Jones Pass

Jones Pass, it sits just southwest of the Winter Park area.  It's not a super popular ride....at least I think it is not, but a few folks get up there during the snow free months.  For me, this was the first time to get up to the pass.....then hook onto the Continental Divide Trail.  You start at about 10,500 ft from the parking lot, then climb up to 12,500 ft via a jeep road.  Once to the top of the pass, you take a sharp left onto the CDT and you then traverse the spine of the Rocky Mountains.  Both Sonya and Yuki joined me on the free ride Friday.  No training today.  Just riding and lots of photos and videos.  When you are up here, you need to look around...not at a HR monitor.

Ride the divide.

The trail flows like a ribbon over the mountains.


Not much grows up here.

This video will give you a better sense of what this ride is like. Not much room for error in a few spots. The views? Speechless.



All photos from the ride posted here. These photos where taken by Sonya and Yuki

Jeff Kerkove said at 10:01 AM :: ::

Rest and Recovery

A lot of rest and recovery leading up to next weekends Vapor Trail 125. The Vapor Trail goes down in my book and the 2 greatest event I do all year.  The Colorado Trail Race takes the top spot....then the Vapor Trail....then the Breck-Epic Stage Race.  Yes, the Vapor Trail is 125 miles....and a very hard 125 miles at that.  Throw in 20,000 ft of climbing and you have a very solid night and day on the bike.


Today was a drill-n-chill singlespeed session.  Mucho respect to those that ride the SS full time. Better you than me.


SSing in slooooooooow-mo.

Looking forward to Friday, as a few of us are heading up to 12,500 ft for a nice little adventure ride.  Video to follow!

Jeff Kerkove said at 1:13 PM :: ::

Breck-Epic: Stage 6

The 6 stage. The last of the stages. Got to admit, didn't want to crawl out of bed for Stage 6. Was the first time all week that I actually was forced out of bed by a screaming alarm from my cell phone. Six AM came around....coffee and fuel....the same as the other 5 mornings.


The 8:10 AM start. Waiting. Chilly. Getting ready to push through the high alpine terrain with Sonya.


Stage 6 was a good one! Fast and lots of awesome mtb trails!

Pushing over Boreas Pass at Aid Station 1. Sonya and I pushed the pace on the road. None of the stages were easy. It was full-gas from start to finish regardless of the time gap in the overall standings. Nothing is guaranteed in stage racing.


I think Sonya and I are on to something with this coed duo racing format. We work perfectly together on the bike. More stage races in the future? Hmmmmmm....

What we worked all week for....the top spot on the overall podium!

What do all the riders work for?  Yes, a belt buckle.  But this belt buckle is a little bit more hardcore.

The front.

And....the back.

One item to note...that many at this race cannot lay claim to.....Sonya and I got through the entire week with no mechanical issues.  No flat tires.  No broken chains.  Etc, etc, etc.

What a great week with great people and a super event! Put it on your calender for 2011. Word on the street is the race is the same week in Aug of 2011.

Jeff Kerkove said at 4:02 PM :: ::

Breck-Epic: Stage 5

After yesterday's suffer-fest in the 2nd part of the stage, Sonya and I settled into a easy pace off the start. The entire time, looking down the switchbacks to see a charging Kent Eriksen team. But after about 15 minutes of 'light' pedaling, Sonya started to have happy legs and began to charge up the mountain. That is not a figure of speech. We literally pushed up and over the 10 Mile Range which backdrops Breckenridge to the west. Pushing followed by riding followed by more pushing followed by a rip'n descent. Knock on wood, our day went smooth. No blow ups....no mechanicals. We crossed the line right at the 4 hour mark and put roughly 13 minutes into the 2nd place team from Steamboat Springs and taking our 5th stage win in just as many days.

Here is Stage 5....where my red blood cells got a damn good workout!



Friday is the last stage of the event. It is a fast one with some fantastic trails to rage on. Sonya and I will go back at it trying for the 6th win in a row and taking the overall at the 2010 Breck Epic.

Jeff Kerkove said at 7:18 PM :: ::

Breck-Epic: Stage 4

Don't think I really need to dwell on the specifics of this stage as Sonya was the one to have to dig deep and suffer. We started off hot and fast....but paid for it dearly in the later half of the event. Sonya has the finer details. Even though we had our first 'off' day of the 6 day stage race, we still took the win and gained another 20 minutes on the riders from Kent Eriksen Cycles.....who are not about to give in. Video gives a good idea of the non-stop power to the pedals nature of the stage.

Jeff Kerkove said at 8:32 PM :: ::

Breck-Epic: Stage 3

What a stage!  44 miles and just over 9400 feet of climbing!  We had good weather at the start, then some clouds rolled in just as we crossed the Continental Divide twice on the day.  The climb over French Pass went well for Sonya and I.  After that, Sonya had some bad mojo issues going up to Georgia Pass.  Although she felt bad on the bike, we still managed a good tempo to catch some riders....and put time on others.  On the descent off of Georgia Pass on the Colorado Trail the clouds broke and the sun brought some much needed speed to our team.  Sonya began hammering!  She managed to take the toughest climb of the day and drop 2 solo male riders and a male duo team....and just about me in the process.  It was unreal!  We got the win again today....but we worked hard for it!  The 13 minute gap we gained today puts us in the lead by 42 minutes over the folks from Kent Eriksen.  Here is a video from the day.  All footage is in order that we rode it.



.....and the podium shot!

Jeff Kerkove said at 7:45 PM :: ::

Breck-Epic: Stage 2

It wasn't a walk in the park, but Sonya and I got it done again today taking 1st place by about 15 minutes over 2nd place.  Our start was slow...and we eased into the 41 mile stage with the plan to pin it after about 1.5-2 hours of riding.  Sonya was flying!  She had me pushing hard on the climbs.  She also was killing the downhills after the switch to the FS bike after riding the HT on Stage 1.  Here is the video from the day!



We keep the leaders jerseys for tomorrow. We also go into Stage 3 with a 28 minute buffer. Tomorrow will not be easy as we will accumulate over 9,000ft of climbing on the stage.

Jeff Kerkove said at 6:14 PM :: ::