Well its over, done and dusted, 6 days of mixed fortune and mixed emotions, up and down like a rollercoaster both physically, mentally and on the ground.  The trails here have been absolutely amazing, nothing can compare it to what I have ridden anywhere else in the world.

Todays final stage while no walk in the park was alot shorter in terms of distance and elevation - again the race director's topo maps were a bit short but I dont think anyone was complaining.   It looks like I've developed a bit of a chest infection from all the dust I got in my lungs and effort on Wednesday's stage so when I lined up this morning I had no expectations of how things would go, just glad to be looking forward to a day off from the "job".  The atmosphere around the start line was almost carnival-like, loads to tired but happy campers, looking forward to the promised cold beer at the end of the stage.  We set off up the same hill as the first day behind the cop car which thankfully was sitting at a good pace.  As we headed up Boreas Pass road the top two elite girls were away up the road with the men and I was gradually passed by the next three top girls - Wendy Lyall, Sara Uhl & Jill Damman - as I tried to warm up.  As we hit the singletrack I had managed to get by Sara who later told me she was an ex-track international from Pennsylvania but who now lives in Fort Collins not far away, great transition from track to MTB on her hardtail and her "Make Bike Love" Jerseys!.  As we climbed the Barney Ford trail I soon came up to Jill who seemed to be struggling on the steeper sections.  So making it up to 4th position I was happy and relaxed even when Jill managed to catch up with me on the long draggy fireroad climb up to the top of Boreas Pass, passing me without stoppong in the Feed Zone as I stopped for water and gels.  We then made a fast descent down the road into a lovely fast flowy singletrack trail which descended about 600m elevation before spitting us back onto the track back up to the pass.  I caught up with Jill again on a particularly lovely sweeping "chute" which had  lovely bermed corners which if I had any technical ability would have been so much fun to "rail".   The slog back up to the top of the Pass - second pass over the continental divide by the way - was painful but I was keeping my lead on Jill.  As I passed the Feed Zone for a second time I asked were there any more climbs, no was the answer and I ejected all my bottles and bombed back down the road.   A few kilometres later we were sent off track to the left and down the remainder sections of singletrack, the drop into which was particularly cut up with high enough root drops and stones.  Unfortunately not long into the trail I heard the sound of rumbling tyre agains dust and my heart sank as I realised it was a puncture - 5 and a half days of racing and I get a puncture at this late stage!  I tried to get some air into the tyre with a canister but there was a proper hole in the sidewall so it was a case of dig out the spare tube and try and get it changed ASAP, not something I've had to practice in a long time as I have been running tubless for a good while.  I accepted an offer of help from a local rider who was supporting the race - any kind of aid even up to bike change was allowed all week - and while I dont think it took ages to fix, the pace was so fast today that I got passed by Jill, Sara and Katie Declercq.  Conor eventually caught up with me from riding back down from the top of Boreas and we rode the rest of the course pretty much together until he found riding my hardtail a bit too much on the technical sections.

I crossed the line after 3 hours of fast paced racing, after doing over 50km and over 1000m of elevation.  Tired and happy, everyone got a beer (which at 7% left me a little tipsy after only half a bottle).  The mood was great and everyone was so happy to be finished.  Asking a few people if they would do it again the answer was "no" "well maybe", nobody quite sure if what they went through was pain or pleasure, a testament maybe to the course organisers who gave us some amazing trails to race on. 

Its going to take a few days for it all to sink in and maybe I'll be a bit sad that its all over after such a big build up and such an effort mentally and physcially.  What I can say though is that it was tough but definitely do-able.  Was it the hardest MTB race around?  I dont know, all I do know is that I finished it and I even managed to make a race out of it in the end. 

I would like to thank everyone who has been so supportive over the past week and months and especially all the people who have shown their support by donating to the Marie Curie Cancer charity.  We'll be doing a little bit of sightseeing and relaxing biking over the next week before heading home, so thanks again everyone and hopefully see you all on the trails when we get home.

Five down, one to go and now I'm begining to feel the effects of high mountain racing.  Where yesterday I had a pretty good day on the bike today was Stage 3 only worse... a start that had no neutral roll out/warm up and which went straight into a big climb from the off, dead sore legs, a growing chest cold and to top it all off mega altitude.

