Colorado I went for a road ride and double flatted on the other side of town. I had no one to call and walked 12 miles home clopping around in road shoes. Cute girls driving by commenting on my lycra get-up wasn’t enough…a summertime thunderstorm moved in like clockwork to make the last several miles pure joy!
Best experience on a bike? Being the only guy rocking lycra on the shuttle at Bootleg Canyon. At first the downhillers didn’t know what to think…but after several runs of keeping my flesh intact, I started to get a little conversation out of ‘em. I was extremely lucky and too stupid at the time not to dawn armor…after making it through all of those killer trails unscathed that weekend; it was a mix of accomplishment and a near death experience!
Tell us about your LBS (Local Bike Shop): I have about 4…and when you put them all together you actually get a decent selection and pricing. I’ve made friends at all of them and they all serve different purposes, ie. Nutrition, drivetrain, etc.
Tell us about your favorite ‘local’ ride: Vail Lake has evolved from a desert location with a big climb and a fast descent to a venue that hosts XC, Xterra, Endurance, Super D, and Downhill with a whole network of trails. From Eric Carter to my six year old cousin…this place has something for everyone. I have been lucky enough to start a weekly evening ride there…and for some reason, people keep showing up.
Tell us about your favorite ride EVER: The first time I rode in Orange County I showed up with a route map at Aliso Canyon….my intentions, to ride the Aliso/Laguna Wilderness/El Moro loop which connects two parks near the coast. After setting out on my adventure I was offered an array of trails, epic views, and great technical descents. I summited the first major climb only to be greeted by the local OC High School cross country team with hot moms in tow on a training run. It was a pretty hot day and their wardrobe selection seemed to be quite minimal. The next couple miles of fireroad proved to be some of the most technical terrain ever. Welcome to SoCal.
Describe a sponsor or company you admire and why you admire them: Ergon….because they sponsor the dude that beat Lance...just kidding! I admire any company with a goal of improving comfort for us guys that log a lot of cockpit time. They have some solid athletes with seemingly good personalities….and plus, I’ve got a soft spot for green.
Who will play you in the Breck Epic movie and why? Robert Duval…because you just gotta respect the guy. Of course he would probably have a horse and a lot better dialogue then me.
What do you hope to get out of this experience? Expectations/goals/etc. Tell us about your history as a cyclist or in the industry: I started in endurance sports 5 years ago to help remove myself from a toxic lifestyle. Ever since this quest began it has become a journey of continually increasing the bar. I worked my way up through triathlon and peaked with Ironman. The next logical step was 24 solo. The fact that my true passion has always lied with mountain bikes made the quest for 24 solo an outstanding adventure. A multi-day stage race should offer an even closer look at my soul…that’s why we do this stuff right?? To find out just how tough god made ya!
Feel free to blatantly self-promote here. A quote you like, a direct appeal to the voters, some hateful vitriolic slander for your political opponents (see: Rush Limbaugh, Bill O’Reilly, Ann Coulter…) This is your space. Decorate it however you’d like. The pic above is a visit at the family winery from someone I look up to very highly...former Olympian and Xterra dominator, Conrad Stoltz (dude broke his back and came back to crush the Xterra tour). “When you get hurt and all of your sacrifice adds up to nothing, are you willing to put it all on the line again?” – CS. To build yourself up as an athlete…all of the hours and dedication, and then to charge descents skimming the threshold of control…anyone who pushes that hard earns my respect.
Links to your work?
http://www.mountainbikeluke.com/2008/09/24-hours-of-hurkey-creek.html
http://www.mountainbikeluke.com/2008/09/ahhh.html
http://www.mountainbikeluke.com/2008/06/12-hours-of-temecula.html

- BLOGGER APP #3: Larry Grossman

2008-10-22T15:30:00.001-06:00

Name; Larry Grossman
Sponsor/Team Name; SQUIRT LUBE
Hometown; Eagle, Colorado
Where am I from? Born and raised in New Jersey, Moved to Florida in 72, chased women in college in Tallahassee until 83, moved to Wyoming then Colorado in 83, been here ever since.
What kind of bike do I ride? Salsa El Santo for Now, Felt Carbon Niner Hard tail on deck...
What do I love about it? It's a lifestyle for me, bike does not matter much.
Solo or Team and Why? Team, isn't life all about team work? Plus I need someone to bitch to when the climbing gets brutal.
Who's My Teammate? Dewet Marais, partner/owner of SQUIRT LUBE, also age 51
Done any Ultra Stuff Before?
24 Hours of Moab 4 times
Breck Ultra 100 2 times
Firecracker 50 once....ouch!
Favorite Food? Pizza, French Fries and more pizza
Movie? It's a tie....the Godfather and Caddyshack
Book? Fire on the Mountain....read it and learn something
Worst experience on a bike? Getting caught out on Freemont pass in a wicked hail, rain and lightning storm in the middle of a century with no gear. Paramedics got called in to help us recover from hypothermia at Copper Starbucks.
Best experience on the bike? Competing in the 24 Hours of Moab with three of my best riding buddies for four straight years, including the big flood year.
Sponsor or Company I admire? Maxxis, for stepping up, no questions, to help me put on a fantastic Spring Cyclocross series in Eagle last year. They were huge and made the series great for all the racers who showed and throwed.
Who Will Play me in the Breck Epic Movie? Robert Di Niro
What do I hope to get out of this experience? I race for a few very simple reasons, and that goes for all bike rides/races. Riding bikes is about where you go and who you go with, always has been, racing is just a great way to stay fit and create an awesome sphere of friends as well as see some amazing places. Then you get to tell stories and drink a Stella with your bros...perfect. So, I just plan to add another experience and more friends to my life...the end. I'm 51 yars old my friend, nothing left to prove and how many more of these rides do I have left?
Blatant Self Promotion...see my blog.http://addictedtobicycles.blogspot.com/
Mike, I've only known you for a couple of years now, but I think you know my cycling soul pretty well and the passion I have for our favorite form of recreation. I've shown my ass and my humility to you and your staff at MSC, and most importantly really cared about making the experience of riding and racing better for everyone, even the assholes. I'm not gonna beg for a blogger "grant", but you know I will write the truth and the words will come from the bowels of my cycling soul....thanks for putting on the race, you are a warrior. (Editor's note: flattery and an occasional Stella are indeed two of Mr. Grossmam's insidious maneuvers. FWIW, they're pretty effective.)
Links to Work;
1. is above
2. http://www.squirtlube.com/
3. http://www.livethecoloradodream.com/

