Tag Archives: stage 4

Breck Epic Stage 4

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Todd Wells and Amy Krahenbuhl Continue to Lock Down 2016 Breck Epic

On stage four of the Breck Epic, the top 7 men were all together for the first 15 miles until the decisive climb, Vomit Hill. Photo by: Eddie Clark

On stage four of the Breck Epic, the top 7 men were all together for the first 15 miles until the decisive climb, Vomit Hill. Photo by: Eddie Clark

After three days of racing, stage four’s Aqueduct route saw riders cross over the peaks of Summit County and pay a visit to Keystone Mountain.

Race leader Todd Wells and teammate Russell Finsterwald (SRAM / Troy Lee Designs) kept things civil, at least for a while, riding in a larger lead group through the first third of the race until they hit the exceptionally steep climb of the day.

At the base of Vomit Hill, Ben Sonntag (Clif Bar) hit the gas first with Finsterwald on his wheel. Wells had to unclip and run a bit to get back up to Finsterwald who had moved past Sonntag and the duo of Wells-Finsterwald distanced themselves for the day, once again.

“Of the four days, this one was the one where I felt best,” said Sonntag, who entered the stage in third overall. “I don’t know why, but maybe with doing Leadville on Saturday, it seems like even though these stages were super hard, it was still half the time out there [compared to Leadvile].”

Todd Wells stands up to his number one plate with a stage win with teammate Russell Finsterwald on his wheel through the finish line on stage 4. Finsterwald is just 4:24 back in the GC. Photo by: Eddie Clark

Todd Wells stands up to his number one plate with a stage win with teammate Russell Finsterwald on his wheel through the finish line on stage 4. Finsterwald is just 4:24 back in the GC. Photo by: Eddie Clark

“Todd and Finsty still got the gap on us,” continued the German. “What’s it called? Vomit Hill? I was with Chris Jones for a while, but after that it was a pretty lonely day.”

“We rolled together the rest of the day,” said Wells about riding with Finsterwald. “With the big climb out of Keystone, it is great to have someone with you because of the fast dirt road section.”

Going through aid two at Keystone Mountain, Wells and Finsterwald held a gap of 1:45 over Chris Jones (Unitedhealthcare Pro Cycling) and Sonntag. Fernando Riveros and Wells’ little brother Troy were another 1:15 behind Jones and Sonntag with single riders chasing in areas.

Kevin Day rushes to the finish line after being surprised by his family, who drove through the night from Utah, at aid one. Photo by: Liam Dorian

Kevin Day rushes to the finish line after being surprised by his family, who drove through the night from Utah, at aid one. Photo by: Liam Dorian

By the finish Wells and Finsterwald had a two and a half minute over Sonntag and Fernando Riveros was over six minutes back with Chris Jones was close behind.

With Sonntag’s third place finish today on stage 4, he padded his overall third place, though he sits almost 22-minutes behind Wells. Kyle Trudeu (CZ Racing) sits in fourth, 12-minutes behind the German and Drew Free (KUHL-Pivot Cycles) is in fifth.

Showing true grit, Rebecca Gross rounds one of the final corners on a demanding fourth stage. Team KASK sits pretty in pink in the lead in the coed duo 6 day race. Photo by: Eddie Clark

Showing true grit, Rebecca Gross rounds one of the final corners on a demanding fourth stage. Team KASK sits pretty in pink in the lead in the coed duo 6 day race. Photo by: Eddie Clark

WOMEN’S PRO/OPEN

Amy Krahenbuhl added to her lead once again on the Aqueduct stage, bringing her lead to over 40-minutes. Second and third-place overall riders, Emma Maaranen (Rolf) and Ksenia Lepikhina (Tokyo Joe’s) finished the stage placed consistent with their general classification.

We asked Krahenbuhl about the road (and trail) that’s brought her to the Breck Epic, one that saw her race the Trans New Zealand earlier this year.

“I’ve done random races here and there,” said Krahenbuhl. “More recently, I’ve been doing enduro racing and with that stuff, I would think ‘man, I could do really well if this whole thing was timed,’ because I’m not the fastest climber or descender, but I can go for a long time and hold it together.”