The course for the day was to ascend up the side of Breckenridge ski resort between two of the peak ski areas and up over Wheeler Pass at 3800m/12500ft above the treeline, back down the other side towards Frisco some 11km below Breckenridge and then climb up a local mtb trail back home.  Sounds easy compared to the previous days, well thats what we were told. 

After yesterday's effort I started feeling a little chesty last night and sure enough this morning was difficult to wake up despite actually sleeping all night.  We were set off this morning in our categories at 1 minute intervals up a ski run which hurt right from the start.  I tried to put some power into the climb but my body refused to co-operate and I quickly fell back into 6th position as we headed up the steep and actually quite hot for 8am ascent.  We went up a long ascent up the side of the resort,then turned for a quick descent back down and then started the long drag up the mountain which included very technical rock garden sections and a little bit of gravel road - very punishing from the off.   I made up a couple of positions as we climbed and got through Feed Station 1 in 4th spot as we headed above the tree line.   Soon after we hit a narrow mountain path somewhat like the sheep trails in the Cooleys or Mournes and the hike-a-bike section towards the saddle of the mountain between Peaks 8 & 9 began.   I absolutley HATE hike-a-bike-ing, it hurts way more than riding up a steep hill....MTB shoes were just not designed for walking in.  Up we trod for at least 40 minutes and as I got higher and the walk dragged on I started to feel absolutely rotten, every muscle in my body, especially my calves was burning and my breathing was getting faster and shorter AND there was a small queue starting to form behind me.  About three quarters of the way up my body gave in and I couldnt move any further and I started to get really light headed and stopped dead in the trail.  I sat down and checked the GPS 3760m high probably the highest I've ever been with the exception of the cable car up to Aguille de Midi in Chamonix at 4000m and I couldnt climb the stairs without getting puffed out then.  I tried to get some food into me to see if it would help any but everytime I tried to get up I just got light headed.  As riders filed past I was offered drinks, energy bars, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches but all I wanted to do was get off the mountain - fast.   Thankfully one of the riders I had been chatting with on a previous evening had been given a canister of oxygen by her hubby especially for the day and she kindly offered to crack it open for me.  I took a couple of puffs while I rested and after a few minutes it seemed to have done the trick and the both of us headed on up the mountain.   After a short descent we hit another much shorter hike-a-bike section and this time it was easier to cope with, though still a struggle.  At the summit of Wheeler Pass I stopped for a moment to chat with a race photographer and take in the views and wished I had a camera on me cause the vista was massive.  We then began our descent back down the other side of the mountain on yet another epic descent which I think lasted at least 30 minutes.  Starting off as a loose sandy/gravel single track it turned into a mad bench cut trail as we re-entered the treeline and then a mental tecknical rooty, rocky downhill with rock steps, rock gardens, stream crossings and everything.  It felt like we were dropping like a brick down the trail and Conor's bike rode the whole thing superbly, I was riding down stuff I would never at home, maybe I left my brain up the mountain!  We then hit the pathway towards Frisco and where Conor was waiting for me at the next Feed Station.  I still wasnt feeling great when I rolled up to Conor, and between the tiredness and the feeling of losing all the good work I had put in the day before I was not a happy bunny.  I hung around the feed station with Conor for a while getting more food and drink and he offered to ride the rest of the course with me up to Breckenridge.  Off we went and began the draggy uphill climb which was another technical rooty rocky forest trail.  Not long after entering the forest Conor told me to ride at whatever pace I was comfortable at and eventually he dropped back as I picked off a couple of the riders who passed me in the Feed Station.  The remainder of the climb was a lonely slog back up the mountain, made bareable only for he fact that the technical nature of the course took my mind off the tiredness and leg pain, and plus I always like to be able to ride up stuff!  I eventually dropped back towards the start/finish area just glad to be done for the day and hung around chatting with a few of the other riders until Conor rolled in. 

The results board recorded that I came in 7th today some 10 minutes off 6th, not bad I suppose considering my high altitude "moment" and I stopped with Conor for a while.   The overall GC standings havent been posted but I reckon that its probably an 8th place spot for me at best. 
It looks like while I dont seem to deal too badly with the thin air over most of the courses we've been through, the higher reaches are no-go areas for Ciara MacManus.... on a bike at least!

Tomorrow is the final day - woo hoo!  And we've been promised an easier finish tomorrow, however we still have nearly 60km and over 1600m of climbing to do.  Not too sure how to ride the last day, my lungs and my legs are in a bit of a mess at the moment.  My competitive brain wants me to "try again" but common sense might say take it easier and just finish.  In anycase its nearly all over and I cant believe how far we've gone in such a short time.  

