Jen Hanks is currently riding in 3rd place at the inaugural Breck-Epic in Breckenridge, Colorado. Jen is an experienced endurance and cross country mountain bike racer who has completed both the Transalp and Transrockies stage races. Join us as she shares her experiences each day of the Breck-Epic.
Day 5 is in the books. The difficulty of this stage caught me completely off guard. On the start line I was chatting with some of the women racing solo and we were thinking that today’s stage would be about 4 hours. WRONG!!!!! We didn’t account for the 45-minute hike-a-bike to the top of Breckenridge ski resort!
The day once again started with a casual neutral start up the road. The actual racing began with some super steep switchbacks up a ski hill. I got passed by a bunch of people at first, but about 30 minutes in I found my rhythm and settled into my endurance race pace. We then descended some super fun, flowy downhill before we started what was to be the “big” climb of the day. It actually started out pretty mellow and I was able to ride in my middle ring for quite a bit of it until we hit the first feed station of the day. Switched out the camelback and grabbed a banana. The road got really steep after the feed but I was able to keep the wheels rolling. Soon after I arrived at the “hike-a-bike”. I knew we were going to be hiking a bit today, but I thought it would be similar to yesterday’s 15-minute hike up French pass. The racers I was with were in pretty good spirits when we started pushing; we were laughing and telling stories. After about 20 minutes of pushing, the conversation stopped and we suffered in silence. I am not a big fan of hiking with my bike, but I will admit that the scenery at the top was fantastic. We topped out at about 12,500 feet and the air was cold and wind strong. I would have no relief from the insane altitude for about 30 more minutes as we traversed the top of the mountain through a swamp and multiple snow drifts. Finally the downhill. It took me a few miles to actually start enjoying this steep and narrow descent because I was dizzy from the altitude and my arms exhausted from pushing my bike. We descended for about 3000 vertical feet to Frisco and the second feed station. Oranges have never tasted so good. The day was capped off by a fun, rocky, rooty climb back to Breckenridge ski resort. My ride time today was 5 hours 15 minutes. A bit longer than the anticipated 4-hour day! I can honestly say that every single muscle in my body is tired and sore. Even muscles that I did not know I had.
After today I think I am deserving of the BMF status, but I will have to survive one more day before I get my finishers buckle and can claim that title.
On a side note, I have decided that endurance racing kills brain cells. I cannot remember simple things like an email password that I’ve had for 4 years! I can’t think of a better way to get brain damage.
My post race special food request today was Pizza . No feeling of barfing yet!