- BLOGGER APP #4: Matthew Juth

2008-10-22T15:29:00.002-06:00

SPONSOR/TEAM:
COMotion Sports

HOMETOWN:
Nevergreen, CO

Where are you from?
One of those rare, indigenous, natives of CO

What kind of bike do you ride?
Yeti ASR-SLc, SS Niner
What do you love about it?
Yeti - Made just down the hill. Perfect bike!
Solo or team competitor? Why?
Team - I've always wanted to do a team event like this. Suffering with a good friend sounds like fun apparently.
Who's your teammate (if applicable)?
Don't know yet. It depends on how much this thing costs! I'm sure it will be someone faster than me.
Done any ultra-endurance stuff before?
VT125 Last year, 24 HOM (team) '06,'07, Beaver Creek.
Really, I'm just another XC monkey who hit the plateau and decided to try something different to excuse my recent poor performances in shorter events.
Favorite food?
Green Chile – Kills colds and adds propulsion.
Movie?
Fight Club
Book?
Under the Banner of Heaven - Incredible read...that guy has a gift.
Worst experience on a bike?
It's a tossup between crashing 200yds from the finish line at WP and then riding 10 milesback to my car with torn ligaments, or having to spend 3 hours on a road ride in Denver with an unstable individual with the amazing ability to piss off every motorist within 100yds by flipping them the bird and yelling obscenities at their vehicles.
Best experience on a bike?
Riding from Woodland Park to Rampart Reservoir, circling the lake and then bombing down to Manitou on my shiny new Diamondback Viper. I was riding with my best freind who just stole his brothers Haro with pegs. Age 11? It was foggy, drizzling, and cold, I had a can of Dr. Pepper for "nutrition", and a sweatshirt for "technical cycling wear" I still can't believe we duped my folks into letting we little kiddos do that. It certainly foreshadowed the poor planning and forced Epics to come when I started riding a bike again at age 27.
Tell us about your LBS (Local Bike Shop):
My most "L" BS is Bicycle Outfitters in Nevergreen. Tony provides a constant source of peer pressure to drink frosty beverage prior to all rides, flak for being a wee-bit anal over my bike builds, great service with the "oh-god-not-Matt-again-attitude, and (seriously) thebest shop around. My less "L" BS is an amazing shop and a team sponsor as well. They provide all the same as the above shop, except no flak over anal bike builds.
Tell us about your favorite ‘local’ ride:
Always noncommittal and unable to make a decision, I have 2 options.
- MTB - Tour D'Evergreen - Matt's garage to Falcon, Parmalee, Lair ‘O Bear, 3-Sisters, Evergreen Mountain, Bergen Peak, Elk Meadows, Hiwan, Home.
- Road - Matt's garage to Squaw Pass, Mount Evans, Idaho Springs, home.
Tell us about your favorite ride EVER:
See above comment relating to decisions.
Describe a sponsor or company you admire and why you admire them:
Shimano. I know that goes against the trend of SRAM being hip and cool, but they have continue to make bombproof products and have been incredibly successful despite a lack of flash. They also are able to admit when they make a mistake, and change to what people want before losing their customer base.
Who will play you in the Breck Epic movie and why?
Edward Norton. No-one would believe a stocky dude like myself would race I bike. I need a skinny guy who can intimidate others with his trademark bleeding-gum smile and is carved like a block of wood. If he refuses the minimal pay, the drunk, homeless guy sleeping behind our office will be the alternate
What do you hope to get out of this experience? Expectations/goals/etc.
I really want to open up my eyes to what is possible again. VT125 certainly showed me what I am capable of, and I think this is another step in that direction. I was planning on trying to get to one of those other not-nearly-as-cool-as-the-Breck-Epic Epics, so this will give me the opportunity to do it my favorite high-altitude playground. I have always loved suffering with my buddies in the mountains and this should provide endless opportunities for this (or at least 6 days worth).
Tell us about your history as a cyclist or in the industry:
My bike was my sole source of transportation until age 15. After years of pedaling all over the darn place, I hung up the two wheels until my late 20's. My wife persuaded me to start riding HER bike around for exercise when my rock climbing habit was waning due to the birth of my first kiddo. After riding a tiny, 10 year old bike for a month, I was hooked once again, bought my own bike that fit, and started the adventure again. 4 years, 13 bikes, 60+ races, and 1 blog later, here I am begging for an entry fee...
Feel free to blatantly self-promote here. A quote you like, a direct appeal to the voters, some hateful vitriolic slander for your political opponents (see: Rush Limbaugh, Bill O’Reilly, Ann Coulter…) This is your space. Decorate it however you’d like.
I started the whole blog as an experiment. It's turned into a really fun activity for my self actualization and reflection. I'm trying to show the folks that read this thing (as well as myself), that you can be mairried, have 2 kiddos, a full time job, and still go out and be fairlycompetitive on a bike and have the time of your life doing it. I know this is a popular theme now, but in the age of people getting more lethargic, depressed over the state of things, and willing to buy adventures I beleive this is important. Also, I like to refer to myself as a "sexy, athletic, genius" I think that sums it up pretty good, no? I'm quite humble as well.
Links to your work:
Main Page
Race Report
Spring Training '08

- BLOGGER APP #6: Ben Thompson

2008-10-22T15:27:00.000-06:00

NAME: Ben Thompson

SPONSOR/TEAM: SOBE/Cannondale

HOMETOWN: Bend, Oregon

Where are you from? Grew up in Monterey, CA and was introduced to proper biking on the great trails of Laguna Seca, Big Sur and surrounding areas.
What kind of bike do you ride? SOBE/Cannondale Team Scalpel Full Suspension
What do you love about it? Bike climbs like a billy goat, descends like a hellion and believe it or not, the Lefty fork actually works…quite well in fact!
Solo or team competitor? Why? Solo – I’ve done TransAlp and TransRockies as a team and itching for a little personal suffering…I mean fun.
Done any ultra-endurance stuff before? I’ve raced TransAlp, TransRockies and La Ruta and always been in or around the Top 10. Love all the ups and downs that come during multi-day racing!
Favorite food? Good Mexican (especially after a ride!)
Movie? Usual Suspects – the first great ending twister
Book? Travels with Charlie – Americana at its best from a hometown author, John Steinbeck.

Worst experience on a bike? Suppose the answers to the next two questions could both come from my endurance racing days. Worst day would have to be down at La Ruta, starting in a cold rain, climbing up the volcano in colder rain, fixing flats in shin deep cow crap and finishing 5hrs later in a cold rain. Rough day mentally, physically but sure made the rest of the days look good!
Best experience on a bike? No contest in my mind: the 2006 Cascade Creampuff 100. Rarely do you have those days when EVERYTHING goes your way on a bike; legs show up, stomach actually processes food, brain shuts down and lets the body work and no mechanicals. The 100 mile race with 18000 feet was actually fun the whole time and coming in 9 minutes ahead of second place wasn’t bad either.
Tell us about your LBS (Local Bike Shop): Sunnyside Sports has been a huge help in keeping my ever abused stable of bikes in fine (or at least rideable/raceable) form. Owner Don Leet is super enthusiastic about cycling and supporting local racers. Hutch’s Bikes managers Mike McMackin and Jon Fry have always been there for those specific Cannondale questions, getting the race bikes together in a hurry and supporting the SOBE/Cannondale race effort. It sure makes riding and racing a whole lot easier with all of these great resources here in Bend, Oregon!
Tell us about your favorite ‘local’ ride: Every Autumn when the racing schedule settles down we corral the local mish-mash group of all the people we rarely get to ride with during the season for the final mtb rides up around Mt. Bachelor with a finish at local’s night at Deschutes Brewery. Good times chasing each other back towards town on the swoopy singletrack; Great beers only available on tap at the brew house, Best buddies sharing what they love most – riding bikes.
Tell us about your favorite ride EVER: For me, an international location holds a certain sway…like bonus points on the ride scale. My favorite ride ever was outside of Klosters, Switzerland up the trails made famous by Frischknecht and his Swiss Power riders in and around the World Marathon Championship course. Amazing singletrack and doubletrack wound up the valleys, through tiny hillside villages and sheep farms all the way up to the Austrian border. Pretty cool riding burly singletrack up to take a peek into another country…not to mention that nearly every person I saw was so stoked on cycling that they would give you a push up the hill or a shout of encouragement. Awesome.
Describe a sponsor or company you admire and why you admire them: Cannondale – I admire them because they continually push the envelope in both design and function in their bikes. It’s refreshing to see a company still innovating in an industry of fairly static design. What’s better is when form follows function such as their outstanding Lefty fork, Carbon Fiber frames, BB30 standard, etc. I must say I’ve never ridden or raced a better bike than the new Scalpel.
Who will play you in the Breck Epic movie and why? John Cusack – dry, semi-sarcastic humor that he can focus on bringing attention to social, class, international, and interpersonal issues and situations.