Ok so if yesterday was a hell of a day on a bike, today could only be described as a rollercoaster of events and emotions.  First off my damned insomniac brain wouldn’t shut up all night and I don’t think I got more than a couple of hours of really poor quality sleep, not great preparation for another long day in the saddle you’d think.  Perhaps it was a bit of an altitude hangover from the high elevation efforts during the day but in any case I wasn’t looking forward to this stage at all.  I got up quickly enough when the alarm finally went off but I dragged out breakfast for as long as I could.  Since I was so battered and bruised from riding the three previous days on my bike I decided to give Conor’s Specialized Epic full suspension a go for a bit of a rest and see how and if it made much if a difference to my ability to descend, although I was a bit worried about having to climb all those mountains on a slightly heavier squishy bike!

As I headed towards the start line I tried a couple of short efforts up the street and it seemed that Conor’s expert massage the evening before coupled with a cold/hot bath and the two dinners I scoffed seemed to have done the trick and my legs didn’t feel too bad after all.   I lined up at the point along the start area for Solo Women only to discover that most of them had taken their places up ahead with the men, not a bother though as when we rolled off from the neutral start I was able to creep my way up field.  The start went the same direction as the two previous days and the pace was somewhat more relaxed again – must have been a different cop car - and as it turned out we ended up climbing the same hill as on the Stage 2 only on a slightly different orientation.  As we turned of the tarmac road onto the fireroad the climbing began.  It turned out I was well placed and passed pretty much all of the higher ranked women bar the two top elite girls who were already somewhere very far up the climb.  It seemed as though the fact that I didn’t sleep the previous night meant that I didn’t have to wait for my body to wake up before I could race.  So there it was, I was finally in third place climbing REALLY fast on Conor’s bike which also surprised me loads AND it descended WAY better than my hardtail – on to a winner here I thought, also kicking myself for not taking up his offer earlier.   As we rolled along a section of undulating contour trail I was passed by an Erikson rider who I wasn’t sure if she was riding in my category so I tried to put the hammer down to keep up, and just as we hit a small kicker rise and disaster struck – the chain broke, not even 10km into the 70km race, oh feck!  I fumbled around in my spares pack for some quick links of which there were plenty but I just couldn’t get them on!!  Rider after rider passed me “are you ok?”, “have you got what you need?” yes but I’m bloody ham fisted at fixing it!  It felt like the entire field passed me before one of the Duo Cat riders stopped by and offered to give me a hand since he had to wait for his partner – sorted! I jumped back on the bike and promised a couple of nice cold beers to the guy and his mate before I put my head down and tried to limit the damage.  I had no idea how far in front of me the other girls were but I was pretty sure I was at the back end of the pack.  We then hit the long, steep gravel climb which we were subjected to on Stage 2 and while on that day I needed to push up sections of this I managed to spin Conor’s bike all the way up and began picking off riders. 

And so it continued I worked my way up climbs and gunned down the descents as fast as I could – full suspension rocks!  We ended up riding the same section of the Colorado Trail we did on Stage 2 only backwards so some nice meadow sandy singletrack before hitting the second big climb of the day up the aptly named Vomit Hill, which we had previously descended.  Just before we hit the climb I spotted the next group of girls – Jenn Tilly, Mireilee Montminy (who was actually the rider who knocked me down a placing) & Katie Declrcq all riding nose to tail.  Good I thought passing them as they appeared to be struggling at the bottom of the climb.  Vomit Hill was VERY steep, another Cavehill climb only twice as long and fairly sandy.  I passed a few of the men who were pushing up and had some criac with them as they jigg’d me on.    Over the top of the climb we descend again through meadow, down some very tight switchback singletrack and along a singletrack section and made our way towards Keystone which itself is famous for its MTB park.   At the second feed zone I stocked up on water, energy drink and a gel and headed off up the road towards the third big climb of the day.  As I passed one of the male solo riders he informed me that 4th placed Jill Damman was not far ahead.  The next climb went on for AGES and was pretty unshaded and hot.  I passed a couple of more male riders but as I headed towards the summit of the hill I started to get crampy and tired.  Oh damn I thought, need to drink more.   I then started going backwards and was re-passed by a 50+ male rider with the biggest handbar tash I have seen in ages!  Then a guy on a singlespeed came up and we rode together for a while until the next descent.  The course then traversed through a large tree lined gorge, undulating up and down with some rocky rooty and technical sections and at each little kicker rise I got more and more fuzzy headed in the sun.  Oh dear I thought, please let the next feed station be soon, its very lonely out here!!!!   I eventually hit the feed station feeling a little worse for wear and to be honest between the lack of sleep, the adrenaline of the chase and the sugar bonk, just a little emotional!  