One half of the Juliana Bicycles 6 day duo women’s team, Uriel Carlson rounds one of the final corners before the finish line on stage four. Team Juliana Bicycles stays in third place on the day and the GC. Photo by: Liam Dorian

One half of the Juliana Bicycles 6 day duo women’s team, Uriel Carlson rounds one of the final corners before the finish line on stage four. Team Juliana Bicycles stays in third place on the day and the GC. Photo by: Liam Dorian

“It was really pedally,” said Krahenbuhl about the Aqueduct stage. “The big climb was a big, BIG climb. The descent down Colorado Trail was amazing. Definitely one of the more fun descents we’ve done so far.”

While it may seem as though the overall leads are all but sewn up, tomorrow’s weather forecast and the profile of the Wheeler Pass stage tomorrow, so much can happen. As Wells said just over 24-hours ago, “anything can happen in mountain bike stage racing.”

“Hours could be lost.”

Click Here for full results from Stage 4 and GC

 

 

Singletrack 6 – Stage 4 – Kimberley, BC

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Another Day of Excitement at Singletrack 6 as Men’s GC Lead Changes Hands Again; Sonya Looney Continues Winning Streak on Planet Foods Stage 4

Written by: Marlee Dixon

Heading back toward the mountains, Singletrack 6 moves to Kimberley for today’s stage.

Stage 4 is a night and day difference from Cranbrook riding.  Racers start off in the quaint Bavarian-ish downtown area and immediately climb up the road to the ski resort. At the ski resort they continue climbing on the biggest ascent of the day.  Once at the top, racers head onto the most technical section of the course, a large rocky flat section, technical enough that many racers were forced to run/walk for a few hundred feet.  Next it’s more moderate switchback climbing into the first descent of the day. A fun, flowy, berm trail, giving racers a taste for the fast descending on this course.  With one steep grunt climb and some smaller more frequent climbs; racers are rewarded each time with bomber fast descents to follow.  After doing the second largest climb of the day, racers head onto the day’s timed descent. An ear to ear grinning downhill over three trails – Thunder Turkey, Shapeshifter and Hoodoo View dropping racers almost 1000’ in just over 3 miles. Today’s stage was definitely about the descending, work hard and fast to gain position on the climbs to bomb down some epic singletrack.

For the pro men, Mathieu Belanger-Barrette (Pivot Cycles) won the stage in 1:59:50 followed by Andreas Hartmann (Craft-Rocky Mountain Factory Team) in 2nd (2:00:44) and a tie for 3rd between Patrick Chartrand and Marc-Andre Daigle (Garneau) in 2:03:20.

Belanger-Barrette and Chartrand worked together time-trailing the climbs to beat teammates Hartmann and Manuel Weissenbacher (Craft-Rocky Mountain Factory Team) to the descents.  Working together on the climbs, they capitalized on their descending skills to gain time on the Craft-Rocky Mountain factory teammates.

Marc-Andre Daigle hitting the trees in Stage 4. Photo courtesy of Singletrack 6

Marc-Andre Daigle hitting the trees in Stage 4. Photo courtesy of Singletrack 6

After the timed descent, Belanger-Barrette pulled away on the next climb for the win.  Manuel Weissenbacher flatted on course, losing 10 minutes and dropping to 8th on the stage. Chartrand and Diagle, who tied for 3rd, were teammates last year and won the men’s open duo field at Singletrack 6. Stage 1 winner Rotem Ishay was unable to bounce back from his difficult day in Cranbrook finishing outside the top-10 in today’s race.

For the second straight day big changes were seen in the overall classification for the men as Belanger-Barrette jumped into first (total 4-day time 8:15:49), followed by Hartman in 2nd (8:17:25) and Weissenbacher in 3rd (8:22:35).

 

For the pro women it was Kathryn McInerney who charged ahead up the first climb. Once on top of the first climb in the technical rocky flat section, Sonya Looney (FreakShow/Defeet) maneuvered past her into first. She remained in first for the rest of the race and won the stage in a time of 2:20:45.