What do you hope to get out of this experience? My goal for this race is two-fold. My wife and I had our first child May 15, 2008 so I’d love to use this race as a “Myth-Buster”. Does fatherhood automatically make you slow and fat? Could be – let’s see. I’ll do my best to bust this myth and not the seams of my chamois. Second goal is to place Top 10 in the Solo overall. I have been able to accomplish this in other mountain bike stage races and love trying to mix it up with the likes of Andres Hestler, Max Plaxton, Kris Sneddon. I love interacting with fellow racers and support crew before, during and after stages almost as much as the racing. There is something refreshing about forgetting the thousand things on the “Honey-Do List” and reverting to the simple schedule of: wake, eat, ride, eat, nap, eat, sleep…repeat as necessary. We’ll all in the same boat each day and loving it.
Tell us about your history as a cyclist or in the industry: I started racing recreationally in college in the late 1990’s after falling in love with the sport on the trails around my home town of Monterey, CA. My move to Seattle kicked the racing into full gear with the close proximity of race venues and quantity and quality of teams and riders. Racing for local shop teams eventually progressed to sponsorship by the national SOBE/Cannondale team last year. I have focused on my first two-wheel love – mountain biking in all its forms: XC, STX, MA, SR. Plenty of good times are still ahead even as I enter the fateful “mid 30’s” and fatherhood.
Random stuff about you? Perspective is everything. I’ve got a job. I’ve got a kid. I’m still trying to race PRO and be competitive and I’ve raced these kinds of races before. I teach kids cycling camp in the summer when not traveling to races. I ride with firemen, doctors, mechanics and PROs on a weekly basis.

I think using this color in my race reports will give them a fun, real feel to readers whether they’re a recreational cyclist, enthusiastic “Regular Joe” or aspiring junior racer. I love sharing not only my own take but also blending in other people’s views on the day’s work during races, moments of personal suffering and highlights, and the amazing level of camaraderie that bonds all of us on the start line together in the common struggle.

Links to your work:
http://www.cannondalecommunity.com/global-news/sobe/
http://bendelitemtb.blogspot.com/
http://transalpmtb.blogspot.com/

- BLOGGER APP #7: Tomi McMillar

2008-10-22T15:26:00.007-06:00

NAME: Tomi McMillar

SPONSOR/TEAM: TomiCogs/Gettysburg Cupcake Factory

HOMETOWN: Carlisle, PA

Where are you from? The Eastern Great Valley. Minored in bike racing at VA Tech back in the day, then bounced a bit locally before settling here in the Cumberland Valley with Michaux for a backyard.
What kind of bike do you ride? All of my bikes are made from eight tubes of steel, have two wheels and one speed. Sometimes they coast, sometimes they don't.
What do you love about it? The freedom provided.
Solo or team competitor? Why? Solo, because expanding my personal limits is, well, personal. Can't always do that when racing as a team.
Done any ultra-endurance stuff before? Thirteen hundo's, six on a fix. Tour de 'burg six times, 100% fixed in '07. A few 24's via teams & a duo. Getting into overnight bikepacking to really see how far I can go.
Favorite food? Pizza, hold the olives, light on the onions, pile on the rest.
Movie? 12 Monkeys
Book? On the Road.

Worst experience on a bike? Seeing my best friend get clipped by a drunk driver while spinning back to the car after a sweet Sunday ride in Michaux. That kinda sucked.
Best experience on a bike? The very first time I remember my mom putting me in that rickety plastic seat on the back of her townie bike for a ride down the street to visit the neighbor's. I was three and recall being sort of terrified at the wobbly start. But man, once we were moving, I've been forever hooked on that flying sensation. Thanks mom.
Tell us about your favorite ‘local’ ride: Getting away from the beaten path, linking together Bambi's vision; primative, raw, not-IMBA approved. Hidden stretches of flowing loamy love thru lowbush blueberry and knee high ferns stashed in the middle of world reknowned rocky techy gnar. Following the natural lines of travel thru the forest, not too steep, never straight, but rolling and zigging and zagging just right. Goldilocks would approve, I'm sure.
Tell us about your favorite ride EVER: I'd like to think that the best is yet to come, that's one reason why I'm throwing my hat into this ring. But if I had to rank one, it would be the day my dad took the training wheels off that little blue bike.
Who will play you in the Breck Epic movie and why? Probably the "I've fallen and can't get up" lady from Life Alert (tm), but hopefully it won't come to that.

What do you hope to get out of this experience? Laid. I mean, if being a fixed gear mountain bicycle stage racing stud doesn't bring in the chicks, then why else should I bother? oh, wait.....I meant to say that it's a zen thing. Yeah, it's all about the zen. And not being DFL on 1800's technology.
Tell us about your history as a cyclist or in the industry: Have always ridden bikes; kiddy bikes, then String Ray banana seat styley, bmxer's, 10 speeds. Bought my first mountain bike before heading to college in '88, hooked. Started raced spring '89 and haven't looked back, always wondering what's next? Started with those epic 40k's back in the day, then NORBA, dabbled in 24's, then grassroots XXC's and Monsters which are now 50's, 100's. Underground stage racing lit the fuse for multi day adventure and now I'm gearing up for the overnight touring game. Been friends with some of the original Hugh Jass gang since college, awed by the fixed approach at that muddy Canaan 24 in '98. Then Tim's ride at the Shen100 in '02 really opened my eyes. Tried it, liked it and now I find myself holding a handful of meaningless fixed 'course records' and producing bolt on fix gear cogs and stainless chainrings to fund my adventures. What a fun trip it's been. (ED: I got passed by a Hugh Jass guy on a friggin' clown bike with ape-hanger bars in the middle of the night about a decade ago at the 24 Hours of Moab. It was the year they all rode in the same pair of acid-washed bike shorts...not identical shorts, mind you, but the SAME PAIR. They switched them from rider to rider in the transition area. Anyway. the guy that passed me was obviously laboring, (cuz i'm a stud, right?) and while he was passing me he kept chanting to himself "HYooo-jassss, hyoooo-jasss-heeeeyeeewwww-JASSS!". I was laughing so hard that I almost fell down.)
Feel free to blatantly self-promote here. A quote you like, a direct appeal to the voters, some hateful vitriolic slander for your political opponents (see: Rush Limbaugh, Bill O’Reilly, Ann Coulter…) This is your space. Decorate it however you’d like. My plan is to race this thing on a fixed gear and winning a slot in this contest is probably the only way that that will happen. I've done a stage race fixed before, it wasn't easy, it kinda sucked in some respect, but was also quite rewarding in many ways. This is a chance for me to do it again, and see Colorado for the first time! Cuz there's no way I'm throwing down good money to torture myself in that way again, I'd rather spend it on a trip to Durango for SSWC09, no offense Mike. ;-P (ED - none taken. But a fixie? You should carry a gun. With one bullet. Not for bears or anything, but for yourself.)

So please, please, pleeeeeeeeeeeze, vote me into this thing and I promise to attempt wholeheartedly to keep ya'll entertained along the way. Open the window and let ya'll witness the different bits and pieces of the working mind of a slightly off kilter bicycle loving nut job.

Links to your work:

Post S-D-S, Pre-Mohican Mind Chatter

'08 Mohican 100 Write-up

First Overnight Tour

- BLOGGER APP #8: Keith Berboken

2008-10-22T15:25:00.000-06:00

NAME: Keith Berkoben

SPONSOR/TEAM: Pedalandwrench.com

HOMETOWN: Somervile, MA

Where are you from? Somerville, MA

What kind of bike do you ride? 2006 Santa Cruz Superlight:
- Fork: Fox F100x
- Shock: Progressive 5th Element Air
- Drivetrain: XTR
- Brakes: Magura Marta SL
- Wheels: NoTubes ZTR Olympic rims on Tune hubs.
What do you love about it? It’s a bike, it’s paid for, and it’s currently not broken. It also feels incredibly balanced in technical singletrack and climbs like mountain goat on steroids.
Solo or team competitor? Why? Team, because the whole is more than a sum of its parts. You combine strengths, protect weaknesses and pick your buddy up when he’s down. The strategy is more complex, and a lot more fun.
Who’s your teammate (if applicable)? Eric Edlund. He’s a Cat 2 roadie with a dangerous wily streak and a pair of legs to back it up. The problem: Breck-Epic isn’t paved. In eight months he’ll love knobbies, I promise.
Done any ultra-endurance stuff before? Raced TransRockies in 2006, 2007, 2008. Every year I said I’d never do it again. Every year I came back faster. Go figure.
Favorite food? Burritos are not food, they’re a way of life.
Movie? Tough one... (Mainly because I’m terrible at remembering movie titles.) Recently, The Departed. In Sports, 24 Solo. Most watched, The Big Lebowski. Most disorienting, Memento. The overall favorite remains a mystery, even to me.
Book? On the Road, by Jack Kerouac. It reminds me that life is for living, not worrying about what happens next.
Worst experience on a bike? It was a 52 mile singletrack marathon race that started after 2 inches of rain the previous night. I was out of food and water after the first hour (long story) and was all alone in the woods after the fifth. By mile 45, every rock, every hill, every bird in every tree was mocking me and there wasn’t enough moisture in my throat to yell back at them. Every few minutes a rider would clatter out of the woods and pass me like I wasn’t even moving. It could be that I wasn’t. I hurt too bad to care.
Best experience on a bike? Stage 7, TransRockies 2008. After 7 days of giving his all, my partner was shattered, cramping, holding it together by a thread, and with a 250m wall and 7k of singletrack to go, our competition was breathing down our backs. My partner hit the hill hard, sweat pouring down his face. No talking, just one foot over the other like a man possessed. We crested the hill first and hit the black diamond Fernie, BC singletrack like it was day 1, railing corners and putting 8 minutes into our chase—the perfect finish to a week of incredible teamwork. (ED: Dude. That's awesome.)
Tell us about your LBS (Local Bike Shop): Ace Wheelworks, my LBS, is about two blocks from my house, which is relevant because I have a habit of going there four or five times a day when I’m working on a project. Not only do they seem to have no problem with my coming in over and over for obscure small parts that cost under $2 and require fifteen minutes to dig out of the back, but they almost seem to enjoy it. Every time I come in, somebody drops whatever they’re doing to help me out, and most of the time they have exactly what I need.
Tell us about your favorite ‘local’ ride: Such things are not for posting on the internet, but if you come out to Boston you can have a guided tour.
Tell us about your favorite ride EVER: There’s nothing like riding all day with your best buddies when it’s 65 and sunny on a Saturday afternoon. Two winters ago we had a 65 degree Saturday in January (I live in New-England), the ground was dry, and everyone I know put their lives on pause to go out and play. As we were all in full-on hibernation mode by that time of year, an all-day trail ride was a circus—people tossing over the bars, huffing and puffing, bikes breaking down in comically ridiculous ways—but no one cared because we were having so much fun riding bikes.
Who will play you in the Breck Epic movie and why? Harrison Ford as Indiana Jones: Indy is the master of getting himself into sticky situations—trapped in a pit of snakes, getting shot at, chased by a giant boulder, etc—then delivering the perfect pithy, one-liner right before making his spectacular escape. What better quality to have for mid-race interviews?

KB: [takes bad line and gets himself stuck on a rocky outcropping over a cliff]
BE: Wow Keith, that looks tricky. How do you suppose you’ll get down from there?
KB: "I dunno. I’m making this up as I go…”
KB: [jumps off ledge, lands miraculously on trail 30’ below]

What do you hope to get out of this experience? Expectations/goals/etc. “No wrecks. No mechs. No pulling big gears.” The underlying message is simple. Be consistent, be prepared, and don’t do anything stupid to end your week early (in reverse order). Despite its simplicity, I’ve found this mantra to be all but unachievable in multi-day ultra-endurance events. No matter how hard we train, how meticulously we prepare, and how careful we are, something always goes wrong in 30 hours of mountain bike racing. Nevertheless, we continually strive for the triumphant confluence of preparation and dumb luck that is the perfectly executed stage race.

This year’s journey, after three years of practice, is all about the perfectly executed stage race. We will be sharing every step of this journey—gear, training, the deepest cob-webbed corners of our psyches—on our blog, which is already up and running at http://blog.pedalandwrench.com/.

Some of the big questions:

- Are eight months enough for my partner to convert himself from a ‘cross-leaning road racer into a rock-loving mountain goat?
- Will Pedal and Wrench triumph over the brutal New England winter?
- How many bike parts can one person break between now and July?

Read along at blog.pedalandwrench.com

Tell us about your history as a cyclist or in the industry: I’ve been having a love-affair with mountain bikes for about twelve years, but three years ago it started to get interesting. Sometime early in the winter of 2006, a (now) good friend of mine invited me out for a drink on a snowy Wednesday evening. I got to the pub and she was sitting at the table with a manilla folder full of print-outs from transrockies.com (Many of you may recognize that as the website for the TransRockies Challenge.) She hands me the folder and a pint and says, “I need to do something crazy, you in?” I flipped open the folder, skimmed a few pages, and by the time I polished off my drink, my life was forever changed—little did I know it at the time. I’ve been racing mountain bikes ever since, and I have the scars to prove it.

In my other life I’m an engineer working in healthcare IT (my partner is a plasma physicist, working in a giant contraption that makes plasma). I also coach the MIT Mountain Bike Team, was once a bike mechanic, and aspire to still be in one piece by the time I reach 35. We’ll see how that last part goes.

An except from our blog:

it's 4pm and I'm sitting in a coffee shop in Madison, WI where I'm drinking hot cider with cinnamon at 4 in the afternoon … 1,100 miles from my bike I've done nothing but eat, drink, sleep and stare at my laptop for four days … Although the YouTube mashups of Palin/McCain faux pah are very amusing, I'm genuinely worried that if I don't get stabbed with an epi-pen soon my life is going to become the languid whine of the radiohead-clone indie band playing on the speakers behind the counter.….Bike racing isn't about a deathwish, or an ego, … , it's about feeling alive--alive with real pain, real fear, the ecstatic joy of success and the devastation of defeat. It's about learning to appreciate the coffee shop and the hot cider because they're the polar opposite of everything you experience in racing. It's about having your life be more than a flatline of comfortable homogeneity that you trace from office to couch to restaurant until you get married, you have kids, you get old and you die. We race because we love life, and life is best experienced at its limits.

Links to your work:
http://blog.pedalandwrench.com/

- BLOGGER APP #9: Jeffrey Carter

2008-10-22T15:20:00.004-06:00

NAME: Jeffrey Carter
SPONSOR/TEAM: Mafia Racing
HOMETOWN: Denver, CO

Where are you from?

I am an East Coaster. I grew up in suburban Connecticut and lived in Boston for ten years before moving to Colorado in 2004. I learned to ride back east and therefore love rocks, roots, dense forests and mud.
What kind of bike do you ride?

Like any mountain bike nut, I have a few bikes, but the one I consider my true bike is an Independent Fabrication Ti Deluxe.
What do you love about it?

love the plush ride and lightweight of titanium, and that it was made in a city I lived for ten years. I am a lucky to guy to have such a nice bike.
Solo or team competitor? Why?

Solo. Having done and enjoyed three stage races with a partner, I am ready for the challenge of motivating myself for 6 straight days of hard racing.
Done any ultra-endurance stuff before?

Yes I have done three Leadville 100’s, the Breck 100, two Transalps, the BC bike race, the Firecracker 50, the Laramie Enduro, 4 Vermont 50’s, the Durango 100 and others.
Favorite food?

Big sushi feast with friends. Or a cheeseburger and brews at the Cherry Cricket in Denver.
Movie?

Better Off Dead. Love that buzzed mailman, scenes from Squaw Valley, and Chinese guys with Howard Cosell accents. Brilliant.
Book?

The Hobbit, by J.R.R. Tolkien. Classic book that I first read when I was ten or so. But it’s not like I wear wizard pajamas or anything. (Ed: Is that a 20-sided die in your pocket?)
Worst experience on a bike?

March 1, 2006. Riding my bike to work, thinking about the workday ahead. Light goes green, cross 6th avenue. Out of the corner of my eye, I see a pickup blowing through the intersection. Holy shit. Hits me square on the left side, up on the hood, break the windshield, world is spinning. Car stops, everything hurts, but everything moves. This is a good sign. Onlookers call 911, on the backboard, to the ER, then to surgery. 6 broken bones, 13 weeks of casts, hit and run. Firecracker 50 on July 4.
Best experience on a bike?