I stuck around the feed station for five minutes to get a bottle of water down me and an energy bar as I was kindly informed by an aid assistant that it was another big climb out.   Unfortunately a few of the male riders I had passed uphills earlier in the day also passed me which made me a bit wary about the girls all catching up.  Once I was re-hydrated and re-fueled I headed up a VERY long climb back out of the river valley.  This time I caught up with one of the men and we basically kept each other going uphill and unlike the day before I still climbed the ascent back up all in one go.  Me and my stage race torture buddy basically kept each other going right to the finish line, down some mental fast descents and more horrible draggy, leg sucking climbs and some twisty singletrack trails.  We crossed the line in a little over the 5 hour mark, very happy to be finished and just some 15 minutes off 3rd place rider Wendy Lyall.

So what a day!  Now back into 7th position and some 7 minutes ahead of Jenn Tilley.  Tomorrow is going to be another high altitude course rising up to over 3600m again over Wheeler Pass.  Given I didn’t have a great day over French Pass the day before I’m not too sure how its going to pan out, but the hope would be to try and get a bit higher in the GC – but tomorrows another day and it looks like nothing can be determined in a stage race!

God what a day!  That has to be the hardest day I have had on a bike in a VERY long time.  For a start my legs hurt from the beginning, clearly I’m still not watching my re-fueling during the day as well as I should be.  The neutral roll out headed from the same point as the day before, although this time it felt fast again.  I gridded up near the front and while the pace was ok on the main road, the cop car decided to take up off the dirt side road we turned off on, and so did most of the field with what felt like everyone passing me – pretty much like the first day.  Jenn Tilly tried to pace me on the road section of neutral “roll” out but by the time we hit the first section of singletrack, which of course was a climb, I couldn’t see her anywhere behind me AND surprisingly I was pacing with one of the better placed solo girls – well it looks like I’m not the only one suffering today! So the first section of the course consisted of a big climb which lasted about an hour during which time I managed to wake up and made up some good time and placing coming into the first feed zone within the 1 hour 20 mark.  We then continued along some undulating sections of fireroad and singletrack before hitting the first big climb of the day up French Pass and over the continental divide for the first time.  As we climbed higher the weather closed in with the cloud cover being very low, the temperature dipped right down and we were surrounded by a light fog and drizzle.  As we climbed above the tree line the terrain and weather began to feel more like Carlingford than Colorado.  Soon enough the steep climb and altitude took its toll and it became easier for pretty much everyone in our group to push up the hill than try and ride it – there just wasn’t enough in the tank to keep the pedals spinning fast enough to get over the lumpy bumpy singletrack.    It was at this section that I was eventually passed by the higher placed solo women riders who seemed to be able to deal with walking in the stiff SPD shoes a lot better.  Once over the saddle of the pass we quickly descended a fast sandy singletrack descent through the mountain field, bushes and river crossings and I quickly lost sight of my solo competitors.  The trail then descended along a rocky trail which looked like it might have been an old access or mine road in the past, before we began the second climb up over the continental divide again.  This second climb up was along a sandy fireroad and I managed to hook up with another male solo rider who was happy to chat our way up the climb in order to take our minds off the pain of it all.  At this stage I was catching up with one of the other solo women riders, while at the same time going through waves of nausea and slight light headedness between bursts of energy as we hit the 3600m altitude mark.   We hit the next feed zone at the top of the climb – well nearly the top, which then led us into a short uphill singletrack climb which I just wasn’t able to deal with at all.  The trail then headed over a short section of high meadow, undulating and flowing and it was at this stage that I realised I was having real problems with the altitude – I couldn’t put ANY effort into the ride and I had real brain fog and couldn’t read the trail at all and I just wanted to sleep.  The trail then fell towards the tree line and we started to descend proper.  What then ensued was what I can only describe as downhill torture, we were thrown into the rootiest, rockiest descent I have ever been on – on a hard tail.   I rattled my way down the trail as fast as I could with every bone in my body being shaken to the core, my helmet constantly being shaken over my eyes.  I eventually had to stop to check the increasingly loud noise coming from my bike to make sure I hadn’t broken anything (i.e. the frame) and discovered my water bottle cage had rattled loose and had lost a bolt.   I’m sure that this trail is lovely to ride when your not trying to race as fast as possible and perhaps of you had 6 inches of travel from and rear but I just felt like I was being beaten sensless even when I tried to ride it loose like a raggy doll.  I couldn’t tell you how long it lasted for but it felt like a lifetime and we were then spat out onto more loose sandy rocky fireroad descents before coming to the final feed zone, which I hit at the 3 hour 30 mark.   Conor had managed to make his way by bike to this final feed station which was located at the bottom of a river gorge.  He helped tighten up the bottle cage and told me to make sure I took a few gels as I was going to have to climb out of the gorge up a horrible mine road climb.    He was right it was a torturous, steep, long climb and I had nothing left in my legs and my back hurt.  My garmin also said I had 25km to go till the end and we had only done about 1600m of climbing.  God I thought, this is going to take me hours!  I twiddled my way up the climb in the smallest gear possible and was eventually passed by another female rider who I had never seen before now.   We were then thrown down another series of loose sandy rocky and rooty fireroads before the final climbing section.  As we climbed up through a section of forest access road I stopped for a comfort break and asked a passing rider if anyone else was coming behind.  Sure enough Jenn Tilley was making her way up the hill behind him – damn I thought why did I have to have such a bad second section of the race, now I’m going to have to try and race.  Surprisingly enough this seemed to give me a second wind and I blasted past the male rider and bombed through the final few kms of the course as fast as I could, through undulating narrow forest singletrack, a rocky trail benchcut into the side of the mine, more forest singletrack and finally along a rocky section of undulating mine road towards the finish line in 5 hours, rattled to the bone with aching shoulders from all the rough terrain.

