Breck 100

Was nice and humbling. Wolfhound arrived Friday at 4:30, had it together by 5:30, and drove to Breck for registration. No shake down ride, just a 100 mile ride with just under 13,000' of climbing.

Show up ready. First lap is a warmup, just set in and figure out my place. Front part of the pack was the plan, to have space for the singletrack. Get to wheeler pass fairly quickly, passing lots of folks while just pedaling along. Drop over the pass and see where sweetness! (aka the wolfhound) excels. Pass several full squishies along the way. Arrive at bike path at copper and cruise to frisco for a sweet section of trail back to breck. Wet, rocky and rooty, a little east coast-esqu. Real in those who passed me on the bike path and a few others. Roll in from lap 1 feeling awesome, 7-ish ss and and in the top 25 or so.

Head out for lap 2, only to be humbled. Climb, climb and then climb some more was the theme of this lap. The first real climb hurt but wasn't bad, the 2nd one up the Colorado trail crushed me. Couldn't turn over my gear and pushed for miles and miles. Normally sweet singletrack descents make you forget the climbs, not this one! Lost several places on this lap, but came around by the end. Rolled in, somehow still in 7th ss feeling a little refreshed.

Out for lap 3, the only part of the course I knew feeling good. Just sustain and maybe grab a place or two. Felt really good over boreas pass and down gold dust trail to Como. Hit the gravel road and imploded. No pedal power and it was like this back to the top of the pass. Barely turning over the pedals. Wanted to walk but refused to, mainly due to the fact that it was barely a climb. Hit the top and hang out at the aid station grubbing for at least 10 minutes. Down to bakers tank where the last ss-er came up on me. We had been back and forth all day and I gave Him the line and the spot. Rolled across the finish in 11hr and 4 min. 10th place ss, 48th overall. Didn't do as well as planned but still feel good about the finish.

Had planned on not using the aid stations, but the two I used were needed beyond explanation. Awesome event and killer course. I will be back next year with some seriously high expectations. I have done a lot of 100 mile rides and this was definitely the hardest! Thanks Jerry, for the hook up with the entry.

So the wolfhound is AMAZING. A few things needed tweaked but had to wait until after race. 1st ran too big of a gear, 32x18 crushed me. That probably cost me 2-3 places. 2nd tried different grips and my hands felt it, and 3rd did some serious saddle adjustments. So I swapped out to a 32x20, back to my oury's and perfect saddle placement for Sunday's ride, and yeah, that made a huge difference.

Got out for a 65 mile ride yesterday. Felt good. Did some of the Leadville course combined with some buttery sweet sections of the Colorado trail and a gravel road recon mission back to Leadville. 7 hours of rolling along. Ran out of water about an hour and a half before the end but made it home. Full review and spec list of the wolfhound in a bit. I'm out!











GO RIDE!!!