The 2004 Transalp Challenge. I had only raced my bike a few times in some fifty milers in VT. It seemed so daunting- 400 miles, 75,000 feet of climbing, eight days, ungodly fast partner- beyond anything I had attempted before. I went on rainy road rides in Boston in March; I lied to work and road tripped to Pisgah to train in April. Arriving in Mittenwald, I was petrified at the site of hundreds of people who looked fitter than I. But it totally ruled. I wiped out, I bonked, I cried, I finished and I loved it.
Tell us about your LBS (Local Bike Shop):

My local shop is Turin in Denver. These guys are solid. Always psyched on bikes, talking gear, tons of advice, interested in their customers. My fiancé and I get great service there. Like getting your bike put up on the stand on a busy Saturday afternoon, in front of ALOT of people, small but significant problem fixed while you wait. Ten bucks. I rarely shop online anymore because of the service I get at Turin.
Tell us about your favorite ‘local’ ride:

This goes back to my days in Boston when I would ride the Middlesex Fells. Far from being trapped in an East coast city, I’d hop on my bike and spin through the city from urban living to wooded rooty singletrack in half an hour. Over the ten years I rode there, my loop evolved, sections got cleaned and memories and a rider were made. Finish the loop, head down the hill, and catch the vibe of the city on my way back home. Sprint up that last hill before home on the way to a cold one.
Tell us about your favorite ride EVER:

There are so many killer rides, but my all time favorite trail is the section of Colorado Trail from Kenosha Pass to the Swan River drainage. I’ve ridden it in a few incarnations, including an ill-conceived solo round trip to Breckenridge and back. I recall one ride in particular with cloudless skies, late afternoon views of South Park glowing in the golden light of fall. After the demoralizing climb back up to Georgia Pass, the CO trail descent to Kenosha, with its tacky brown dirt and yellow rooms created by a canopy of aspens, is one to remember.
Describe a sponsor or company you admire and why you admire them:

I really admire Dirt Rag magazine as it covers many aspects of cycling, most of which are relevant to my life as a commuter, mountain biker, racer and occasional road rider. In particular I like their constant focus on bicycle advocacy and trail access issues.
Who will play you in the Breck Epic movie and why?

That guy from Breaking Away because he kind of looks like me. That said, that movie was like thirty years ago and he may have fallen into a life of alcoholism and drugs only to have cleaned up, found god, and been in a True Hollywood Story. So yeah, that guy. This will be his big comeback. (Ed: he DOES look like you!)
What do you hope to get out of this experience? Expectations/goals/etc.

A good time. Not a throw-eggs-at-Ryan-Seacrest good time, because that may be asking too much. I hope to convince a bunch of friends to race as well, and spend the week going as hard as I can, riding incredible trail, enjoying the perfect weather I have arranged, seeing familiar faces, and making new friends. I’d imagine that for most people considering this event, mountain biking is a huge passion, but their time is often occupied by competing interests. The Breck Epic or stage races in general, offer total immersion into the scene of this collective passion, a chance to develop a rivalry with that guy who keeps passing you on the climbs, to meet a friend of a friend, get a glimpse of the fastest pros, and the sense of community from having done it all together. An event like this frames your year, giving context to those bonk filled April road rides as much as the all day September singletrack-a-thons that feel so easy from a season of hard won fitness.
Tell us about your history as a cyclist or in the industry:

I’m a regular guy with a job and a house who has been riding mountain bikes for about fifteen years. First because it was new and fun. Then because it was good exercise and more fun than running. But over time, mountain biking became something I planned around, something worth taking a vacation for, a prerequisite for a girlfriend, and the always answer to “what are you doing this weekend.” Stage races and ultra endurance races have evolved over this time, becoming the framework of a summer, not because it really matters how I do, but because doing it at all seems just right.
Feel free to blatantly self-promote here. A quote you like, a direct appeal to the voters, some hateful vitriolic slander for your political opponents (see: Rush Limbaugh, Bill O’Reilly, Ann Coulter…) This is your space. Decorate it however you’d like.

Look folks, I’m your man. My blog will slay all others and entertain you with a witty recount of the week’s events, as well as erudite comments on cycling, stage racing, the meaning of life and quite possibly the outcome of streaking Breckenridge on July 10, 2009. I promise to chronicle my unmatched training regimen, allowing you to glean the ideal approach to such an event as told by me, a wise sage of mountain bike stage racing.

In all seriousness, I really look forward to the opportunity share the week’s events with the reader. Check out the link to my Transalp blog below. A lot of friends said they really enjoyed reading it. Granted I had to toss back a few euro lagers to get in the right frame of mind to write it, but I’m willing to sabotage my Breck Epic race performance if that’s what it takes.

Links to your work:
I authored a blog for our friends chronicling our adventures before and during the 2007 Transalp. Check it out.
www.bigassride.blogspot.com

- BLOGGER APP #10: Wendy Skean

2008-10-22T15:15:00.003-06:00

NAME:

Wendy Skean

SPONSOR/TEAM:

Hammer Nutrition

HOMETOWN:

Mountain Center, CA

Where are you from?

Mountain Center is a rural mountain community 45 miles from Palm Springs.

What kind of bike do you ride?

A Turner with Fox suspension, Avid Juicy brakes, Shimano XTR components, and Stan's American Classic wheel set.

What do you love about it?

It never brakes down in a race and it is bright green so they can find me if I get lost.

Solo or team competitor? Why?

Solo because none of my riding partners will even consider such an undertaking.

Done any ultra-endurance stuff before?
Rockhopper Classic Stage Race - 1987
Coyote Clunker Classic Stage race - 1987,88 Pedal the Peaks - 1994 - 5 days, 450 miles
12 Hours at the Summit, Big Bear, CA - 1997,98,99,2000,2005 Leadville 100 - 1996, 97, 98, 2004, 05 Solvang Double Century - 2000, 01, 02 SilverRush - Leadville, CO 2001 Moab 24 Hours - 1996,97 - 1st Womens Masters Team Canan 24 Hours - 1997, 1st Womans Masters Team Montezumas Revenge - 2000, 02 Vision Quest - 2003,04 Norba National Marathon - Big Bear, CA Five time 24 Hour World Solo Champion - Age Group 2002, 2003, 2004, 2007, 2008 Eight other 24 Hours of Adrenalin solo races Breckenridge 100 - 2006 Old Pueblo 24 Hours solo- 2004,2005,2006,2007,2008 Whiskey 50 - 2005,2006,2008
12 Hours of Temecula 2008 Series - solo (Ed: "Damn")

Favorite food?

Salad and dark, dark chocolate

Movie?

Dr. Zhivago

Book?

Walk West , It is about an adventure I would have loved to have done.

Worst experience on a bike?
After an exhilarating ride on the Monarch Crest Trail while training for Montezuma's Revenge I crashed and separated my shoulder and cracked several ribs. On my first ride back and training for 24 hours at Hurkey Creek, while trying to be careful, I crashed again. This time spending 7
days in the hospital with a severely bruised pancreas.

Best Experience on a bike?

2002 Solo World Championships in Silver Star, BC. This was a beautiful setting and the weather couldn't have been better, until the middle of the night. An unpredicted cold storm hit with such
force it blew down tents and sent racers running for shelter. I was on the course when it hit and it was the first time I had ever ridden through so much rain ( being a So. Cal. gal.) When I got into the pits they were nearly deserted. My son would not hear of me stopping. In ten
minutes I gobble down a potato, drank chicken noodle soup and was back out riding. It was a challenge and exciting. Stuart Dorland had added age groups to the categories for the first time that year and I wanted that jersey(I wanted that jersey, I needed that jersey). I was being
chased and on the last lap had only a few minute lead. I had never raced so hard and looked behind me so much to see if I was being caught. Coming across that finish line in first place at age 56 in the 45+ category was the most satisfying experience I have had on a bike.

Tell us about your LBS(Local Bike Shop):

Velo Bum in Rancho Mirage, CA.; Tri-A-Bike in Palm Desert, CA; and Otero Cyclery in Salida, CO have all been a great help to me.

Tell us about your favorite 'local' ride:

My favorite local rides are all in Colorado where I hope to live when I retire.