Jenn eventually came in about 2 minutes behind me and I had to wait until the evening stage meeting to find out that she was still placed infront of me by only seconds!  Both of us also seem to have been bumped down a placing although I’m not too sure who by, so I’m currently sitting back in 8th place even though I placed 6th in the stage. 

Tomorrow we are promised another big stage, apparently 70km and about 2000m of climbing, HOWEVER we are quickly discovering that the mapping software that the race organisers use don’t really match our GPS units and we are consistently doing less elevation and a few less kms – not too sure whether that makes us all slow or the course particularly tough!  I’m just hoping that we don’t have as much climbing as today at such high elevation and I’ll be happy enough with that.  I’ve now got to the stage where walking up and down the stairs is painful!

Just out of interest the top male riders – Cannondale Team riders Jeremiah Bishop and his team mates Alex Grant and local rider Josh Tostado have been doing the first two days in just over 3 hours and today in 3 hours 30, while the top female riders Pua Sawicki and Ivonne Kraft did the first two days in 3 hours 30 and today in 3 hours 50 – 4 hours and d'ont forget the single speed nutts!  Check out the pick below!

Today we were promised a big stage full of mountain biking fun and the race organisers delivered big style.  We set off again at 8:10am and thankfully the neutral start was a bit more relaxed after someone had the courage to speak up at the previous evening’s stage briefing about the mental pace on the first day.  I think everyone was feeling the effects of a tough first stage and the roll up the road was way more relaxed, still not enough time to warm up before we started climbing though - first along a long enough steep fireroad with a little respite along the mountain contour before hitting an absolutely savage steep climb which was as steep if not steeper than the gravel climb on Cavehill (for anyone who knows it) but went on for at least 15 minutes.  It was certainly the wake up call I needed to get myself going, which incidentally seemed to be a bit easier than the first day, although I was still passed by two of my competitors in the solo women’s category, the second being Jennifer Tilley who had pipped me at the post the previous day after my crash and who I had hoped to keep off my tail.  As we summited the top of the climb I caught her in my sights and tried to chase down the fast technical descent, but that girl can certainly throw herself down a mountain at speed!    I did catch up a few times on the following draggy climbs but unfortunately I started getting really bad cramps in my back so had to ease off on the climbs – not really what I wanted as climbing is my one main strength. 

