I feel like a kid at summer camp - BreckEpic Stage #3

Remember when you went to summer camp and woke up everyday with nothing to do but hang out with friends and play all day long? That is what I feel like this week, besides the fact that I am staying in a condo, watching the "Tour de France" every afternoon, and taking a nap about 3:00. it still feels like camp. But I miss my wife.



Today we started a little late - about 9:10 with another police escort for a neutral start. We started right away climbing through the neighborhoods just east of down town Breck. After about a 20 min climb we turned down a very steep single track through tight trees and lots of roots and rocks. The rest of the stage was very rocky and technical (unlike yesterday)super steep climbs and Lot's of fire road descents that were loose and sketchy.

After stage #2 we were in 3rd place and had a small lead of 2:40 min. in front of a team from Belgium. We started the day with the Belgians right on our wheels, they got a jump on us on one of the steep climbs and we lost sight of them for most of the day until we had a long down hill that we let it roll flat out. We came around the corner right before aid station #3 and the Belgians were only 20 yards in front of us. We blew through Aid #2 and got a small gap on them. After a small down hill we hit a sharp turn and a very steep up hill section, Nick tried to power up the hill and his chain exploded. The Belgians were past us in a few seconds and we could see them put the hammer down knowing that it was going to take us some time to get Nick's bike back together. Thanks to a passing rider "Crazy Correy" who gave us a quick chain link we were back on our bikes in just a few minutes. We tried to push the pace and catch back up to the Belgians but we couldn't close the gap. It is really fun to have another team so close that every stage is a race within a race. Turns out they only finished 54 Seconds in front of us, so we should keep our 3rd place overall going into Stage #4

Tomorrow is being called the "Queen stage" - It is said to be just under 50 miles and 10,000 feet of climbing and tops out above 12,000 feet more than once - ouch!

Here we are at today's finish - not as much mud as yesterday. Sunny and warm all day.



A few more photos -