BRECKENRIDGE — Sometime around 11 a.m. today, expect Josh Tostado to be warmed up.
That’d be Day Three, two hours into a four-hour race stage, and just about the time when the front-runners of the second annual Breck Epic mountain bike stage race hit the cumulative 100-mile mark in the six-day, approximately 245-mile, off-road ride.
“Until now, 100 miles in a day was the shortest race I’ve done all year,” said Tostado, 34. “This is all new to me, so I really have no idea what to expect. These are the shortest races I’ve done by far.”
Technically speaking, it’s all one race. And it’s new to just about everyone.
In the world of competitive mountain biking, the stage race is a format that hasn’t exactly exploded onto the scene in the United States. There are a few of them out there — the new Trans-Sylvania Epic launched this year outside State College, Pa., and the Pisgah Mountain Bike Stage Race in North Carolina is set for Sept. 14-18 — but the week’s worth of racing over Summit County singletrack that comprises the Breck Epic is something Colorado mountain bikers had never known before last summer.
As a result, there’s enthusiasm aplenty among racers in the Kingdom of Breckenridge these days.
“Stage racing really adds to the drama, because there are so few places to practice for something like this,” Breck Epic founder Mike McCormack said. “Good luck and good legs will win it, but you have to have both.”
In its second edition, McCormack saw some 75 new riders willing to pay the $1,000 entry fee for a chance to sample some of Summit County’s finest trail riding in a race-supported format. The overall field of almost 180 racers includes reigning champion Jeremiah Bishop of Virginia; Lance Armstrong’s off-road training partner, Max Taam of Aspen; Durango racers Matt Shriver and Ben Sontagg; former women’s marathon national champion Pua Sawicki of Hawaii; and local favorite Tostado.
“It’s tough to bet against Bishop. He won the race last year against some stiff competition,” McCormack said, with a nod to 2009 race runner-up and Mountain Bike Hall of Famer Travis Brown of Durango. “But Josh is loaded for bear with talent, and this is his backyard. In a climate this hostile to equipment, anything can happen.”
Despite a 14-year history of riding around Breckenridge, Tostado remains a relative newcomer to the pro racing scene. That in no way diminishes his accomplishments as an ultra-distance guru, however.
Riding independently, Tostado finished fourth in the first mountain bike race of significance he entered — the 2002 Montezuma’s Revenge, a 24-hour “odyssey,” as it’s billed, that is half bike race, half adventure race. After not racing the event in 2003, he returned to win for the next two years and established course records of 156 miles and some 32,350 feet of climbing in a single day.
Since then, he’s won the Breck 100 six consecutive times, dominated the rigorous Vapor Trail 125 in Salida by more than an hour and a half last year, is the two-time defending individual champion at the 24 Hours of Moab, and has been on the podium in four of the five 100-mile races he’s entered already this season while riding for sponsors Santa Cruz, Maxxis, Shimano, Avalanche Sports and the unlikely team of Bach Builders in Boulder.
“It’s like, some people have it and some people don’t,” said Fran Bach, who co-founded the team with brother Dave and credits his own start in mountain bike racing to Tostado’s inspiration. “I really admire him. He doesn’t have a coaching program, just goes out and rides. He just does it his own way. I don’t think he wants to ride for the big companies, even though he easily could. But we’ll continue to help him out as long as he wants to ride for us. No problem.”
Needless to say, there’s a fair amount of pressure for the hometown hero to succeed in his first attempt at stage racing, although the reputably grounded Tostado insists none of it comes from within.
“Personally, I’m always racing for fun, but everybody expects me to kill it,” Tostado said. “Other people put pressure on me to represent more than I put on myself. There’s some of that hometown pride, for sure.”
So far, Tostado has finished a close fourth and second in what he considers a pair of “sprint” stages of nearly 40 miles a day. The “adventure riding” portion of the Breck Epic begins today on the Wheeler Trail, one of his favorites, followed by Wednesday’s challenging ride over to Keystone that includes climbs up routes known as “Heinous Hill” and “Vomit Hill.”
Despite the less-than-inviting nicknames, much of that hometown pride is focused on the Breck Epic’s cloverleaf course itself. Racers and organizers both consider the high-altitude route that includes an elevation gain of about 37,000 vertical feet a showcase of the best singletrack riding Summit County — if not the entire state — has to offer.
“There really aren’t a lot of places where you can do a stage race like this, even as a point-to-point,” McCormack said. “The access issues are incredibly difficult. I think that weeds out a lot of places, even in Colorado.”
“I think it’s definitely a showcase of our riding,” Tostado added. “Somebody who comes here and does this race, they get to ride all the best rides in Summit County. They get a tour of 245 miles of dirt all in one week. It’s cool in that way.”
Breck Epic
What: Six-day, ultra-endurance mountain bike stage race.
The course: Approximately 245 miles, spanning the backcountry near Breckenridge. Riders spend four to eight hours a day traversing high-elevation terrain.
Stages: Each stage begins and ends in Breckenridge and ranges from 32 miles to 42 miles, with vertical-elevation gains of at least 3,568 feet, up to 8,852 feet.
Purse: $10,000 cash split between the Open Men and Women (solo and team) categories.
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