The race continued pretty much in the same vein as the previous day, with the exception that there was WAY more singletrack both climbing and descent, so much so it all becomes one big blur of fast exciting descents and torturous climbs.  As the day before I stuck with the same group of lads pretty much throughout the day until the last 20km or so, with the boys being faster than me on the descents and me passing them on the climbs – something which created a bit of friendly banter between us all.   One of the guys in particular was on a singlespeed bike – yes you read it correctly, a bike with only 1 gear, there is a whole category in the race for these mentalists and the top guys still manage to make it around faster than a lot of other people.  A couple of sections of the course stuck in my mind, in particular a lovely section of sweeping singletrack through the forest which twisted and turned and spat us out at the first Feed Zone which I hit at around the 1 hour 40 mark, faster than the previous day.  Later on in the race we also hit a section of single track descent which lasted for at least 20 minutes and felt like it dropped at least 500m from top to bottom.  The trail was little more than handlebar wide and was bench cut into the side of the mountain and had loads of tight switchback turns as it descended the mountain.   Towards the middle of the race we hit a section of the Colorado Trail – an off road trail which crosses the entire state – and traversed through open meadow along narrow singletrack and across tightly packed pine tree stands.  At one section of climbing I came upon a solo female rider who had passed me on the first big climb of the day.  As I tried to close the gap down I again had problems with my back cramping and had to ease off.  As we continued towards the final half of the race course I caught a glimpse of her again and this time I was able to put some power down to narrow the gap, catching up with her at the second Feed Zone where Chris and Conor were waiting for me.  As I filled up with a new bottle and water Conor told me that Bolder rider Jen Tilley had come through the feed zone only some minutes before – damn I thought I’d been trying to catch her all day!  I filled up and off I went down a short section of road after Jen.  As we turned into a gravel draggy climb I passed her and continued onto the last 13km of racing which started off as another draggy forest fireroad climb and then turned into a section of forest singletrack.  I wasn’t quite sure how this section was going to pan out.  The course description for the day had us doing 41 miles and 7000 feet of climbing, so about 2200m of ascent.  At this point my Garmin said we had only 1500m of climbing done and all I could think of was I had been out for 4 hours and REALLY didn’t feel like another 700m of painfully slow uphill and that it would probably take me the guts of another hour to finish.  

Sure enough the singletrack turned into a rooty technical climb and I started to come upon another solo male rider as we climbed – I think I was probably with him earlier in the day but as before he had been a better descender.  Thankfully however the climbing didn’t last too long and the remainder of the course was more of an undulating ascent along singletrack, forest fire road and tarmac road before the final descent of the day which was a fast bench cut single track descent around an old mining area, smooth and fast in places and rocky and technical in others and which spat you out into the finish field.

I crossed the line in 4 hours 37 minutes, a little faster than the day before over a slightly longer distance and in 7th place, one up on the day before just 2 minutes behind the Boulder rider.  While I love my hardtail bike for climbing, I think it’s a bit of a disadvantage on the more technical and rocky descents, I cringe when I think of the amount of times I have dinged my rear rim as the tyre compressed riding over pointy rocks, thank god for Mavic Crossmax wheels they seem to be totally bomb proof – touch wood.   These trails may be fun to ride – for fun – but in a race situation they are tough, technical and A LOT of hard work both uphill AND downhill.

Tomorrow is an even bigger stage, 70km long with nearly 3000m of climbing, circumnavigating one of the higher peaks around here and crossing the continental divide twice, topping out at 3650m.  Hopefully I can stretch out this back cramp and get my climbing legs back cause I think today was a good day for not feeling the altitude so much, certainly it felt like back cramp and tired legs were the only thing letting me down today.

Time for some much needed rest and prepare for a BIG day tomorrow. At the moment I’m placed 7th in the solo woman GC, lets see what happens on stage 3!

Stage 1 of 6 done and dusted and all I can say is 8.15am race starts & altitude racing suck big time as they say, or at least that’s what I was thinking at 8:15am.  It was an early 6am wake up alarm for breakfast and to gather all the gear and feed zone bags together.  Being a little early for Chris, Conor accompanied me down to the start area where racers had begun to gather for the 2nd Annual Breck Epic MTB race.  The atmosphere around the start area was relaxed, if a little quiet between people warming up riding up and down the road and the fact that it was still very early in the morning with the sun only just coming up over the mountain to warm the start arena before we left.  Me and Conor took a short spin up the first road climb of the day, to help me warm up.  As I rode up the hill my nerves were showing really badly with my heart rate already climbing even before the race started.

