9, Excellent Food: The last thing you want after 5-plus hours of mountain biking is to be served beans and weenies and go to bed hungry.
8, Course Markings: Endurance racing phenom Josh Tostado rode each stage just minutes in front of the leaders to assure all course markings were in place and no riders would get lost.
7, No Dicks Rule: Race Director Mike McCormack narrowed all potential rider conflicts down to this one simple rule- Don’t be a dick.
6, Race Support: Each stage included 2-3 aid stations that were well staffed and always stocked with food, drink, and electrolytes. Squirt Lube’s Larry Grossman was also standing by to lube chains and give beer hand-ups.
5, Race Director Mike McCormack: The always verbose McCormack will be the first to tell you the Breck-Epic racers are his customers and he wants his customers to be happy. McCormack turned cartwheels all week to ensure that Breck-Epic riders were happy with the race, venue, and support.
4, Mountain Bike Stage Racing in the United States: Forget driving 14 hours to Canada and sleeping in a tent.
3, The Breck-Epic Riders: The Breck-Epic hosted an eclectic group of mountain bikers including everything from high-caliber pros, to Tomi McMillar on a fixie, to 65 year-old solo female Wendy Skean and the riders got along like Robin Hood and his band of Merry Men all week long (and that was before the free beer.)
2, Prize Raffle: The race hosted the most insane prize giveaway in modern mountain bike history. For a solid hour McCormack gave away Spot bike frames, Crank Brothers wheelsets, an avalanche of Ergon grips and packs, long boards, French coffee presses, tires, and carbon Easton hardware. Finally, exhausted from pulling names from the hat, McCormack started firing Giro sunglasses, socks, and jerseys into the crowd.
1, Killer Trails: The Breck-Epic promised great mountain bike riding and it delivered. Tight singletrack, bomber rocky descents, ripping bermed flume trails, and high-mountain traverses were all on the menu producing nothing but smiles from the riders.