Up until the timed descent Kate Aardal (Ridleys Cycles), Marlee Dixon (Pivot Cycles/DNA Cycling) and Kathryn McInerney battled for 2nd-4th.

Once on the timed descent, Aardal passed Dixon and remained in 2nd for the rest of the race. She finished in 2:22:23. Dixon finished in 3rd (2:23:03) with Jodie Willett (For the Riders) passing McInerney for 4th place (2:26:39).

Looney remains first overall, widening her gap to 10 minutes over Aardal (2nd).   Dixon again moved back into 3rd after dropping to 6th following stage 3.

Looney and Aardal continue to increase their leads in the race while 3rd-6th place continue to change up and remain ~3 minutes apart.

Next up is Golden BC for both stages 5 and 6. Tomorrow’s stage is the shortest stage at 19 miles with 4000’ ft of elevation gain over some purpose built trails and rocky fun descents. The talk between racers is that the riding in Golden is awesome.

Click Here for full results from Stage 4

Click Here for GC results following Stage 4

Breck Epic Stage 4

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Breck Epic Riders Power Through the Longest Stage of the Race as Claes and Dong Extend Their Leads

Written by: Marlee Dixon

This is the biggest day of the week, as one guy said at the finish, “Every stage is so hard I just can’t compare them” and today is no exception.

With 42 miles, 6000’ of vertical and some gigantic climbs, this day is the longest on the bike.   Again this morning we started out in the middle of the town of Breckenridge with a pacer car to French Gulch Rd. It’s a dirt road climb for the first few miles which helps to spread racers out. Then it’s some fun single-track- Fall Classic trail, Slalom and Upper Flume trails before racers head up a new section of the course- Traylor Way to ZL Trail.

Traylor way was another dirt/rocky road climb but the new ZL trail was a great addition! It’s a beautiful singletrack with some fun downhill sections. Then it’s over to the Dredge lot for Aid 1 and up/down the Colorado trail to Vomit Hill.

Riders get the full Vomit Hill experience - Photo by Devon Balet/DevonBaletmedia.com

Riders get the full Vomit Hill experience – Photo by Devon Balet/DevonBaletmedia.com

For the lower section, Vomit Hill was mostly a hike a bike, then it tricks you by leveling out in a beautiful meadow only to put you back in the pain cave with more climbing- steep long sections that hurt. Once up and over it’s a fun descent on Horseshoe Gulch trail to the Aqueduct trail.

The Aqueduct trail is a flowy trail that turns pretty flat before sending racers out on Keystone Gulch Rd. This is where the longest climbing of the day starts- 1800’ of vertical over 5 miles. It’s a long road climb, followed by a singletrack climb to West Ridge. Then it’s on to one of the best parts of today’s course: flying down West Ridge. This descent is incredibly fast and fun. Once down West Ridge, racers make their way to the final climb of the day- Rock Island Gulch. This is a long, difficult road climb back up to French Gulch. Then it’s down Lincoln Park road, Side Door trail, Minnie Mine trail and B&B trail to the finish.

Barry Wicks and Drew Free digging deep - Photo by Devon Balet/DevonBaletmedia.com

Barry Wicks and Drew Free digging deep – Photo by Devon Balet/DevonBaletmedia.com

For the Epic, 6 day race, the Belgian Frans Claes (Loving Hut) quickly opened up a small gap on a chase group of Bryan Dillon (Griggs Orthopedics) and Ben Swanepoel (Squirt) with Barry Wicks (Kona), Drew Free (Revolution/Peak Fasteners) and Carl Decker (Giant) close behind them.

Time gaps between the leaders would remain at about 1 min through Aid 2. Coming out of Aid 2 Claes showed why he has won every stage thus far at the Breck Epic.  Despite their best efforts working together Dillon and Swanepoel were unable to close the gap and Claes would go on to open his overall lead by another 4 minutes. Dillon would best Swanepoel at the line for second.