At a little after 8am we were all called to the start line and the countdown began.  The first few hundred metres of the race would be a neutralised start with everyone heading off together being paced by the local cop car that would then peel off at the first junction.  After a 5, 4,3,2,1 countdown and loads of American “whoop whoops” off we headed.  Being signed on the women’s solo category I was gridded up near the front of the group, however the pace of the cop car was far from neutral and as we climbed the hill my body did not take to the shock of the effort so early in the morning or the usual effects of putting in such an oxygen deprived effort, so I basically went backwards with what felt like the entire field of riders passing me – perhaps a little pessimistic but that’s what it felt like at the time.  I spent the next hour or so in a state of semi-sleep or grogginess trying to get into the race and trying desperately not to make any mistakes on the tight twisting singletrack which we were thrown into almost from the start.  After about 30 minutes of sweeping descents and fast singletrack which ran along mountain contours we started the first big climb of the day which effectively lasted for the next hour.  As I climbed I began to come around a bit and eventually caught up with a bunch of riders who I had in my sights for a good while but always seemed to be going that little bit faster – until the climbs that is!  At a little under the 2 hour mark I made it to the first Feed Station at the 24km mark, not a great time I thought, I had been hoping to make it within the 1 hour 30 mark.   No sign of the two boys who had said that they would meet at the Feed Stations, so with a little assistance from the Feed Station personnel I re-filled my water and sports drinks and headed off around the second portion of the course.   Thankfully there was a little bit of respite from climbing for a while with a combination of very tight twisty singletrack and gravel and rocky fireroad descents before we hit the second big climb of the day.   This second climb was REALLY difficult, as with previously in the week I just couldn’t put any big efforts in and on top of it all my legs were starting to cramp big style, so much so that I had to get off and walk some particularly rocky sections.  Having lost the group I was with earlier after stopping in the Feed Station I yo yo’ed between catching other riders on the climb and being overtaken on short descents, however the excruciatingly slow pace I was making on the climbs seemed to be the order of the day, with everyone else around me pretty much equal or slower paced which was at least a little comfort.  We eventually hit the next big descent which consisted largely of a wide fireroad track which alternated between very fast smooth trail and really rocky, loose boulder strewn tracks which looked more like riverbeds.  We eventually got spat out on a dirt road which led up to Feed Station 2 at the 40km mark which I hit after 3 hours 15, better pacing this time I thought.  We then started another smaller climb interspersed with some VERY fast and VERY tight singletrack which undulated along the contour of the hill and some VERY fast descents and after another 45minutes I crossed back over Feed Station 2 to be greeted by Conor & Chris.  With only another 10km or so to go I thought 4 hours great! I’ll be able to make the 5 hour mark today!  Off I went to climb a long, long dirt track drag uphill which turned into a forest fireroad drag uphill, passing another Solo Woman rider who I had been trying to catch up with since the second big climb of the day.   At the summit of the climb we took a sharp right turn and onto the Barney Ford MTB trail – a 20 minute singletrack descent with bumpy rocky sections, rooty sections and smooth tight switchbacks, and which ended in a twisty bermed section of trail leading up to the finish line.  As I bombed down the bermed section of trail trying to keep two riders behind me off my back and so happy to be nearly finished, I made a stupid mistake coming in too hot into one of the lower berms and locked my back brake up, grabbed the front and crashed – damn I was passed by the two riders the second being the girl I had passed earlier.  I picked myself up and dusted myself off and headed down across the finish line with Conor & Chris there to meet me, and me feeling very relieved and very happy to be finished 4 hours 43 minutes later and in 9th position in  my category.

So Stage 1 done, I had planned for a 6 hour day as a worst case scenario and secretly hoped for a 4 ½ hour day as best case so I’m pretty happy with the result.  With a better start I could have made the 4 hour 30 mark and I really have to pay attention to feeding and drinking having ended up with a touch of heat stroke on the last climb due to the fact that I hadn’t even drunk the 2 litres of water in my pack between Feed Zones 1 & 2 and back OR all the energy drink I had made.
The race course itself was pretty amazing and REALLY well thought out. - for all of the climbing we did, we were rewarded with fantastic descents and lovely singletrack which seemed to go on for ages  I did make the odd glimpse across the landscape on a couple of the high traverses we made and the scenery was fantastic.

Tomorrows stage is bigger and longer that today’s but at the stage briefing this evening we were promised some of the best trails in Summit County.