Breck Epic Day 3

Today was the Queen stage with 9,400' of climbing and again something like 60 kilometers.

Sunny this morning! Everyone was happy about that. Really happy. Especially the girl who got proposed to at the start line!

Here's the short version: pinned it and put power down without fail for 4h in the sun, with Thomas, over some huge mountain passes, and that's just awesome. Everything that is right about mountain biking was today.

We started out on a road then dirt road climb behind the police car. I lined up a bit back, then the last mile of incline before we turned into trail passed a dozen or so who wanted to be up front and got dropped by the neutral pace... more relaxing that way then trying to hold elbows out in the bunch.

We wound our way up the day's first climb, including Heinous Hill again. I just trundled along and somehow that means passing people that went out hard, are at their limit, then slip out on the gravel climb. By the top saw Thomas, so gave him a boost over the top to say hi for a little surprise. That was my marker that after yesterday's "day off" I felt good.

So here's where my dumb idea of the day kicks in. Why don't I ride all day with my 150lb powerful Belgian friend on a day with that much climbing? That sounds smart.

We did a big fast traverse that we did other direction day 1, then down some rubble. Aid 1 came fast, then started climbing our first ascent of French pass I think. I enjoyed this. Gentle grades and all was rideable save maybe 25m of rubble and 100m on steep grass. Awesome view. Guys at the top handing out skittles. I started down and Thomas caught me.

Got to aid 2, then basically turned back up a road that I think got to the same mountain pass, or ridge, just in a different section. Long climb rewarded by long side traverse then gnarly descent full of rocks. Like riding Jewel Pass descent except rockier and 10 times as long.

Coasted down a road finally, crossed a skinny (a bridge out with one log across) then into aid 3.

Thomas and I had been riding together for hours, then on the last climb which was steep, he had extra jets. I hung on, barely, and sort of questioned why I was pushing so hard. But I wanted to stay with him. Crested, then big descent, then rolling trails around the mountain to get to finish. We saw some riders ahead and closed the gap. When we did, the pace picked up. I held on until a mile left and cracked. Finished a minute behind him. Thomas and I were probably 4 and 5 minutes over the 4 hours mark, respectively, by my Timex estimate. Shawn was about 3:45. No flats, awesome day had by all.
I'm crushed. Back up to the finish line to try to catch Cindy coming in, it's 2h past finish, and I feel vegetative and emotional - aka still shattered.

Cindy was about 6:20. All smiles. Lots of stories of riding with other riders. After the French pass climb, there was a section of descent marked by double down arrows, I rode it while a guy in front of me walked it. Cindy rode it too, said she didn't know what the arrows meant other than "go this way". Proud she rode most of the rock garden descent after the second pass. Thought today was just beautiful and really enjoyed the nice weather.

Our bikes are going into a local shop for some TLC tonight (the mud was hard on them yesterday) when we could be doing better things than bike maintenance like eating, and sitting around doing nothing. I'm eating Thomas' ham and cheese sandwiches cause that must be his secret.