Firecracker 50 - Happy 4th of July

On the 4th of July Danielle and I headed to Breckenridge for the annual Firecracker 50 race. It consists of two 27 mile laps all well above 9,000 feet. Typically right at 50 miles, due to high snowpack levels this year race organizers had to re-route a couple sections stretching the course length to around 54 total miles. Word on the street was the extra 4 miles were definitely felt by the legs.

Danielle rode in the Duo Team category with fellow Team High Maintenance rider Jen Sewell. Eagle County had a whole slew of riders including Jay Henry, Paul Gorbold, Jerry Oliver, Courtney Gregory, Alex Coleman, Cody Downard, and Ciro Zarate to name a few. Last year I rode as a team with Nate Picklo but this year was the first attempt at the solo division.

In typical fashion, the race begins right downtown on Main St in Breckenridge with a neutral lead out starting off the 4th of July Parade. It's actually quite a unique and exciting experience for all the riders who don't usually get to ride through a group of 1,000+ spectators cheering them on as they begin the race. We started off at 9:30am and the heat was out already. No clouds in the sky and the sun was shinning.

My forearm about an hour after impact. It took about 4 hours
for feeling and movement to come back.

My division (CAT 1 19-29) took off with the 30-34 and 35-39 groups so as expected, the pace was a bit faster than I am used to. I hung on to the lead group for about the first 2 miles just before the paved road started getting pretty steep. As I fell off the back, I settled into my long distance pace and was pleasantly surprised to see two other guys in my category settle in with me. As we hit the singletrack, those guys were already struggling to hold a pace so I took off a bit once we hit the shaded, contouring one-track over to Sallie Barber Mine. I was a bit excited that part of the course re-route took out a steep section only a few miles in, to the Iowa Mill area. At about 6 miles into the race I started the fast but narrow descent down "Nightmare of Baldy". If you do not pay full attention on this descent the slightest mistakes can be costly. For me... it was. As I shot through the trees I suddenly felt an immediate shock of pain through my right forearm. It didn't take off the bike, luckily, but when I looked down briefly to check out the damage. A lump the size of a half a golf ball formed and then the cramping set in. I smacked the main nerve in my forearm on a tree. I made it to the bottom of the descent and stop for a few minutes to see if the conditions would improve. They did not. At this point, I couldn't hold a tight grip on the handlebars, let alone squeeze the brake lever... and I still had 47 miles to go. I told the medics that I was heading back to the start/finish area. It was a hard decision mainly because my legs were feeling great and I felt I was already in a good position to do really well but it was not worth taking some big risks on injuring myself more with limited handling ability.

Jen Sewell was the first one out on course for lap 1 and by the time 3 hours had passed, we started to worry about her progress. A few minutes later we had heard that a rider was down on course and needed medical attention. Danielle came over and told me they mentioned the riders name was Jen. Our hearts sank as we tried to ask around to find out further what had happened. By the time we had confirmed that the rider was in fact Jen, all he had known is that she was on her way to Frisco Hospital by ambulance. Using a typical "ghost rider" rule, Danielle was able to start her lap and the final result would just be a doubled second lap time. Clouded by thoughts of Jen's condition and a few unknown obstacles out on course, I was a little worried about Danielle and her concentration on course. When she had mentioned last year that she wanted to do the Firecracker course, there was one section that I felt was a little dangerous due to its consistent exposure on the left hand side with added tricks on the right in the form of downed trees and rocks that kept you on your toes. A small mistake here and a rider could be rolling for quite awhile or risk playing dangerously with spiked fallen trees. After just over 3 hours, we saw Danielle coming down the final switchbacks to the finish. Her time was good enough for their team to finish up in 6th out of 12 teams despite Jen's injury.

Danielle came over to us and immediately told us she almost ended up in the emergency room as well. On the exact section of the Flume Trail that I was worried about, she did manage to crash with minimal damage. A rider who was behind her at the time of crash had a helmet cam on and caught the scary moment on video. Below is the video. Notice how lucky she was to fall in somewhat of an open area whereas 5 feet forward or behind would have resulted in absolute carnage.

We later found out that Jen was alright and was already back at the venue by the time Danielle finished. On a steep ascent up Little French, she fell over awkwardly and suffered a deep laceration to her left leg apparently from a rock that required 20 stitches. While at the hospital, Jen had another friend down the hall. Fellow Team High Maintenance rider Kelly Lombardi had sustained what appeared to be a broken ankle on a fall on her lap. Thankfully it turned out to be a bad sprain. 

Overall, Eagle County riders suffered on course this past Monday. We did have a few good rides put in. Jay Henry stayed strong in the second lap to finish only about a minute behind Colin Cares for 2nd place overall in the Pro field. Paul Gorbold managed a top 10 finish in a strong CAT 1 field along with Peter Hinmon and Ciro Zarate finishing strong with impressive times. Jerry Oliver, who was leading the overall CAT 1 divisions at the time broke his rear derailleur ending his race late into lap 1.

Two days later was the 29th annual Davos Dash hill climb as part of the Vail Rec Series. A 3.5 mile climb with just over 1100 feet of climbing makes for one of the toughest, lung bursting events that finish up in just 20 minutes give or take a few. While I felt good, my time was 20 seconds off last years pace. This seemed to be a trend this year all around as most riders were slower that last year. We collectively attributed this to much higher temperatures for the race than last year when it was run in August. Jay Henry won the pro field, while Jake Wells fell to third behind Josiah Middaugh.

Next up is the Breck 68... back at it in Summit County to conquer the course this time, instead of the other way around. 

TMP