Tell us about your favorite ride EVER:

In the summer of 2007 I went to visit my son in Salida, Colorado. He had a ride he had wanted me to go on. We drove to Georgia Pass and started the ride to Kenosha Pass. It had rained the night before so the roots were slippery and water from the grass and leaves made it seem like it was still raining. I have a love affair with aspen trees (even planted some in my yard) and the
aspen forest we rode through were magnificent. It was a push up to Kenosha but coming back down was the most fun I have had on a bike. We swooped through the aspens and out into meadows. It was exhilarating. I went back in 2008 and rode it again.

Describe a sponsor or company you admire and why you admire them:

Hammer Nutrition has made it possible for me to compete at the level I am. Their products and helpful attitude are supreme.

Who will play you in the Breck Epic movie and why?

Tinker. In drag.

What do you hope to get out of this experience? Expectations/goals/etc.
I am a very goal oriented person. I need bigger challenges to work toward. I started endurance riding in 1994 and since then have taken baby steps to get where I am today. I have always wanted to do an epic ride but they have always been to far away for the time I had. From the
first time I heard of the Breck Epic I was excited. I had ridden the Breck 100 in 2006 and thought it was an awesome course with beautiful scenery. What would be better than five days of this kind of riding. It was close and in the state I hope one day to make my home. Many people believe that a 65 (2 days before race) year old rider can't and shouldn't take on such a challenge. I want to prove to myself that I can fulfill my dream of an epic and show others that it is possible for them too if they work at it. I have already started my training for this dream race. I expect to finish and be the first 60+ women to do so.

Feel free to blatantly self-promote here. A quote you like, a direct appeal to the voters, some hateful vitriolic slander for your political opponents (see: Rush Limbaugh, Bill O'Reilly, Ann Coulter…) This is your space. Decorate it however you'd like.
I am not your typical entrant for this type of race. I have been teaching first grade for 29 years and will turn 65 on July 3 and have gray hair. I started riding in 1985 and started racing in locally in 1986. I started solo endurance racing in 1996 with the Leadville 100. In that race I only made it 75 miles. In 2005 I became the first and only woman over 60 to finish Leadville in under 12 hours I did it in 11:24. That was 30 minutes faster than I had done it in 1997. Since then I have challenged myself to longer and more difficult races each year. I hold the record for the oldest woman to finish Vision Quest. An extremely challenging 50 mile race with 11,000 ft of climbing and a time limit. I felt very honored when Roy Wallack and Bill Katovsky wrote the book "Bike for Life" and included my name in the Table of Contents in Chapter 1. I plan on riding for life and continuing to challenge myself. I am realistic and know that someday in the far future epics will be out of my class. Now they are not and I want the chance to fulfill my dream.

Links to your work?

You can google "wendy skean" and see my work.

- BLOGGER APP #11: Anthony Maguire

2008-10-22T15:10:00.002-06:00

NAME: Anthony "Ant" Maguire

SPONSOR/TEAM: Team Maguire

HOMETOWN: Taos, New Mexico

Where are you from? I’ve called Taos, NM home for the last thirteen years. San Diego, CA is where I am from.
What kind of bike do you ride? A Santa Cruz "Classic" Blur, dressed in a Anodized Citrus finish.
What do you love about it? I love everything about my bike, from the ride to Willie K. at Santa Cruz Bikes. (ED NOTE: I also have a not-so-secret man-crush on 'Willis')
Solo or team competitor? Why? Solo. Why not, I’m crazy enough!
Done any ultra-endurance stuff before? Yes, many, many self-supported big days, like Wolf Creek Pass/Elwood Pass/Pagosa Springs. Did the Durango 100k, placed 5th over all. Racing, until now, has been strictly forbidden in my posse.
Favorite food? Anything my wife makes, particularly if it has chile on it. I am talking New Mexico chile. Red or green? I’ll have it Christmas!
Movie? Breaking Away
Book? It’s a secret.

Worst experience on a bike? I have been pinned down by lightning, had the worst ragging diarrhea and stomach cramps, been soaked with sweat then half frozen, have had to walk my bike many miles and I have still never had bad day on the bike. It’s like the age-old adage: The worst day of fishing is better than the best day at work.
Best experience on a bike? There are so many, it would take pages to chronicle all of them. Here’s one that sticks out though. Preparing for the Durango 100k, I was riding with my buddy, who always dropped me like a bad habit on climbs. After riding for about forty miles, we were traveling up one of our favorite climbs "Jaracita", when I passed my buddy and then continued to drop him all the way to the top. This may not seem like that big a deal, but this was somebody who had continually dropped me on every climb for the past ten years. Yea, payback is sweet…Baby!
Tell us about your LBS (Local Bike Shop): I do all my own wrenching, so my favorite LBS is my own in house bike shop. There are two local shops, both of which are great. Taos Cyclery and Gearing Up. Doug from Taos Cyclery and Ray from Gearing Up are very knowledgeable and know all the local rides.
Tell us about your favorite ‘local’ ride: The best local ride would have to be the South Boundary Trail. It runs from Angel Fire to Taos and is about thirty five miles long with about 10,000’ of climbing. This is the premier single track of Taos and should be ridden in the fall when the aspens are going off. The SB is definitely the local goods.
Tell us about your favorite ride EVER: Every time I get a chance to ride is usually my favorite ride ever. During one of my last rides of this season I had what we like to call a New Mexico moment. It had just stopped raining and the sun was at my back, the dogs were running next to me and the light from the sun setting was the most beautiful that I had ever seen. I have lived in Northern New Mexico for thirteen years, and every time I think I have seen the most beautiful sunset ever, I see another. I am truly grateful to live in such an enchanting place.
Describe a sponsor or company you admire and why you admire them: I admire Taos Ski Valley the most. Taos Ski Valley is a Northern New Mexico ski resort, which is run by the Blake Family. I love working at a place where the owners believe that having fun is just as important as working hard. I have never worked with people that are so nice and unassuming.
Who will play you in the Breck Epic movie and why? Nicholas Cage. He has great range and thinning hair.
What do you hope to get out of this experience? Expectations/goals/etc. My first goal is to show up, not just to the start line, but physically, mentally and spiritually. I would never attempt anything of this grandeur without proper preparation. So having said that, I have already evoked the top-secret training plan and will be good to go July 5. My second goalis to have an epic amount of fun. The main reason to race the Breck Epic is to have fun, I mean can you do it for any other reason? My third goal is to have a great family vacation. My family would be so psyched to hang out at the Breck Epic for a week of racing. They are my greatest wealth and their support is one of my greatest treasures. My last goal is to hammer with the 40+ class and to turn myself inside out and leave everything out on the course. Lastly, I will be in the pursuit of the mind clearing and meditative effects of riding a mountain bike, after all, isn’t that what it is all about.
Tell us about your history as a cyclist or in the industry: I moved to Taos thirteen years ago, and have been mountain biking ever since. I usually spend April through October pedaling the high altitude alpine forests of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains. Mountain biking in Taos is lose, steep, rocky and in your face. We have one map that is a lose interpretation of a trail system, but the reality is that you are on your own. From thunderheads to cougars to weak trail markers, Taos is backcountry mountain biking at its best.
Feel free to blatantly self-promote here. A quote you like, a direct appeal to the voters, some hateful vitriolic slander for your political opponents (see: Rush Limbaugh, Bill O’Reilly, Ann Coulter…) This is your space. Decorate it however you’d like. Well, this is it, my only chance to hammer in the inaugural Breck Epic. The $$$ have just not been forthcoming like my horoscope had promised. This coupled with the birth of our son Ryder has made self-sponsorship next to impossible. Racing in a mountain bike stage race is one of my life dreams. Mike, people of earth (and registered aliens), make my dream come true, pick me to represent the outsiders, the dark horses, the underground sector, the Southwest and I will spin you a yarn that we will tell our grandchildren.