Rounding out the top 5 were Free and Decker who were never separated by more than 30 seconds from Aid 3 to the finish

Kelly Boniface was back in the battle on stage 4 - Photo by Devon Balet/DevonBaletmedia.com

Kelly Boniface was back in the battle on stage 4 – Photo by Devon Balet/DevonBaletmedia.com

In today’s pro women race things changed around a little. Evelyn Dong (Shoair/Cannondale), Kelly Boniface (Moots), Serena Gordon (Liv/Giant), and Marlee Dixon (Pivot/Epic Brewing) all were relatively close for the first few miles then Evelyn started to pull away and Kelly was riding strong in 2nd.

Serena was in 3rd until the descent down Summit Gulch Rd. where Marlee passed her.

Marlee caught Kelly on the Aqueduct trail where they rode together for a little while until the Pivot/Epic Brewing rider pulled away.

By Aid 2, Evelyn was 2 minutes in the lead, and Marlee and Kelly were separated by less than a minute.

At Aid 3, Evelyn was still in the lead by a minute, Marlee was in 2nd, Kelly in 3rd and Serena in 4th.  Evelyn finished 1st ; 30 seconds ahead of Marlee who now holds 2nd place overall. Kelly Kim Boniface finished a few minutes back and leap frogs Serena Gordon into 3rd place.

Click Here for full results from stage 4 as well as current GC standings

Trans-Sylvania Epic Stage 4

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Timmerman and Barclay win stage 4 at the NoTubes Trans-Sylvania Epic

McElveen and Barclay defend their leads in overall classification

 

Today’s stage 4 is considered the “road” stage of the NoTubes Trans-Sylvania Epic, but in the wilds of central Pennsylvania, that means surfaces ranging from gravel to chunky doubletrack bracketed by sections of twisty, rocky singletrack. Nevertheless, there was plenty of roadie-style peloton action complete with strong attacks from the start.

Dan Timmerman (Riverside Racing) and Vicki Barclay (Stan’s NoTubes Elite Women’s Team) won the elite men’s and women’s categories while Payson McElveen (Competitive Cyclist) and Barclay successfully defended their respective leads in the overall elite classifications.

The lead breakaway early on in stage 4 at the NoTubes Trans-Sylvania Epic. Photo by: Trans-Sylvania Epic Media Team

The lead breakaway early on in stage 4 at the NoTubes Trans-Sylvania Epic. Photo by: Trans-Sylvania Epic Media Team

Elite men

After nearly three hours of intense effort, the men’s race came down to a photo finish: Dan Timmerman (Riverside Racing) got his first stage win, with Competitive Cyclist teammates and general classification leaders Payson McElveen and Justin Lindine plus early attacker Peter Glassford (Trek Canada) rounding out the lead group.

Glassford set a fast pace early and was pleased with the result. “I’m rarely going to win in a sprint, so I started sprinting four miles out,” he said. “I was out front for a while and that let me ride the second enduro section alone, which was good.”

“Then, it was just the lead guys, which is a little nicer not having to fight for position, since everyone is a solid rider,” said Glassford. “I just tried to drive the pace every time I could on the climbs so everyone was a little more fatigued coming into the sprint, and I think it worked. Last year, I was blown on the last climb, but this year, I was right there with the guys.”

Stage winner Timmerman enjoyed the lack of rocks on much of today’s route. “It was a much better day for me, that’s for sure,” he said. “I pretty much perpetually have back problems. The technical stuff hurts it, so today was better for me.”

Timmerman made the finish extra exciting by nearly taking out the timing table. “I didn’t know what to expect for the finish — if we had a loop or we’d go straight in — but we went straight in, so I just went for it. I didn’t really think about it. I saw the banner and I went. I wanted to be close to the timing thing, to make sure my chip read.”

After four days of racing, McElveen and Lindine remain within three minutes of one another on GC.

Lindine engaged in a bit of psychological strategy against his teammate. “Justin said it couldn’t possibly rain today, and wouldn’t it suck if it was wet — then it rained,” said McElveen. “But those dirt roads were awesome, those roads were beautiful.”

Lindine admitted he liked the wet conditions, too. “The rain was awesome!”

