The Race: August 22-28

Adventure racing. Extreme backcountry mountain biking. An expansive rider’s compound offering camping, medical support, massage, showers, organically-grown (& slaughtered – never fear, lovers of protein!) food from local farmers, mechanical support and killer coffee. The Breck Epic is a shared mountain bike slugfest that directly underwrites open space.

Are you tough enough?

We'll be the judge of that. The Breck Epic is a 6-day ultra-endurance mountain bike stage race held in the sprawling backcountry surrounding the Victorian mining town of Breckenridge, Colorado. Athletes will contest 6 stages spending 4-8 hours on course each day, most of it over 10,000 feet. If the course were a person it would be dressed in black leather and brandishing something nasty, but it does have a tender side – proceeds from the inaugural “B.E.” benefit local open space initiatives and trail improvements. Hard-asses (or aspiring hard-asses) only please.

We've been asked over and over again how we'd describe our course "compared to The BC Bike Race or The Trans Rockies?" Our answer? Honestly, we don't know. If we had to guess we'd say that it's somewhere in between in terms of difficulty (but much closer to the BC race), but second-to-none in terms of quality. If you want our take on it, head to "The Course" page - we've tried to honestly answer that question there.

Let's check your purse.

The only race of its length and complexity in the US, The Breck Epic will offer a substantial pro purse – over $10,000 in cash. And a go-jillion dollars in merchandise. Open to team and solo participants, riders will have the option of camping in our rider’s village or utilizing one of the many lodging options available locally.

• » Racer categories
• » More about the purse

An ADD-friendly course primer.

Also unique to the Breck Epic is the ‘cloverleaf’ format. Most stage races are point-to-point and require set-up and tear-down of camp every day. Not so with the ‘B.E.’. One of the many attributes of our community is a trail network whose sprawl and magnificence is difficult to comprehend. Each stage will begin and end within 1 mile of the rider’s compound which is located right in the heart of our town. The event itself is a fundraiser for the regional trail network with proceeds split between Breckenridge Open Space and Trails, Summit County Open Space and the Dillon Ranger District of the USFS.

• » Check out the course

Attention Weekend Warriors.

if you're the type of guy who likes to give yourself one extreme challenge once a year...well, this is probably not the event for you. The courses will be long. They will be difficult. 90% of the terrain will be above 10,000 feet. Cut-off times will be strictly enforced. You could end up seriously hurt, having to sell what's left of your bike and pay off your hospital bills by inspecting socks and underwear with your one good arm. At night.

Then again, the architect of this event is a drooling fat-ass whose pinnacle of athletic acheivement was reaching the exalted ranks of the middle of the pack of the Expert field. And he (OK, "I") could make the time cut-offs if I had to, and I'd put myself optimistically in the middle of the Sport class right now.

Bottom line? If you're a lunchbucket Sport-class rider you CAN do this. And it'll be awesome.