- BLOGGER APP #12: Mary Wilcox

2008-10-22T15:05:00.005-06:00

NAME: Mary Wilcox
SPONSOR/TEAM: Kuhl/Scott USA
HOMETOWN: Ogden, Utah
Where are you from? I come from the womb, but I have lived several places since then; from the Show-Me-State Missouri to Sunny Arizona and now Ogden, Utah.
What kind of bike do you ride? In my bike family I have 5 children. Don’t tell anyone, but my favorite is my Scott Spark 10. I also have a Surly Travelers Check, a Scott CR1/SL and CX/Team, and a Schwinn Homegrown.
What do you love about it? My baby is soft and stiff in all the right places. It’s got curves and class and style. If my bike were a person, it would be an exotic dancer.
Solo or team competitor? Why? Sometimes it’s good to suffer alone. Group suffering has too many perks and could be confused as a fun time. I’ll be going solo.
Done any ultra-endurance stuff before? I’ve experienced the LoToJa and a few other road races that make you nauseous just seeing a bike when you are done and 24 hours of Moab on a team.
Favorite food? I love Thai, Indian, and Japanese food. However, I can never turn down a juicy hamburger or a big plate of pasta especially if accompanied by wheat juice.
Movie? I don’t know if I have a favorite. I like a lot of movies so long as they aren’t too stupid or scary. Scary movies give me bad dreams.
Book? Huckleberry Finn, The Once and Future King, Les Mis, The FountainHead. I like pretty much any book that makes you think.
Worst experience on a bike? Trekking for hours through a muddy river of snowmelt and being passed by four wheelers as I carried my bike over huge drifts of snow. To top it off, we rode a lousy dirt road down for 5 miles to be spit out into a neighborhood. There was absolutely nothing good about that ride and if I didn’t know better, I would have gone straight to the pawn shop and traded my bike in for some power tools and gold. I’m still angry about it. I’ve learned to be suspicious of people that ride very expensive hard-tails.
Best experience on a bike? This is a tough one. This is sort of like asking what is my best experience eating chocolate. The bike feels the best when my legs are completely recovered and going up a climb seems almost effortless. When I can stand up on my pedals and crank as hard as I can or glide past whatever rock or obstacle is in the trail like it wasn’t even there. It’s also pretty cool to see the look on some dudes face when he gets passed by a girl going down hill.
Tell us about your favorite ‘local’ ride: A great after-work ride is to jet up to Wheeler Creek trailhead and do a loop up around Snowbasin Ski Resort. The trail is buttery smooth, flowy, and delicious. After a rain, the dirt becomes tacky but still doesn’t stick to your tires. You can ride up there all day or for just a few hours and sometimes not see anyone besides some wild turkeys and a moose or two. I’m fairly certain that in mountain bike heaven the Snowbasin trails can be ridden. As the seasons change, so does the trail, so it never really gets old.
Tell us about your favorite ride EVER: Wow, talk about a loaded question. I’d like to think I haven’t experienced my ‘favorite ride ever’. I guess that’s what makes going for a ride worth it, because the best one might be still in the future. I love going out with friends or more commonly just rocking out to Green Day by myself. There is a trail network in Ogden that looks out onto the city and makes you wonder how is it possible that out of all of the billions of people in the world, you are the only one seeing life from that angle.
Who will play you in the Breck Epic movie and why? In the Breck Epic movie I would be played by the 5th Element. Just kidding. Actually, I don’t think I can answer this question just yet unless this movie isn’t going to be based on a true story. Maybe I will be played by Angelina Jolie… or maybe it will be Will Ferrell. We will just have to see…
What do you hope to get out of this experience? Expectations/goals/etc. I expect to get fame, possibly a contract, and a new Hummer. Actually, the main thing I want to get out of this experience is just the experience. In my life philosophy, there is nothing more valuable than experience. I have learned that you can never plan out an experience or predict what you will learn from it, but that is what makes it all the more interesting and worthwhile. I’m excited about the opportunity to communicate to the unknown world just a fraction of everything that goes on in my head throughout the day. There is something that happens to the human brain while going through some sort of physical challenge, which is what I think draws us all to endurance events. It’s a sort of mental clarity where everything else in life fades away and you truly do live in the moment. I also hope that what I write will encourage more girls out there to get into the sport and also give all the dudes a different perspective to think about. Bottom line is, I’m still an idealist, so most of what I do comes from the innate desire to somehow make the world a better place.
Tell us about your history as a cyclist or in the industry: My first bike was a 2001 Schwinn Homegrown with a really crappy parts kit. I couldn’t ever get it to shift correctly so I never shifted and was perpetually in granny gear. I tried to ride up huge rocks and down really scary rocks and spent a lot of time carrying my bike. I’ve since learned how to shift, filled up a garage with bikes, joined a mountain bike race team, and quit my job so I could bike commute to work. The bicycle has become somewhat of an appendage. I write poems about bikes, I talk philosophy about bikes, and think of ways to solve all the world’s problems with bikes. My coworkers and boss are now bike commuters and most people I know ask me how the last race went before they ask how I am. I’ve dabbled in road races and I’ve dabbled in cross races. I’ve been bike touring in Italy, Switzerland, and British Columbia. I wave to the crosswalk guards on the way to work and laugh at myself out loud if I mess up on the trail. I think all of those things make me a cyclist.
Feel free to blatantly self-promote here. A quote you like, a direct appeal to the voters, some hateful vitriolic slander for your political opponents (see: Rush Limbaugh, Bill O’Reilly, Ann Coulter…) This is your space. Decorate it however you’d like. I can do calculus in my sleep and I can easily have a conversation with anyone about the nephron. With me as your blogger, you not only get a writer that has won essay contests and has written a book (unpublished as of yet), but you also get an BioEngineer. You get someone who is convincing enough to be hired as a rocket scientist and also win the “Most Prolific Writer” award from Mrs. McFall in 6th grade. You get a writer that not only talks the talk, but can also sniff out a cliché a mile away. I can talk about knee pain, caffeinated gels, numb nether-regions, burn-out, losing in sport, winning in expert, and why to not wear corduroys when riding in the snow (lesson learned this morning). The point is, there are plenty of things that have already been talked about, but to make something worth reading, you have to change the perspective. I can change the perspective on some of the key issues that every cyclist faces and bring you glory and riches while doing so. However, fortune and grandeur are meaningless if the required word count is surpassed, or at least exceeded ever-so-slightly for the sake of rebellion.

- BLOGGER APP #13: Jen Hanks

2008-10-22T15:00:00.000-06:00

NAME: Jen Hanks

SPONSOR/TEAM: Revolution/ PowerBar/mtbracenews.com

HOMETOWN: Salt Lake City, UT

Where are you from? I’m a good ol’ Midwestern gal from Illinois. At least I thought I was (good) until I found out my home state is corrupt (Thank you Governor Blagojevic)! I currently reside in Salt Lake City, UT. It helps me redeem my ‘good girl’ status.

What kind of bike do you ride? Giant Anthem.

What do you love about it? It’s red and although it been ridden a ton and is getting a bit old it still runs great!

Solo or team competitor? Why? Solo. I’ve done two ultra-endurance races with my husband and although I enjoy his company on long rides I want to find out if I can do this on my own.

Done any ultra-endurance stuff before? TransAlp 2007 and TransRockies 2008. Both of these races were the most epic events of my life, but for very different reasons.

Favorite food? I don’t have one particular favorite food. I’m a bit of a quirky (or picky depending on how you look at it) eater. There are about 30 things I like and I eat a lot of them

Movie? Any indie flick that I can download for free and is about 90 minutes…the perfect time for a ride on the trainer.

Book? I’ve read a lot of good books, but can’t think of a ‘favorite’. I think it is because I have a short memory. Perhaps that is why I keep signing up for these races!

Worst experience on a bike? How about worst experience with my bike riding me? Transrockies 2008 Stage 2. The stage called for almost 4000 meters of climbing over 74 kilometers. My teammate and I were having a phenomenal day. I survived the flat terrain at the beginning of the stage and was climbing strong. We were racing with some of the strongest teams in our category. About 40 km into the stage me and about 300 other racers missed a turn and ended up hiking straight up a scree-covered avalanche chute for 90 minutes with my bike on my back. I was prepared to ride all day, but I hadn’t done a lick of hiking all year! This was probably the hardest 90 minutes of my life, but I kept my race face on and kept plugging along. The missed turn added at least 2 hours to the stage and by the time we realized our mistake we were following 400 other racers into singletrack.