Dan Timmerman (Riverside Racing) leads a group through an enduro segment at the NoTubes Trans-Sylvania Epic. Photo by: Trans-Sylvania Epic Media Team

Dan Timmerman (Riverside Racing) leads a group through an enduro segment at the NoTubes Trans-Sylvania Epic. Photo by: Trans-Sylvania Epic Media Team

Elite women

Vicki Barclay (Stan’s NoTubes Elite Women’s Team) had a great day, and was the only woman to bridge up to the train of elite men, gaining 5:30 on the next female finisher in the process.

“It is so great to feel strong every day,” said Barclay. “Today, I was conscious at the start of not getting out of the saddle and trying to drill it up the hill with the guys, just trying to stay in the saddle and stay with them, not blowing five matches on the first climb. I was with them, and Mical [Dyck (Stan’s NoTubes Elite Women’s Team)] was there, and I could see her out of the saddle, but I thought I’d play it safe. And she blew up a little when I passed her, so then I put in a dig to try to catch that group of men.”

Vicki Barclay (Stan’s NoTubes Elite Women’s Team) passes Russel Henderson (Crosstown Velo) on an enduro segment at the NoTubes Trans-Sylvania Epic. Photo by: Trans-Sylvania Epic Media Team

Vicki Barclay (Stan’s NoTubes Elite Women’s Team) passes Russel Henderson (Crosstown Velo) on an enduro segment at the NoTubes Trans-Sylvania Epic. Photo by: Trans-Sylvania Epic Media Team

Although they are teammates, Barclay explained that she and Dyck are both gunning for the win. “Mical and I are first and second and both of us want to win, so it’s hard to have team tactics or team dynamics now — it’s every woman for herself,” she said. “But no one is that safe just now in the general classification.”

Crystal Anthony (Riverside Racing) kept her head despite some difficulty and earned second on the day. “The week has been up and down, but today was good. I learned on the second day that I have to ride my own race and ride where my fitness is,” she said.

“I got popped off the back today but I kept with it — it’s a long stage,” said Anthony, who dropped back to fourth for a bit, but kept Selene Yeager (Rare Disease Cycling) in sight, and by the last climb, had gotten around her. “Then Mical was visible ahead, and I got past her on the last climb and rode like hell to stay ahead on the final bit. It was a good stage!”

Dyck hung in there for third place. “My day was hard! I felt good for about 20 minutes and then my legs were empty,” she said. “It was a lot of road, and nothing super steep, but they went on forever so you had to put constant power down. There was a lot of mental battle today. You’re moving fast, but it’s still a lot of distance to cover.”

When Yeager shows up for the NoTubes Trans-Sylvania Epic, she is typically a threat to win, but this year she’s coming off a huge effort. Yeager joined the Gu Energy Labs team to ride the entire Tour of California stage race course — 700 miles, 43,000 feet of climbing — the week before the NoTubes Trans-Sylvania Epic.

“I’m going to be 100 percent honest. I woke up this morning, stepped outside and burst into tears. I’m so mentally tired,” said Yeager. “But I really like this stage, so I went out, rode around, and it was a beautiful morning. I just keep head-checking myself — this isn’t the end of the world, it’s just a bike race, and if I do good, great, and if I don’t, it’s OK. It’s taking more work to put myself in a good place in the morning, but once the race is on, I find that good place. I’m enjoying the race.” Yeager’s good attitude carried her into fourth place for today’s stage.

Under 25 men and women

Besides the ever-present Payson McElveen at the top of the young rider results, Lewis Gaffney and Drew Dillman (both of Colt Training Systems) were again second and third on the day. Gaffney had an especially good result, just seconds behind the top five elite men.

Colt Training Systems young riders are clearly dominant in the women’s race as well as the men’s field. Today, it was Samantha Runnels taking the top Under 25 women’s time, with teammate Libby White not far behind. Stan’s NoTubes Elite Women’s rider Emily Shields rounded out the top three. Yesterday’s winner Ellen Noble did not have a good day, but remains in fourth in the GC for Under 25 women.

The NoTubes Trans-Sylvania Epic presented is made possible with the generous support of great partners like Pactimo, Lupine, Purple Lizard, Klean Kanteen, Dirt Rag, SRAM, Kona, BMC, ProGold, NUUN, Freeze Thaw Cycles and more!

Click Here for full results from stage 4

Click Here for GC results following stage 4