Breck Epic: Volume 3 The Big Ride

By Singletrack Dirt
Jun 29, 2009

Here we have it the last installment from Jeff before the real fun starts to happen at the Breck Epic. Race Day is just six days away...

Rumor has it that Breck's rainy spring means one thing: "fucking hero dirt" according to Mike McCormack, the race director who is down right girlie giddy about the conditions. Still time to sign up. Who doesn't wanna be a hero?

Vol 3: The Big Ride

by Jeffery Carter: SS Team Rider for the Breck Epic

A buddy of mine once said, ”If you don’t hate the last hour of the ride, it’s probably not a Big Ride.” I think I was licking the inside of an expired Gu packet and trying to get a spigot to work at new construction just south of Crested Butte after 9 hours in the saddle when I heard this. I contemplated throwing a rock at his head at the time, but in retrospect, I have realized these words resonate with truth.

So, here’s to the big ride. I mean, the Big Ride. I’m talking about the twice-a-summer, all day adventure that is born from hours of brewed-up conjecture over maps, known networks of trail, potential connectors between trail systems, a trail that “maybe” exists and a desire to risk getting lost on the wrong side of the hill, fifty road miles from home, an hour before dark with an empty camelback, 1 gu, a dead cell phone and three bucks. I think the Big Ride satisfies the Lewis and Clark in all of us. It is this same instinct that as a child lead me to explore the hills and woods around my Connecticut home, try and make a boat out of plywood at age 11 (bad outcome, in case you were wondering), and get interested in mountain biking in the first place. Skiers look at distant mountains and envision unskied lines of waist deep pow; mountain bikers look at a wooded hillside and think “huh, I wonder if there’s trail in there?”

The Big Ride refreshingly has nothing to do with racing and is likely counterproductive as it frequently leads to trashing your legs, riding with a huge bonk or having three beers and no food in the first hour after a 10 hour day. But that’s the beauty of it- there’s no “winning” a Big Ride, and neither the jonny-one-runs nor the super intense aggro types are on the program.

What exactly is this Big Ride you ask? Maybe it’s like pornography- you can’t describe it but you know it when you see it. Well, not really. But it isn’t three loops instead of one, and it isn’t just a well known long ride, like say the 401 trail from town in the Butte. Don’t get me wrong, I totally enjoy those things, but they aren’t the Big Ride. I think there has to be an improbable or unique combination of trail or trail networks, but the true essence is a liberal helping of uncertainty, that if it goes wrong, leads to moderately disastrous consequences. Like, “the map doesn’t really show trail between X and Y, but it looks like it’s only a short hike-a-bike between them” only to find yourself at hour 8, shouldering your bike up a scree field in blazing hot sun or freezing hail for an excruciating 90 minutes between trails. Blows while you’re doing it, but makes a great story to re-live post ride. “Hey Bill, remember when I kicked that rock down on you and it dented your new Ti frame? That was hilarious.” Or something like that.

Now, a reasonable question might be “If this guy is so into big crazy rides and frontier-style adventures, why doesn’t he just do som

ething truly badass like the Tour Divide.” My defenseless answer is that while I love a good adventure and generally have a short memory for the Big Ride disasters, I am certainly not a true badass willing to ride thousands of miles on a bike laden down with camping gear, forego sacred post ride rituals (brews, duh) and sleep in an outhouse in the name of adventure.

So as time winds down until the party starts in Breckenridge, I’ll be dutifully tapering my riding, getting together my KILLER Spot SS (Photos to be posted upon completion of the bike, guaranteeing rampant bike envy) and getting lots of rest. My friends and I will converge on our condo, set up our bike racing circus, and live the stage race life for a week. We’ll be ready for those giant loops of the Breck Epic, thinking brainstorming how we can link them together in August for the next Big Ride.

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