Best experience on a bike? TransAlp 2007 was an epic experience with many notable memories; however there is one in particular that stands out as my ‘best moment on a bike’. Going into the race I was fit, however I had virtually no endurance racing experience. I really questioned whether I would be able to finish the race, and had no plans to do anything strategic. I started the race conservatively and really suffered on Stage 2. By stage 4, I felt like I had a better understanding of how my body responded to stage racing and felt pretty good. Actually, the more we climbed I realized that I felt really good. I started to have one of those out of body experiences where your mind is only focused on one thing….going hard. And we were going pretty fast too! These are the types of days that bike racers train a whole year for! We finished the stage in 5th place in our category.

Tell us about your LBS (Local Bike Shop): Revolution Mountain Sports in Sandy, Utah. I have known the gang at Revolution since the shop opened. Not only do they carry awesome product and support one of the largest clubs in the state, they have the best mechanic EVER. He’s a mechanical genius but you also may find inappropriate pictures taped to your bike after it has been worked on!

Tell us about your favorite ‘local’ ride: Like I mentioned before I am a Midwest girl. I started mountain biking at the University of Iowa and was immediately smitten with the sport. This was despite there only being one mountain bike trail in all of Iowa City. I rode that same trail, and only that trail, every day for a year! Now that I live in Utah and there are hours and hours of quality mountain bike trails that can be mixed and matched to however you are feeling on a particular day, it’s hard to choose a ‘favorite’ ride. My favorite ‘type’ of ride is one that starts at my house. It seems silly to drive to a trailhead when you have a bike to ride there. I like to ride up one of our canyons (on mostly dirt of course) and hook up onto the Park City trail system. You can ride for hours up there and of course you have to stop for lunch. Then it’s all downhill and back to my place in Salt Lake City.

Who will play you in the Breck Epic movie and why? Jennifer Garner from “Alias” and “Elektra”. She’s comes across as sweet and maybe a bit shy, but she’s not afraid to go out and kick a little ass when she needs to. I would also demand they write in a scene where I play myself and fly around on wires and throw down a little kung-fu action!! Hi-Yah!!
What do you hope to get out of this experience? Expectations/goals/etc. I have never ridden in Breckenridge before…or even visited. What better way to visit the area and ride the trails than to do a multi-day stage race. I also look forward to getting to know all the other crazy folks who think riding their bikes in the mountains all day for a week is the best time of their life. Oh yeah, and no matter how I do in the race, rest assured I will have raced my ass off every single day

Tell us about your history as a cyclist or in the industry: I bought my first mountain bike while attending the University of Iowa in 1994. It was a fully-rigid Univega. Sure, it helped me commute to classes, but really I wanted to ride the mountain bike trails at Sugarbottom! Since then, mountain biking has shaped my life. I met my husband at a bike race and moved to Utah for bigger mountains and fewer cornfields. When I was finally finished with school I started ‘training’ for racing and somehow was able to progress through the ranks. I am now fitter, healthier, and happier than ever and I owe that to cycling.
Feel free to blatantly self-promote here. A quote you like, a direct appeal to the voters, some hateful vitriolic slander for your political opponents (see: Rush Limbaugh, Bill O’Reilly, Ann Coulter…) This is your space. Decorate it however you’d like. Each year at about this time, when the local bike trails are covered with a few feet of snow, I daydream about the epic rides and races of summer. Right now, I’m daydreaming about 5 incredibly long, hard, and beautiful days of racing in Breckenridge. These are memories that shape who you are…and who you become. I’d love to share my story.

Links to your work:

http://raceface.com/community/uxc/ (go to the TransAlp race reports)
http://www.mtbracenews.com/2008/08/transrockies-day-1.html

- BLOGGER APP #15: Linda Wallenfels

2008-10-22T14:50:00.000-06:00

NAME: Lynda Wallenfels

SPONSOR/TEAM: 2-Epic/LW Coaching

HOMETOWN: St George, UT

Where are you from? I was born in Edinburgh, Scotland. Moved to NY in ’88 to be a nanny on Long Island, moved to Colorado to go to CSU, moved to St George to be in the desert. I became a US Citizen in 2000.

What kind of bike do you ride? I am fickle but right now it is mostly a Kona Explosif SS

What do you love about it? It needs very little maintenance after I hammer it hard.

Solo or team competitor? Why? Solo and with gears and with full suspension. It’s all coming to Breck Epic. I did Trans Rockies twice on a team, once single speed and BCBR. My team mate needs a rest from me ;-) and my a** likes stage racing on full suspension.
Done any ultra-endurance stuff before? Yah, pretty much since my mom stopped keeping track of me…
Favorite food? Dark chocolate. My mouth waters just typing the word.
Movie? Sound of Music
Book? The Poisonwood Bible

Worst experience on a bike? Being out on an overnight trip with 50 miles of washboard back to the car and food poisoning.
Best experience on a bike? Trans Rockies single speed last year was pretty darn fun.
Tell us about your LBS (Local Bike Shop): Desert Cyclery in St George is owned by Kong Davis who is a person that loves bikes from every angle.
Tell us about your favorite ‘local’ ride: We live near Gooseberry Mesa but my favorite ride is one right out of my back door. It has a little of everything and instantly transports me to that place where I am out on my bike.
Tell us about your favorite ride EVER: Probably Kokopelli Trail the first time I rode it. Took 2 days to ride it, fantastic scenery, saw it all in the daylight. It goes high, goes low, through snow and hot desert. During a race I did there a month after that ride Mike Curiak took a photo of me that is my all time favorite ride shot.
Describe a sponsor or company you admire and why you admire them: I admire all LBS owners cause I know it is a tough business to run so there always has to be a lot of love behind it to make it work.
Who will play you in the Breck Epic movie and why? Claire Littleton. She is so cute and can kick some a** too.

What do you hope to get out of this experience? Expectations/goals/etc. I’m coming to race Breck Epic with my racer hat on to ride my bike day after day, ride awesome single track, climb endless feet, gasp for oxygen, see fantastic scenery and roll through a white moment. I am coming for a flash of intense living.
Tell us about your history as a cyclist or in the industry: I am a mountain bike coach and a pro racer. I love coaching as much as I love racing. My coaching website is http://www.lwcoaching.com/. I have a forum on the site where I interact with other racers helping them with their training. I publish mountain bike training plans. I have two stage race plans, a finisher and a PR plan that are perfect for Breck Epic. I will be training for Breck Epic using the PR plan. My race team blog is http://www.2-epic.com/. I turned pro in 1994 and raced the cross country World Championships that year and the following year on the British National team with a high placing of 25th. I took 6 years off to have a couple of babies who are now 6 and 8 yrs old. When I started racing again in 2005 it was the endurance events that called. Beaver Creek 100 in 2004 was my first endurance event. Since then I have raced many things supported and unsupported some highlights are Kokopelli Trail race, wining Trans Rockies Open mixed and earning a silver medal at the 24 hour solo World Championships.

Feel free to blatantly self-promote here. A quote you like, a direct appeal to the voters, some hateful vitriolic slander for your political opponents (see: Rush Limbaugh, Bill O’Reilly, Ann Coulter…) This is your space. Decorate it however you’d like. My idea is anybody can follow along with my 12 week Breck Epic training plan at the same time I am. They can buy their own copy (the blatant promotion part) or follow along for free on my blog. I’ll blog what I am doing, how my training is coming along and power files from various workouts. Folks following the plan or not can comment and ask coaching questions, or just heckle me if I don’t manage to stick to my own plan – it happens sometimes… I have a few tricks to pre-adapt to the altitude which will be one of my main challenges at Breck Epic coming from 2,800 feet that might make from some interesting blogging.
Links to your work:
Coaching Article: Optimal Pacing for A races
Race Report: Kokopelli Trail Race
Most everything here and here